Dear A,
Root causing is important in profitability case. Try to identify it. For that you need to have a look firts on the development of the overall profitability over years and to find why is it declining:
- because revenues
- or because of the costs.
Aftewards drill down accordingly, either on the revenue side or on the cost side, or on both.
Pretty often, both, the revenues and costs, have been down over the years but the revenues went down faster than the costs.
After you have found the root causing measures, fix them and develop the solution which will fix both bites and will lead to the increase of profitability.
Recently I've uploaded a profitability case “Deep Water rescue” (available in English & German) here on Preplounge:
https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/candidate-led-usual-style/advanced/deep-water-rescue-206
I used similar cases when I was interviewing candidates on my own in Central Europe (Germany & DACH Region), Eastern Europe (Ukraine & Russia) as well as Middle East (Dubai, KSA, Lebanon, and Qatar). So, this case is very advanced and could be typically used in the 2nd or 3rd interview rounds by the leading consulting firms.
Try, whether you can crack it.
Best,
André