Newbie for Case interview. How to start with Deloitte S&O case interview from beg till end.

Question

Dear All,

I have been invited for the case interview. I need your advice and guidance on how can I prepare for the Deloitte case study for the position of Junior S&O consultant and service line: operational excellence. I have been informed that the case is going to be the longest one and will be given 45minutes to prepare.

Could you provide me the steps to follow to fully prepare for the case round, as I have never appeared for the case interview before?

-Which mathematical knowledge (formulas) I should be well prepared?

-is there any one particular technique or fundamental for the S&O cases.

-What questions to be expected during the case interview,

Thank you in advance and I look forward to your guidance and can be available to practice the cases related to the subject

Regards,

Answer 1

Hi there,

There are 2 main things you should cover
1- Case interview (85% of the effort)

2- Fit Interview (15% of the effort)

Your roadmap should be tailored to your background and your specific needs. Happy to provide you a detailed roadmap for free. Feel free to reach me to arrange a short call.

Best

Serhat

Answer 2

Hi,

I recommend the following approach:

1) Start with "Case in point" book - you can download this book for free everywhere. It's not the best guide on how you should approach the cases, however, it will give you the basic understanding.

2) Start practicing cases with partners here or find them locally. !!! Find experienced partners or coaches who can provide a good feedback!!!

3) Purchase and read Viktor Cheng Book (Amazon Kindle store) and listen to LOMS(his website). I recommend to reread the book and listen to LOMS every 15 cases. Every time, having more experience, you’ll be finding something new.

4) Practice fast math

Learn how to multiply double digit numbers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ndkkPZYJHo)
Learn the division table up to 1/11 (i.e. 5/6 = 83.3)
Learn how to work with zeros (Hint: 4000000 = 4*10ˆ6)
Use math tools (Mimir math for iOS), Math tool on Viktor Cheng website to practice

5) Below you can find a list of the most common case types and some high-level recommendations on structuring:

Market sizing - structuring from the supply or demand side. Structuring using a formula or using an issue tree
Profitability - basic profitability framework. Remember about different revenue streams and product mix
Market context cases (Market Entry, New product, Acquisition, etc). Always start with the big picture "market". Finish with something specific to the case (e.g. How to enter?"). Structure it as if you are defining the work streams for the real project.
Operational math problem (e.g. Should we increase the speed of an elevator or just buy a second one? How should we reduce the queues? Etc.) - Structuring as a process / value chain, with inflows, operations, and outflows
Cost cutting - I provided the recommendations on structuring it here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/operations-cases-mck-1105#a2134
Valuation - Purely financial structure with cash flows, growth rate, WACC / hurdle rate, etc.
Synergies - revenue synergies (price, qty, mix) and cost synergies (value chain).
Social / economics cases (e.g. How to improve the quality of life in the city? How to increase the revenues of the museum?) - huge variability. Practice 3-5 social cases before the interview

6) Also, I would try to focus on the most common industries in the following priority(sorted by probability of getting a case): 1-retail and CPG; 2-airlines; 3-Telecom; 4-banking; 5-natural resources; 6-tech

7) ! Important: don't forget about the FIT interview part. Crafting you stories and backups stories will require a couple of weeks!

PS

Here is a good list of articles regarding the different parts of the case:

1) Start with clarifying questions:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/clarifying-questions-1786#a3956

2) Communicating while structuring. Here is a long post by me on how to communicate the structure during the case study:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-to-communicate-its-structure-for-the-case-study-1313#a2806

3) Using hypothesis. I made a post about hypothesis here:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-to-state-a-hypothesis-and-match-to-the-structure-1156#a2268

4) Communicating while making calculations:

Always tell the interviewer your approach
Check with the interviewer that your approach is correct
Come to the interviewer with some preliminary answers
Check your assumptions with the interviewer

5) Communicating during the analysis of graphs / tables

Take a minute to look at the graph. Read the graph title. Look at the graph type and define the type (pie chart, line chart, etc). Look at the legend (ask for clarifying questions if necessary). Identify whats going on on the graph. Look for: Trends, % structures. Look for unusual things - correlations, outliers,
Make 3-4 conclusions from the graph. Think out loud on potential hypothesis on what could be the root cause / what are the consequences
Prioritize the most important for your current analysis and move forward with the case

6) Communicating while having questions on creativity

Ask an interview for a minute to think
Think of several buckets of ideas (e.g. organic growth / non-organic growth / differentiation). Remember to think as big as possible
Narrow down to each bucket and generate as many ideas as possible
Present the structure (buckets) and then your ideas

7) Communicating your conclusion. You can find a good example I've posted here:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-much-answer-first-should-the-conclusion-be-1231#a2493

8) Communicating your FIT stories

Use the top-down approach while communicating your stories. "The Pyramid Principle" is the must-read by ex McKinsey on this topic.

I recommend using the STAR framework:

In Situation, you should briefly provide the context, usually in 1 or 2 sentences
Task usually includes 2 or 3 sentences describing the problem and your objective.
Then you provide a list of specific actions you took to achieve the goal. It should take 1 or 2 sentences per action (Usually 3-4 actions). Note that the interviewer can stop you any minute and ask for more details.
The results part should have 1 or 2 sentences describing the outcomes. This part is finalizing your story - make sure it can impress the interviewer and stay in the memory.

Best!

Answer 3

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 “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):

Economic concepts: Profitability equation, Break even, Valuation methods (economic, market and asset), Payback period, NPV and IRR, + 3 practice cases to put it all together in a practical way.
Financial concepts: Balance sheet, Income statement/P&L and Performance ratios (based on sales and based on investment), +1 practice case
Market structure & pricing: Market types, Perfect competition markets (demand and supply), Willingness to pay, Pricing approaches, Market segmentation and Price elasticity of demand, +1 practice case
Marketing and Customer Acquisition: Sales funnel, Key marketing metrics (CAC and CLV) and Churn, +1 practice case

Feel free to PM me for disccount codes for the guide, and I hope it helps you rock your interviews!

Answer 4

Hi there,

in addition to the comments and explanations, find below a few practice cases that can also be used for the written case format as those usually include a lot of exhibits that candidates need to sift through and extract relevant information from:

https://www.preplounge.com/de/case-sammlung/candidate-led-ueblicher-stil/schwierig/business-strategy-home-delivery-solution-for-retailer-chain-332?lang=en

https://www.preplounge.com/de/case-sammlung/candidate-led-ueblicher-stil/anfaenger/commercial-feasibility-of-natural-gas-pipeline-329?lang=en

https://www.preplounge.com/de/case-sammlung/candidate-led-ueblicher-stil/anfaenger/options-evaluation-profitability-of-brewing-company-startup-327?lang=en

Best