Alle Fragen zum Tag brainstorming questions - Consulting Q&A - PrepLounge.com

Hi,

You should ask the following questions:

1) Clarify the business model. Ask how the company actually makes the money. For several reasons:

1. Even if you think you understand the business model, you need to make sure that you understand it correctly.
2. Some cases have pitfalls related to a business model (re profitability cases with several revenue streams
3. You need to understand the revenue streams to make a proper structure. E.g. if the case is about oil&gas company which revenues are declining, ask if it is Up / mid / down-stream problem. In this case, defining a revenue stream is critical to setting up the right structure. (At the end of the day it may be the decline of snack sales at the gas stations:). In case of telecom company it may be the problem of the core business (wireless) or non-core (landlines, internet)

2) Clarify the objective. Here make sure that your goal is:

• Measurable
• Has a time-framed
• Has / has no limitations

e.g. Should I invest 100k in this business for 1 year if I want to get 15% return?

3) Ask the questions that will help you build a relevant structure and remove ambiguity.

E.g. in the market entry case ask whether we are entering the country organically or non-organically

!!! Finally - do the recap after asking the clarifying questions. Although most of the case books suggest to do it immediately at the beginning of the interview, it makes much more sense to clarify the situation first and then to make sure that you understand everything correctly.

Best!

Hi!

Not sure I understand you correctly, but it seems you are referring to brainstorming questions ("How can we achieve XYZ?", "How should we react to ABC?", "What could be reasons for CDE?").

Here, you always need to start from the definition of your focus metric. If the question is "How can we react to the entry of a new competitor?", then you first have to align on what your objective is - what do you worry about? If it is profit, then you start your logic tree with profit and then break it down into its components with a logic tree. Then you think through, whether and how the competitor entry could negatively affect each branch of your tree (hence, how would the new competitor threaten your profits?). Once you have done this, then you can develop ideas how to prevent the effect of the competitor entry on each of the subdrivers of your profit.

I hope this helps!

Cheers, Sidi

Hi,

There are typically 3 stages of brainstorming potential solutions to a problem during McK interviewer led cases:

1) Prepare a long list of potential solutions to a problem

You need to create a MECE list of relevant ideas, which can solve the problem. Ways to approach:

• Zero drafting - this technique helps establish what you currently know and get your initial ideas out of your brain and onto paper
• SCAMPER technique
  • Substitute - take a part of the product, service or process etc. that you could replace with another to see whether it will result in improvements, such as efficiency gains
  • Combine - one idea might not work alone, but you could combine several ideas, processes or products into one more efficient output. A great example for a combination of two different products are cell phones with an integrated camera
  • Adapt - an idea that worked to solve one problem could also be used to solve a different problem. An example for the successful adaption to a new situation is Netflix. The company started out in 1999 as a DVD rent provider, but they quickly realized that the future belongs to online streaming and changed their product
  • Modify - Changing part or all of the product or process, or distorting it in an unusual way
  • Put to another use - put the current product or process in another purpose or use the existing product to solve problems. For example, this technique can be used to learn how to shift an existing product to another market segment or user type
  • Eliminate - eliminate inefficient processes with the goal of streamlining them. An example for eliminating is Apple’s approach to not include an optical CD drive in their laptop to make them thinner and lighter
  • Reverse - explore the innovative potential when changing the order of the process in the production line
• Analogy thinking - explore inspiring cases and mix their top features with your industry, to come up with new powerful concepts
• Forced connections - take two unrelated concepts and forge a relationship between them

2) Prepare a shortlist of solutions

You need to select solutions that would be financially adequate, could be achieved in the foreseeable future and do not face any constraints of the client situation.

3) Prioritize solutions

Apply 80/20 rule to select 20% of initiatives that would generate 80% of the upside effect.

Best,

Anton

There is no conflict here actually.

A good structure doesn't need to be rigid - it doesn't have to follow the internal/external, financial/non-financial, or other typical ways. What matters is you capture the key aspects of the issue, which requires you to be flexible and customise as needed.

And the branches in your structure can totally include creative ideas. You just need to get your creativity communicated in a structured way.

Hope it helps,

Emily

Brainstorming creatively in a structured/MECE way when under pressure is one of the hardest things to do.

Let's have a look at a basic example: "how can client X gain market share?". A great start to answering the question would be; "Let's look at ways that X can do this in the long-term vs the short-term", OR "Let's see, in general, to grow a business you can change WHAT you sell (e.g., new product vs. old product) or change WHO you sell to (existing customer segment vs. new customer segment).". This way the interviewer can see that you have a structured mind and that you can also prioritise what really is important. Next, you would create yourself a table with Existing Product & New Product ( on the horizontal axis) VS Existing segment & New segment (on the vertical axis). Then, you start brainstorming ideas into each of the 4 boxes. This way, you will be able to come up with loads of things and the interviewer will be very happy with your structured mindset.

Other examples of dimensions that can be used to encourage structured brainstorming are:

• Existing VS New (applies to customer segments, products, distribution channels)
• Organic VS Inorganic (e.g. when thinking about growth)
• Short-term VS Long-term (e.g. when making a decision that required direct implementation)
• Internal VS External (e.g. when talking about operations)
• Customer-focused vs Non-customer focused
• Revenue-based vs Cost-based

Once you have gone through a few ideas and have structured them into sections/buckets it is good practice to select the best ones according to some parameter. For instance, select ideas which have high impact and high implementability. It is important to note that every case is different and so you must always put a lot effort into customising the answer and prioritising what is most relevant.

Hi!

I have a clear opinion here:

(1) Yes. Always! This is also what is expected from you on the job! There is nothing more dangerous than a young consultant on the team who doesn't properly think before talking to clients. Always moderate it in a way like "Good question. Let me take an instant to think this through and outline which aspects are important to consider here."

(2) No. Never start talking before having thought it through! As such, the question is obsolete.

Cheers, Sidi

Hi,

First of all - McKinsey has both Interviewer and Candidate led cases. Please be prepared for both. Candidate led cases are even harder.

1) Yes. Absolutely, you should take time to make a structure

2) I will add a post re the hypothesis below. Short answer - there is no Hypothesis requirement at McKinsey

3) It's a brainstorming question and you should provide as many ideas as possible. I also recommend structuring your ideas into buckets.

4) Both quantitative and qualitative. Think as broad as possible

Now, on the hypothesis:

First of all - it's not mandatory. I would say - use the hypothesis if you are really good at solving the cases. If not - use the basic approach

There are two ways to use the hypothesis:

First - presenting a structure using the hypothesis. For example, if you are having a PE (private equity) case, you should do the following:

1) Make classic structure (market, company, competitors, feasibility of exit)

2) Make subpoints (e.g. in market: size, growth rates, profitability, segmentation, etc)

3) Present your 1st level Hypothesis:

• - "In order to understand whether we should invest in Company A, I would like to check that the Market is Attractive, the Company is Attractive, the competition is favorable and we have good opportunities for of exit"

4) Present the main 2nd level Hypothesis:

• "In the market, I would like to make sure that the market is big enough and growing;
• In the company I would like to find additional opportunities for growth;
• In competition I would like to check that the market is fragmented enough;
• Finally, I would like to check if we have potential buyers and can achieve desired exit multiples"

Another way to use hypothesis is using the hypothesis to prioritize your analysis:

1) Make a structure: "Problem in sales may be related to Sales Motivation, Sales Strategy, Sales Coverage, and Sales Process:

2) Prioritize a part of the structure based on your knowledge / common sense / available data: "Taking into account that motivation is the core problem of the sales organization, I would like to prioritize this part of the analysis"

Good luck!

Hi Anonymous,

relevant questions at the end are a great way to show your interest in the company and get additional points. Ideally, your questions should respect the following criteria:

• Should not be related to something you could easily find online
• Should not be related to the firm per se (eg how is XYZ in Bain), but to the experience of the consultant (How did you find XYZ in your experience as a consultant? Which challenges did it bring to you?). Ideally, you want the interviewer to feel important and/or share a positive experience. This is the easiest way to leave a final positive impression.
• Should help you to understand better the core values of the company; this will help you to understand if that company is a good fit for you and evaluate your options in case you have multiple offers.

In the first reply in the following thread, you can find some more information and some examples of questions:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/open-house-at-bcg-311

Best,

Francesco

I would use the population although it will be very sensitive to many assumptions.
It looks very difficult to make meaningful assumptions in terms of land size.

Cheers
Serhat

Hi,

Always take:

• 1-2 min for initial structure. But the faster the better. 1.5 looks fine
• 30 sec to analyze the graph / table. Very often you can come up with more than one conclusion from the graph / table(e.g. main conclusion, outliers, correlations)
• 30 sec - 1 min for questions on creativity. It's really hard to be creative "On-the-go". Spend this time creating the buckets of ideas and then the ideas within the buckets.
• Up to 1 minute for the conclusion. Again, the faster the better. But always take the time! Your conclusion should be very well structured and your arguments should include supporting numbers and you need time to collect them. Spend 1 minute on collecting the numbers for the arguments. Remember that 70% of your arguments should have numbers

It's a bit more tricky with taking time during the case:

• It's not OK to take 30 seconds and then come up with just 1 or 2 ideas. And then if the ideas are not correct to keep the science again. This is called "Guessing"
• It's OK to take 30 seconds, draw a new structure (or continuation of your previous structure) and come up with a structured way to approach the problem further.

Best,

Vlad

What share of her mother’s cost is Ana’s profit?

=> Her mothers costs are 100%. We need to find Ana's Profit relative to those 100%.

Ana’s Profit (relative to her mothers cost) = Revenue - Cost = Revenue - 115% = ???

We can calculate Ana's Revenue by using the calculation formula for her Profit Margin:

Profit Margin = Profit / Revenue
Profit Margin = (Revenue - Cost) / Revenue
30% = (Revenue - 115%) / Revenue
30% * Revenue = Revenue -115%
70% * Revenue = 115%
Ana’s Revenue = 164,29% (rel. to her mothers cost)

This means Ana sells the cookies for 164,29% of the price that her mother paid to prepare them.

Ana’s Profit relative to her mothers cost is therefore: Profit = Revenue - Cost = 164,29% - 115% = 49,29%

Hi Anonymous,

if you understand you forgot to clarify a point when presenting the structure, I would recommend to ask the question at that stage, ideally connecting with some parts of the structure itself, in order to make less evident you forgot the point before (communication is always key in a case and part of your assessment as well).

Assuming the structure presented is the one you described and you just completed its presentation, the following would be a possible way to formulate the question:

“(…). Now, we can start with the first point related to the possible markets to select. In order to understand that, I think it would be useful to know in which markets the company is currently active. Do we have information on that?”

Best,

Francesco

Hello,I would start by clarifying what performance exactly means, as this has a huge impact on your approach.

One way of looking at it could be to measure performance as the output of good product per hour. In that case you can follow the OEE definition to structure your analysis at the highest level:

Potential production time (calendar year)
Minus availability losses (breakdowns, waiting time, etc.)
Minus performance losses (minor stops, lower speed, etc.)
Minus quality losses (scrap or re-work product)
Equals the output of good product

You can use this structure as the first level, after which you can easily add a second layer with drivers for each of the losses.

Hope this helps!

Hi Anonymous,

I would always recommend to take an instant to identify all the possible elements of an answer to a specific question. Coming up with immature thinking is far worse than being a bit slow! Speed is usually NOT a very important metric on which candidates are evaluated. However, rigor and in thinking and clearness in articulation DEFINITELY are! So the tradeoff is very clear from my perspective.

Cheers, Sidi

Hi,

Usually, you have brainstorming questions in the middle / end of the case when you should already know a lot about the objective / business industry. Thus you should be asking the right clarifying questions at the beginning of the case:

You should ask the following questions:

1) Clarify the business model. Ask how the company actually makes the money. For several reasons:

1. Even if you think you understand the business model, you need to make sure that you understand it correctly.
2. Some cases have pitfalls related to a business model (re profitability cases with several revenue streams
3. You need to understand the revenue streams to make a proper structure. E.g. if the case is about oil&gas company which revenues are declining, ask if it is Up / mid / down-stream problem. In this case, defining a revenue stream is critical to setting up the right structure. (At the end of the day it may be the decline of snack sales at the gas stations:). In case of telecom company it may be the problem of the core business (wireless) or non-core (landlines, internet)

2) Clarify the objective. Here make sure that your goal is:

• Measurable
• Has a time-framed
• Has / has no limitations

e.g. Should I invest 100k in this business for 1 year if I want to get 15% return?

3) Ask the questions that will help you build a relevant structure and remove ambiguity.

E.g. in the market entry case ask whether we are entering the country organically or non-organically

!!! Finally - do the recap after asking the clarifying questions. Although most of the case books suggest to do it immediately at the beginning of the interview, it makes much more sense to clarify the situation first and then to make sure that you understand everything correctly.

Best!

Hi, a couple tips:

• Always ask if you can take ~30 seconds to structure your thoughts. Just because it's a brainstorm, doesn't mean it shouldn't be nicely structured. Worst case, they say you shouldn't take a break, and you are in the same position if you had not aksed.
• First think in terms of buckets, then specific ideas. For example, if you are asked to brainstorm ways to increase revenue, before you start suggesting ideas like marketing campaign, pricing promotion, etc. - break down the revenue - you can do it in a number of ways depending on the specific case
  • P*Q, then Q--> number of customers x purchases per customer, etc.)
  • Business units - e.g. By division, by geography, etc.
• Read through a lot of cases with brainstorm elements. Also, when you find a brainstorm and want to find more ideas, just do some googling /searches on old preplounge questions to get ideas
• Keep a log of brainstorm ideas from typical brainstorm questions (e.g. ways to increase revenue, ways to cut costs, risks faced, etc.). This is important to actually absorb information you learn and find in different cases.

Hope this helps!

Alessandro

Hi Kay,

hope this finds you well.

There is indeed no one size fits all approach, but certain frameworks may be good as a first starting point:

1. Internal / external = used for
   • market entry (internal - capabilities and costs; external - customers and competitors)
   • growth strategy (internal - what am I good at, where do I want to go, what ressources do I possess; external - what are competitors doing, what are my key customers, what other factors do I need to consider)
   • M&A (internal - what ressources do I possess, what is my objective; external - how does the target look like, how does the target's industry look like)
   • competitive response (internal - what do I want to do; external - what has changed in terms of customers, competitors, substitutes etc.)
2. revenue / cost = used for
   • profitability (what are my (expected) revenues and costs)
3. direct / indirect = often very similar to revenue / cost
4. Porters Five Forces = used whenever you want to examine the market in more detail, e.g. most often in market entry cases

For other case types I recommend:

1. market sizing = this can never be a single approach as you will need to tailor your approach to the task at hand individually, but think about whether you would like to determine
   • total revenue (this will come down to volume * price)
   • total number (think about the broadest structure you can think of)
2. pricing = in most cases try to think about (1) the company - what does the company stand for? low budget, quality, "cool" label; (2) the product at hand - what kind of product is it? Is it unique, does it make a great difference which company I buy it from, what are substitutes; (3) pricing strategy chosen - defer from step (1) and (2)
3. valuation = use the discounted cash flow method or the industry multiple

Always adapt those frameworks to the question at hand, e.g. leave out certain aspects if not needed or focus on selected aspects only. An interviewer wants to see that you are able to flexibly adjust the frameworks you have prepared, but there is nothing wrong to start with one of the basic frameworks mentioned above.

Good luck!

Hi there, rather than thinking of a list of creative ideas to have in advance, you should try structure your response by breaking down the question. For example, when you are asked a question like "how could we increase revenue" before bursting out ideas, I would always break it out. For example:

"To increase revenue, I can either increase quantity sold or increase the "average" price"

Quantity

• Number of customers
  • Acquire new customers in existing market/segment
  • Acquire new customers in new markets/segments
• Sales per customer
  • Increase number of purchases
  • Increase average purchase size

"Average" Price

• Increase prices of existing products
• Change sales distribution towards more expensive products (e.g. Upsell)
  • etc.

Once you get to this level, I would start structuring ideas around these buckets. This will make you seem very structured, and will also help you come up with more specific ideas, as it will focus the question into very specific buckets.

Hope this helps!

Alessandro

1. Improved workshops due to Better talent. You’ll be able to charge a premium, which follows that you can improve your workforce. This will also improve your current workshops.

2. New workshops. Due to improved financials, potentially sponsorship from the corporates.

3. Work diversification. New workshops mean your current and new employees will have more possibilities to work.

Pre-structure questions

1) Clarify the business model. Even if you think you understand it, try to repeat it to make sure that you understand in correctly.

2) Clarify the objective. Here make sure that your goal is:

• Measurable
• Has a time-framed
• Has / has no limitations

e.g. Should I invest 100k in this business for 1 year if I want to get 15% return?

3) Ask the questions that will help you build a relevant structure and remove ambiguity.

e.g. if the case is about oil&gas company which revenues are decling, ask if it is Up / mid / down-stream problem. In this case defining a revenue stream is critical to seting up the right structure.

Post-structure questions:

It's kind of hard to generalize all the cases. I will try to provide a general algorythm here:

1. Ask for a piece of data / info you've defined in a structure
2. Compare the data with historical trend / becnhmarks
3. If you find something interesting ask for the root / cause or state the hypothesis
4. If no root/cause at this point available - ask for segmentation to drill down further
5. Once you are done with analysis in one branch of your framework (found the root-cause / found nothing interesting) - summarize what you've learnt so far and move to the next one

Again, the last one is super high-level and the devil is in details:)