Hi!
What is the best way of asking for costs and revenues? Often I tend to mention the costs I can come up with on the go, then ask for them and whether there are any other relevant costs? Is this a good approach? Or is it better to ask for what the total costs are? And then the breakdown? And what approach is the best for revenues?
Hello!
Precisely for the high amount of questions (1) asked by my coachees and students and (2) present in this Q&A, I created the “Math & Formulas - Economic and Financial concepts for MBB interviews”, recently published in PrepLounge’s shop (https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/prep-guide/economic_and_financial_concepts_for_mbb_interviews).
After +5 years of candidate coaching and university teaching, and after having seen hundreds of cases, I realized that the economic-related knowledge needed to master case interviews is not much, and not complex. However, you need to know where to focus! Hence, I created the guide that I wish I could have had, summarizing the most important economic and financial concepts needed to solve consulting cases, combining key concepts theorical reviews and a hands-on methodology with examples and ad-hoc practice cases.
It focuses on 4 core topics, divided in chapters (each of them ranked in scale of importance, to help you maximize your time in short preparations):
Feel free to PM me for disccount codes for the guide, and I hope it helps you rock your interviews!
In general, presenting the costs that you can come up with first is a very good way to approach things. Next, you can ask whether you missed anything relevant. The key word here is relevant - many juniors struggle with completeness vs. relevance. Showing that you can prioritize and separate the important from the unimportant will definitely help you.
That being said, if it's a simple math exercise (i.e. calculate break even) there may be no need to break down costs - totals for fixed and variable costs may be fine.
