Revenue growth cases

Question

Hello Everyon,

i am looking into the revenue growth cases and I would like to ask you if you have an objective driven framework on the factors that you would assess if your revenues are falling or are being stagnant.

I was thinking the following:

external

Market: Is the market growing, market segmentation (size and growth), competitive landscape ( Ms and growth of competitors), Consumer trends

Internal

Financial Analysis: Revenue streams (size and growth) segmentation per product, geography, customer, Pricing strategy, Product mix

Our company: Product portofolio, Key strengths

what do you think?

Answer 1

Hi there,

I hope you recognize the irony in asking for a canned OBJECTIVE-driven framework here!

The entire point of objective-driven is to take into account the context of the prompt/industry/question!

Alas, there are a multitude of approach for any case type (including revenue growth).

Sure, you can do external vs internal. You can do market vs company vs competition vs customer. But why do you have each bucket? We need a lot more on the prompt itself!

Take a look at the below cases. Each of them is a profitability case…but they ALL have a different framework to solve them :)

https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/candidate-led-usual-style/intermediate/sky-china-191

https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/candidate-led-usual-style/intermediate/cutting-carbs-divestiture-in-the-electrical-power-market-228

https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/candidate-led-usual-style/intermediate/hot-wheels-186

https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/candidate-led-usual-style/beginner/hot-wheels-part-2-254

Answer 2

First, I suggest you take the opposite approach.

First you need to look inward to isolate the number that means that revenues are decreasing: WHAT IS THE VARIABLE THAT IS DECREASING? You need to look into different customer segments, product lines, etc., and isolate price and quantity.

Once you know what is the variable that is decreasing, you can start looking outwards into demand and competition to understand WHY IT IS DECREASING. So its either about the market decreasing (price or volumes) or about you losing market share… then keep digging deeper.

Having said this, I STRONGLY suggest that you organize first your structure around the questions (and sub-question) you need to answer.

The reason why generic frameworks don't work is because if you don't know what is the specific question you are trying to answer, you are only going to use the framework to “explore” data, but not to actually answer the question in a targeted way.

Note: “Strengths”? This is generic and meaningless. Avoid these types of concepts at all costs. Be specific.

Answer 3

Hi there,

generally yes, your structure is correct and it can work as an starting point, BUT please customize your structure based on the case, particularly pay attention to details to understand the context of the case, that makes the difference. Understand the objective of the client and what is the root cause. Also you need to prioritize on what to focus on, what lever would make the difference. This is the most common fail of the candidates not understanding the case to be solved in 30 min and not all levers are relevant.

Good luck!

Lucie

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Answer 4

Hi there,

Your suggestion above could work.

You could also alternatively look at revenue growth in terms of increasing price (bucket one) or/and increasing quantity (bucket two).

But to be fair, I would't recommend you learn frameworks for different types of cases. A strong interview performance requires the candidate to develop the structure on the spot and really calibrate it to the client situation. By using learned structures you might be blindsided to other important parts of the cases that the prompt could be hinting at.

Best,

Cristian