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Public Sectory Operations

Hello, helpful hive-mind!

Returning to cases after 5yrs of employment, preparing for a Deloitte interview in public sector operations. Having been working in tech consulting, I don't have direct pure ops experience. Finding it tricky to find public sector & ops-specific advice anywhere.

For a very broad question - any thoughts or tips?

Neeraj

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Top answer
on Jun 15, 2019

Hi Neeraj,
McKinsey has two public-sector cases on their website (https://www.mckinsey.com/careers/interviewing). You could start with them.

Have a look at casebooks from business schools (Wharton, Kellogg, etc.). They often have some public sector cases. You may begin with reading one or two cases first so that you get an understanding of how to approach these cases.

Good luck with your prep!
Regards,
Daniel

3
on Jun 17, 2019
thanks! will take a look at those
Vlad
Coach
on Jun 16, 2019
McKinsey / Accenture Alum / Got all BIG3 offers / Harvard Business School

Hi,

Feel free to book a session - can happy with these cases. I usually give a homework of 10 cases and then we discuss them during the session

To provide a bit of structure, there are several types of non-profit cases:

  1. Factors influencing the price (What are the factors influencing the price of oil? Factors influencing the price of real estate?)
  2. Macroeconomic cases (How will you improve life expectancy in a particular city? How will you decrease the unemployment?)
  3. Public sector non-profits (Increasing the revenues of a museum; increasing the revenues from tourism in a city)
  4. Redesigning the processes (How will you develop a new anti-monopoly regulation?)
  5. Non-profit investments (A billionaire is building a new school. What are the factors to look at?)
  6. Ops and cost-cutting (How to reduce the traffic jams on a bridge? A garbage processing facility is out of capacity, what should they do?) -

Best!

Ian
Coach
on Dec 31, 2020
Top US BCG / MBB Coach - 5,000 sessions |Tech, Platinion, Big 4 | 9/9 personal interviews passed | 95% candidate success

My approach

Public sector cases are tricky because they feasibly be any case type (Product Launch - new service for citizens; M&A - merging two departments; even Profitability - cost cutting mandate). For any public sector case, I recommend:

  1. First identifying the type of case it is.
  2. Second, leverage your knowledge of the public sector as constraints/considerations.

Considerations/Constraints

Regards #2, you know that public perception is particularly important to consider in any public sector move. Additionally, you can count on bureacracy/slowness in implementation. You should identify the goal/mission of the organisation as well and keep this top of mind (if it loses money, but achieves it's goal of helping the poor, no problem). Howvever, just because the government sector doesn't have profit as a target, doesn't mean you should ignore the profit tree altogether - governments are still obliged to take into costs (and sometimes revneues) in decisions (example: setting up a public transport initiative). Don't get tricked into thinking you can't consider the economics of the case!

Other items to consider include, but are not limited to:

  • Politlcal landscape (i.e. upcoming elections, special interest groups)
  • Sustainability
  • Private-public partnerships
  • International vs governmental vs state vs local partnerships/alignment
  • Income = taxes/budgetary landscape
  • Digitialization of government

Framework Resource

In terms of resources, the UPenn Wharton 2011 casebook has a framework for public sector. It's split into:

  1. Strategic rationale (Mission of organisation and stakeholder reactions)
  2. Deal economics (planned investment and returns, if any)
  3. Other (Required capabilities and risks)

Practice Cases

If you want some practice cases:

  • Tepper 2008's "NGO Effectiveness"
  • Colombia 2011's "MadeCasse"

Hope this helps, and please don't hesitate to ask any follow-up/clarifying questions!

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