Hi, can anyone pls share public sector style cases that you might have come across in your interviews with MBB/ S&?
Just ideas on what types are asked and expectations would be great. Thanks a lot!
Public sector style cases
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Hi,
These types of cases are actually pretty traditional, especially for McKinsey. The reason why people think that they are rare is that the casebooks (that are in general not a good source of cases) do not have enough of them.
To provide a bit of structure, there are several types of non-profit cases:
- Factors / drivers influencing smth (What are the factors influencing the price of oil? Factors influencing the price of real estate?)
- Macroeconomic cases (How will you improve life expectancy in a particular city? How will you decrease the unemployment?)
- Public sector non-profits (Increasing the revenues of a museum; increasing the revenues from tourism in a city)
- Redesigning the processes (How will you develop a new anti-monopoly regulation?)
- Non-profit investments (A billionaire is building a new school. What are the factors to look at?)
Feel free to reach out if you need help with them. I usually give a homework of 10 cases and we discuss your solutions.
Best!
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My approach
Public sector cases are tricky because they feasibly be any case type (Product Launch - new service for citizens; M&A - merging two departments; even Profitability - cost cutting mandate). For any public sector case, I recommend:
- First identifying the type of case it is.
- Second, leverage your knowledge of the public sector as constraints/considerations.
Considerations/Constraints
Regards #2, you know that public perception is particularly important to consider in any public sector move. Additionally, you can count on bureacracy/slowness in implementation. You should identify the goal/mission of the organisation as well and keep this top of mind (if it loses money, but achieves it's goal of helping the poor, no problem). Howvever, just because the government sector doesn't have profit as a target, doesn't mean you should ignore the profit tree altogether - governments are still obliged to take into costs (and sometimes revneues) in decisions (example: setting up a public transport initiative). Don't get tricked into thinking you can't consider the economics of the case!
Other items to consider include, but are not limited to:
- Politlcal landscape (i.e. upcoming elections, special interest groups)
- Sustainability
- Private-public partnerships
- International vs governmental vs state vs local partnerships/alignment
- Income = taxes/budgetary landscape
- Digitialization of government
Framework Resource
In terms of resources, the UPenn Wharton 2011 casebook has a framework for public sector. It's split into:
- Strategic rationale (Mission of organisation and stakeholder reactions)
- Deal economics (planned investment and returns, if any)
- Other (Required capabilities and risks)
Practice Cases
If you want some practice cases:
- Tepper 2008's "NGO Effectiveness"
- Colombia 2011's "MadeCasse"
Hope this helps, and please don't hesitate to ask any follow-up/clarifying questions!
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McKinsey's online website (https://www.mckinsey.com/careers/interviewing) has 2 practice cases that are great. One is around education and the other around financial services for the poor.
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