Most consulting firms (esp. MBB) do not require you to have any business knowledge - and they make that very clear in their communication.

When you encounter such a % metric - the appropriate answer is two-fold:

• State clearly that you do not have a thorough knowledge of the particular business and hence will not be able to give a clear upfront recommendation based on the output metric
• Provide a path forward that comparing the growth rate of 20% to the growth rate of similar companies will provide us a perspective - and ask the interviewer if they have any data point

That said - while you practice - on a case-by-case basis you can also develop an inherent sense of the metrics and build your knowledge. Happy to help you out if you have been having specific issues in such cases. Please provide more context.

Hi there,

• Ideally you can use an industry benchmark. You can ask how competitors are performing (totally fair question – you are not supposed to know the growth rate for all the industries, although you may have some general benchmarks which could help to state hypotheses).
• To do so, it makes sense that you make an educated hypothesis (NOT and assumption) and then verify it, instead of simply asking for data. Example:“I see the client is growing at 20% per year, which seems substantial. To put this into perspective, I would like to know how competitors similar in size are performing. Do we have any information on that?”
• Keep in mind that when you work with percentages, the competitors should be comparable in terms of absolute amount (for a company with $10k in revenues it is a lot easier to grow 20% compared to a company with $1B in revenues).

For certain metrics, you could also compare with the performance of the client in the past. However, this doesn’t necessarily work well with growth rate (if you grow by the same absolute amount, the growth rate becomes smaller and smaller even if the absolute value is the same – this could bias your deduction).

Hope this helps,

Francesco

PS. As an extra tip, if you see you don’t have knowledge of a particular industry, it would make sense to do more cases on that particular sector – after 3-4 cases you should have already a relatively good knowledge

One easy option is to just ask the interviewer if this is a good number or not. You are not expected to know all of these things and it is good that you have the self-realization that just because the number is 20% it does not mean it is good or bad.

Udayan

No need to know any such details. The case interview is not a test of your memory or knowledge of such metrics but rather your critical thinking, problem solving and communications skills. But if you have prior experience or exposure, by all means bring that in. But not knowing this wont cost any marks on performance.

So, either make an assumption/hypothesis and validate with the interviewer or just ask the interview to give you benchmarks or ballpark numbers/percentages.

Hi there,

If you have no background in business, you need to start reading daily! Pick up the financial times, the WSJ, Robinhood Snacks, BCG Insights, etc. and get reading! You'll start to get a sense of these things.

Now, if you're struggling in the case, you can always ask for the industry average/benchmark, a company's goals/targets, relate it back to the prompt/objective, etc.

(editiert)