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I got a tough McK style case: How would you improve ecological implications from forest fires in California

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Neue Antwort am 4. Nov. 2020
4 Antworten
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Anonym A fragte am 3. Nov. 2020

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Anonym antwortete am 3. Nov. 2020

Hi,

First of all you need to ask clarifying questions that would help you clarify the problem.

Aims: What are the success criteria for improving the ecological impact? Any particular benchmark? Do we have any deadline?
Constraints: do we have any budgetary/ any other constraints that we need to take into account?
External factors: do we know any external factors that we need to take into account?

Now let’s choose a framework type for this case:

  • conceptual/ business situation frameworks do not fit
  • numerical frameworks could potentially fit, but I am not sure we could have the required depth here
  • value chain/ process framework - perfectly fits

Here is how I would structure the problem:

1) Fire prevention (aim is prevent as many fires as possible)

  • human related cases (regulations; education)
  • nature ralated causes (drought - use predictive analytics tools, lightning strikes - build lightning rods)

2) Fire extinguishing (aim is to supply quick response and reduce the sq miles of fire as much as possible)

  • fire detection (e.g. use satellites; aviation; ground patrol)
  • fire localization (e.g. use mounds and other fire barriers)
  • fire elimination (e.g. use of aviations and ground forces)

3) Elimination of the consequences of a fire (aim is to get rid of consequences from fires as much as possible)

  • land related
  • forest related
  • animals related

The trick is to create a structure that would be MECE and deep. And then you can leverage brainstorming techniques to create solutions for all areas in this structure. I fulfilled a few examples.

Hope it helps!

Best,

Anton

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17
Henning
Experte
antwortete am 3. Nov. 2020
Bain | passed >15 MBB interviews as a candidate

Great case!

I'd approach it as follows:

  1. Objectives: You need to ask questions to understand what you're optimizing for, or rephrased: What does ecological implications mean? Are we talking loss of biodiversity, loss of carbon sinks, air pollution, etc?
  2. Approach: You'll need a framework for how to tackle the problem. There are many different ways to look at this, but I would probably use avoidance, reduction & restoration as a first MECE structure:
    • Avoidance: Reduce the frequency of fires, e.g. tacke climate change, increase education on behavior in the forest, force utilities to reduce sparks from power lines, etc
    • Reduction: Reduce damage of fires that do break out (e.g. improve early warning systems, optimize fire fighter operations, make sure they have right equipment, establish processes for cross-state support)
    • Restoration: Optimize steps to restore destroyed land (e.g. reforestation with plant species that are less prone to dry out if that exists, plant fast-growing plants, measures to restore habitat, etc.)

Based on these, you can then dive into details and assess viability of each, prioritize measures, etc.

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Clara
Experte
Content Creator
antwortete am 4. Nov. 2020
McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut

Hello!

Important to clarify that this seems very weird to be a McK case, to be honest. You can get some of these conceptual questions in a partner round, but not this vague.

In any case, before thinking of an approach, it would be key to problem-solve with the interviewer to understand the specific target asap, since as per now it´s too wide.

Good luck!

Cheers,

Clara

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Anonym B antwortete am 3. Nov. 2020

I love it - questions that actually require your to think!

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