Experienced Hire Case: How would you set up the case team for this?

Case Interview Case Team Setup Experienced Hire Structure
Recent activity on Oct 31, 2017
3 Answers
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Florian asked on Oct 28, 2017
Concluded my preparations and signed with Bain.

Hi

I am currently struggling with experienced hire interviews. I am interviewing for "Associate soon to be Project Leader" level, and I am getting the following type of questions:

"Imagine you are the team leader on an insurance project. The client is looking for answers to the questions "what else could we outsource."

Unfortunately, the proposal has been lost, so you need to structure the engagement and make use of your 5 consultants.

The expectation is now that I structure the case and tell people how I plan to deploy my 5 people team, so that we get a good answer and final deck for the client.

I am sure there are lot's of standards that the consulting firms use, and certain playbooks that can be followed. Can anybody of the experienced consultants tell me how it usually works, and what the 'standard procedure' is, and what kind of questions are usually thought of when setting up the case teams?

Thanks a lot in advance!

(edited)

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Francesco
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Oct 31, 2017
#1 Coach for Sessions (4.000+) | 1.500+ 5-Star Reviews | Proven Success (➡ InterviewOffers.com) | Ex BCG | 10Y+ Coaching

Hi Florian,

I would structure it as follows:

#1: Understand the goal of the client

What is the inner goal of the client with outsourcing? Does he want to decrease costs? Improve capacity? Optimize quality? It is likely that the partner who interacted with the client knows that. First step would be to try to reach him/her and clarify that.

#2: Define the component of the proposal

As mentioned by Nuttachai, usual components are

  1. Industry overview
  2. Client situation
  3. Opportunity offered by the company to solve the problem
  4. Project details (timeline, deliverables)
  5. Success stories
  6. Team profile
  7. Costs
  8. Final remarks

#3: Allocate resources

You should allocate the 5 resources and yourself, according to seniority/capabilities to the previous areas.

Best,

Francesco

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Nuttachai
Premium
replied on Oct 28, 2017

A typical consulting proposal would have following components:

- A background on your understading of the industry

- The company value proposition towards that industry

- A proposed approach and deliverable

- Project Timeline

- Some case study on previous project

- Project cost

So in the case of the proposal lost, I would assume that you have to come up with a new one in a very short period of time. (Maybe let's say the presenation is due in 4 hours). So you should utlize your 5 consultant effectively. So the first question would be who should you pick to do each component of proposal. Also who is avalible to do that for you. Some part will be the resposible of project manager e.g. come up with project approach, costing. Then you can split the rest of the work to your team e.g. one junior consultant do the background analysis etc. Ultimately there is no right or wrong answer for the case interview. Just have to be logical and realistic.

I hope it helps you to see a cleaerer picture of consulting proposal

Good luck!

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Anonymous replied on Oct 28, 2017

Hi,

Experienced hires are always tested on structure, leadership and ability to look forward.

This type of questions you need to look at competitor operating models, do market research and in-depth understanding of your clients industry.

You will usually have a few hours of interviews with cases and meeting team, so need to have a bit of practise to fast track esp if you are not confident at interviewing.

You usually need 3-5 hrs of coaching for Experienced Hires, not sure what your situation is, but this would be my advice.

Victoria

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Francesco gave the best answer

Francesco

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