Dear all,
In a recent interview I received the case whether I would rather (i) accept the offer of firm X for 100k annual salary or (ii) receive a 50% stake in a café nearby. I was wondering how you'd approach such a case.
My logic was first starting with a quantitative evaluation (i.e. NPV of profit from café + value of existing equipment assuming no debt) and secondly add qualitative considerations (missing know-how, intrinsic motivation for consulting etc.)
Many thanks for your help and best
Hello Jonas,
That's a fun question!
Yes I would say a quantitative + qualitative analysis sounds great.
In your quantitative, essentially they want you to value the business. Starting with a market sizing exercise, moving on to estimating market share, and thus Revenue. Then cost estimation would help you with annual profit. To which you can then apply your % of ownership and find your share of profits. This can then be compared with your salary.
You can also bring in long-term scalability in profits vs salary increase through promotions.
On the qualitative side, you can bring in, Work-life balance, Risk Appetite, Personal Interests/Impact on family, etc.
Hope this helps!
Rushabh
Hi Jonas,
The 1st trick here is you need to show MECE-ness here. You are not collectively exhaustive!
The 2nd trick is they're testing to see if you're all about $.
Saying just NPV is wrong.
You need to recognize that money is not the end-all-be-all. There's growth/development, career, love of the work itself, etc. You can't say “qualitative” or “other”. Rather you need to actually create buckets for this.
I would have something like Financials, Day-To-Day, and Future, for example. Or Financials, Work Itself, Career
Hi there,
That's an interesting problem to structure.
In terms of how to approach the framework, your suggestion makes sense. The devil is in the details however, so make sure that you go deep into each area analysing the options both on their own but also comparatively.
Best,
Cristian
You need to be able to compare apples to apples (i.e., you cannot do just the NPV of the cafe, if you don't do the NPV of the salary).
I guess one option would be to compare lifetime value of consulting career vs. lifetime value of owning the cafe +/- intangible benefits of each option.
Hi there,
This is an odd question since you could take the 50%, be a silent partner by just taking your share of the profits in perpetuity, and still pursue a job that pays 100k (or do whatever else, for that matter).
So I guess the real question is about this key variable - what will you do with your free time? You could lie in a hammock, found a startup, pursue a ‘normal’ job, etc. You need to establish that and take it from there!
There's more to it, of course, but I wanted to direct your attention to a key aspect you hadn't even mentioned.
Hope this helps!
Best,
Moritz
Hi there,
That is a cool case!
Your approach is entirely correct from the top level as it covers everything there is to cover (= broad top level).
Now the tricky part comes when you need to a. model the café's profit (it is essentially an estimation question with a lot of assumptions) and b. compare both opportunities in a balanced and MECE way since they are totally different (which relates to the depth of your framework).
I'd be curious to see your full framework + calculation. Feel free to share it for more detailed feedback.
Cheers,
Florian
Hi Jonas,
I think this is an interesting question that may be relevant for many people. I would be happy to share my thoughts on it:
If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to structure any case study, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.
Best,
Hagen
