All questions tagged Public Sector - Consulting Q&A - PrepLounge.com

Hi!

In essence, there is no substantial difference to any other case. You first have to clearly outline the core question, then define the criterion to answer this question, and the run the test on whether/how the criterion can be met.

The one big difference usually lies in the focus metric that you are scrutinizing. Profit or revenue are clearly defined metrics. But in public sector cases, it is YOUR duty to nail down the interviewer on the PRECISE definition of the focus metric (which is usually non-monetary).

For example, if you are asked to figure out ways to improve the education system in Tanzania, then you HAVE to first align on a definition of what constitutes "quality of the education system". Is it # of children entering school? Is it # of graduates from school?# Is it the quality of the graduates? All of these? Only after having nailed down the interviewer on the precise definition you are able to disaggregate the components of this definition and identify levers to influence each component.

So at the methodical level, there is no difference between for-profit and not-for-profit cases. You just have to make sure that you have precisely defined your (non-monetary) focused metric.

Cheers, Sidi

Hi,

You're struggling because a specific structure doesn't exist for a public case, just like it doesn't exist for an oil & gas case or a retail case.

Think of public/NGO cases as industries, not case types! So, figure out what type of case it is from the prompt (Vlad provides some good examples), and then the lens through which you qualify your framework will be NGO (i.e. cost breakdowns, difficulties, etc.).

A public case could be operations, market entry, profitability, etc. etc. Always clarify the organisation's main objective as it adds to the generally "pure profit" lens through which most other industries would be viewed. However, don't forget, efficiency/profitability still matters (in that running the NGO well means it can meet its objectives better)

Hi Neeraj,
McKinsey has two public-sector cases on their website (https://www.mckinsey.com/careers/interviewing). You could start with them.

Have a look at casebooks from business schools (Wharton, Kellogg, etc.). They often have some public sector cases. You may begin with reading one or two cases first so that you get an understanding of how to approach these cases.

Good luck with your prep!
Regards,
Daniel

I am not sure whether any particular source specifically focused on the public sector but many MBA case books have public sector cases. You may want to check them.

Also if you did not solve that already, Diconsa case is one of my favorites available on the internet.

Good luck!

Cheers, Serhat

Hi,

If you have not done any cases yet:

• Take a 1-week vacation to prepare
• If it is not an internship with a dedicated interview period, please reschedule the interview. You can't imagine how many people have failed just because they didn't take enough prep. There is absolutely no penalty for rescheduling.

Start preparations:

I recommend the following approach:

1) Start with "Case in point" book - you can download this book for free everywhere. It's not the best guide on how you should approach the cases, however, it will give you the basic understanding.

2) Start practicing cases with partners here or find them locally. !!! Find experienced partners or coaches who can provide a good feedback!!!

3) Purchase and read Viktor Cheng Book (Amazon Kindle store) and listen to LOMS (his website).

4) Start with the following cases (relevant for ATK) and apply some high-level recommendations on structuring:

1. Market sizing - structuring from the supply or demand side. Structuring using a formula or using an issue tree
2. Profitability - basic profitability framework. Remember about different revenue streams and product mix
3. Market context cases (Market Entry, New product, Acquisition, etc). Always start with the big picture "market". Finish with something specific to the case (e.g. How to enter?"). Structure it as if you are defining the work streams for the real project.
4. Operational math problem (e.g. Should we increase the speed of an elevator or just buy a second one? How should we reduce the queues? Etc.) - Structuring as a process / value chain, with inflows, operations, and outflow

Here is a good list of articles regarding the different parts of the case:

1) Start with clarifying questions:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/clarifying-questions-1786#a3956

2) Communicating while structuring. Here is a long post by me on how to communicate the structure during the case study:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-to-communicate-its-structure-for-the-case-study-1313#a2806

3) Using hypothesis. I made a post about hypothesis here:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-to-state-a-hypothesis-and-match-to-the-structure-1156#a2268

4) Communicating while making calculations:

• Always tell the interviewer your approach
• Check with the interviewer that your approach is correct
• Come to the interviewer with some preliminary answers
• Check your assumptions with the interviewer

5) Communicating during the analysis of graphs / tables

• Take a minute to look at the graph. Read the graph title. Look at the graph type and define the type (pie chart, line chart, etc). Look at the legend (ask for clarifying questions if necessary). Identify whats going on on the graph. Look for: Trends, % structures. Look for unusual things - correlations, outliers,
• Make 3-4 conclusions from the graph. Think out loud on potential hypothesis on what could be the root cause / what are the consequences
• Prioritize the most important for your current analysis and move forward with the case

6) Communicating while having questions on creativity

• Ask an interview for a minute to think
• Think of several buckets of ideas (e.g. organic growth / non-organic growth / differentiation). Remember to think as big as possible
• Narrow down to each bucket and generate as many ideas as possible
• Present the structure (buckets) and then your ideas

7) Communicating your conclusion. You can find a good example I've posted here:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-much-answer-first-should-the-conclusion-be-1231#a2493

8) Communicating your FIT stories

Use the top-down approach while communicating your stories. "The Pyramid Principle" is the must-read by ex McKinsey on this topic.

I recommend using the STAR framework:

• In Situation, you should briefly provide the context, usually in 1 or 2 sentences
• Task usually includes 2 or 3 sentences describing the problem and your objective.
• Then you provide a list of specific actions you took to achieve the goal. It should take 1 or 2 sentences per action (Usually 3-4 actions). Note that the interviewer can stop you any minute and ask for more details.
• The results part should have 1 or 2 sentences describing the outcomes. This part is finalizing your story - make sure it can impress the interviewer and stay in the memory.

Best!

Hi Daniel,

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:

1. First identifying the type of case it is.
2. 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:

1. Strategic rationale (Mission of organisation and stakeholder reactions)
2. Deal economics (planned investment and returns, if any)
3. 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!

Hi,

These cases are rare is that the casebooks (that are in general not a good source of cases).

To provide a bit of structure, there are several types of non-profit cases:

1. Factors influencing the price (What are the factors influencing the price of oil? Factors influencing the price of real estate?)
2. Macroeconomic cases (How will you improve life expectancy in a particular city? How will you decrease the unemployment?)
3. Public sector non-profits (Increasing the revenues of a museum; increasing the revenues from tourism in a city)
4. Redesigning the processes (How will you develop a new anti-monopoly regulation?)
5. Non-profit investments (A billionaire is building a new school. What are the factors to look at?)

It is critical to define the objective for these cases to set a proper structure. Two types of questions you should ask:

1. Could you please clarify the model / business model? E.g. if a billionaire is building a new school, is it a school for talented kids, rich kids or mass segment? Is it going to generate revenues?
2. What are the main criteria for success? Is it NPV, ROI, share talented kids entering the top Universities?

As you can see there are many types of cases and many frameworks that can be used. I usually give homework (10 cases) and then cover them within one session. Feel free to reach me if you need help.

Best!

Can't speak for the Bain experience, but pretty sure McKinsey is the one top for public sector work in most regions

Hi Atos,

Public sector cases are one of the trickiest cases. It is important to make required adjustments when you are taking advantage of well-known frameworks when it comes to public sector cases.

It is critical to note that cases can be categorized by 2 main dimensions.

• by case type (pricing, M&A, profitability, etc.)
• by industry (Airlines, utilities, government& public)

Frameworks are almost always designed based on case types but not industries as you can see some samples above. Because the public sector is a type of industry but not case type, it is not possible to apply one specific framework to those cases.

To make it clearer, if a case is asking whether should government bank offer a specific new product for farmers, you may want to take advantage of profitability framework whereas you may want to use pricing framework if the case is asking what should be the price for this product.

Up until this part, there was nothing tricky because it is very similar to other industry questions. In other words, you would use the same approach if it was not a government bank but a private bank. Tricky part starts exactly here. Those cases are all about converting those well-known frameworks based on government approach. Let's continue with the same example. If the bank was a private bank, you would focus heavily on profitability but if it is a government bank, then you should consider also other factors, such as:

• how much farmers can create additional GDP thanks to this product
• is this product helps to ensure food supply security of the country
• positive impacts on current account deficit of the country
• social impacts, e.g. government may want to decrease the poverty of farmers
• etc...

Bottom line is that there is no golden framework for public cases. It is more about getting more familiar with those kinds of cases and learning the correct way of thinking to be able to consistently perform well in those cases.

PS: I am happy to answer your further questions. Please feel free to reach me.

Best
Serhat

Hi,

These cases are rare is that the casebooks (that are in general not a good source of cases).

To provide a bit of structure, there are several types of non-profit cases:

1. Factors influencing the price (What are the factors influencing the price of oil? Factors influencing the price of real estate?)
2. Macroeconomic cases (How will you improve life expectancy in a particular city? How will you decrease the unemployment?)
3. Public sector non-profits (Increasing the revenues of a museum; increasing the revenues from tourism in a city)
4. Redesigning the processes (How will you develop a new anti-monopoly regulation?)
5. Non-profit investments (A billionaire is building a new school. What are the factors to look at?)

It is critical to define the objective for these cases to set a proper structure. Two types of questions you should ask:

1. Could you please clarify the model / business model? E.g. if a billionaire is building a new school, is it a school for talented kids, rich kids or mass segment? Is it going to generate revenues?
2. What are the main criteria for success? Is it NPV, ROI, share talented kids entering the top Universities?

As you can see there are many types of cases and many frameworks that can be used. I usually give a big homework (10 cases) and then cover them within one session. Feel free to reach me if you need help.

Best!

As with most advice on here, I would recommend that you do not memorise frameworks to simply repeat in an interview. I recently received an offer from McKinsey and also have 10 years experience in government. The general approach I took to government cases was Moore's public value triangle (you can google it). Moore's triangle has three main elements:

1. Public value - what is the public value being created?
2. Legitimacy and support - who will support and authorise the creation of the public value?
3. Operational capabilities - what investments are required to create the public value?

I never used those three elements word-for-word, but instead adapated them to the case. So for example, if I was asked how I might improve traffic conditions for a regional government I might use the following structure:

1. Objectives of traffic reduction - I would want to understand why we want to reduce traffic, who will benefit, whether there are any specific targets etc.
2. Options analysis - do we have specific projects in mind, are the options demand or supply driven
3. Stakeholders interests - I would seek to understand which stakeholders in the community support or oppose the options, what political support exists
4. Implementation - what options exist, what are our capabilities to implement, do we have sufficient funding

You will see that points 1, 3 and 4 essentially match points 1, 2 and 3 (respectively) of the public value triangle. I added in point 2 for completeness. Essentially the public value triangle helped me create a relatively MECE structure to guide the case.

Another very important point with government cases is that you should always clarify whether profit is an objective. For example, in building a road you want to ask whether the government seeks to make a profit from the road, or whether it sole objective is reducing traffic.

Hope that helps!

Hi,

It would really help if you can put the name of the company here. Otherwise, it's really hard to help you.

It looks like you are talking about BCG case and you can find a sample here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zor4m49eyx5qxal/AABeUN6mtiGkWhEklRjszX2Oa?dl=0

(PM me for a password)

The best way to prepare is the following:

1. Train mental math. I posted the main tips here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/tips-to-do-big-multiplications-in-my-mind-726#a1422
2. Prepare for a regular case interview - it helps a lot. Basically, prep lounge website is about it
3. Practice making slides. Look for publically available MBB presentations for reference. Good books are "Pyramid Principle" and "How to make it with charts"
4. Practice reading cases fast and prioritizing the information. I found useful two sources:

• Written cases you'll be able to find in google or in case books. I've seen a couple in "Vault Guide to the Case Interview" and "Insead Business Admission Test"
• Harvard cases - either buy or try to find online. You can find a couple of MIT cases here for free: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/LearningEdge/Pages/Case-Studies.aspx Unfortunately free cases don't have the prep questions.

The appropriate structure for BCG written case is:

Slide 1: Context, Objective, Recommendations

Slide 2-4: Analysis (Usually 1 slide with a table, 1 slide with graphs and 1 slide with pros and cons)

Slide 5: Next steps or risks & mitigation

Good luck!

Hi Anonymous,

I agree with Chris that the categorization you did actually includes different type of companies; while NERA and Frontier Economics do economic consulting (more Microeconomic analysis, Competition policy and Econometrics), Strategy&, Accenture Strategy and PWC do strategy consulting (more similar to MBB, often based more on implementation though). A first decision therefore should be on which kind of consulting you would like to do, that is, whether economic or strategy consulting – they are both great path, but pretty different, and in economic consulting you are likely to find a glass ceiling without a PhD.

Once you have decided which path to take, in case you decide to go for strategy consulting, you would then have to choose whether to go for more niche firms specialized in public sector, or more prestigious, where you may never specialize at all in public sector. One way to meet both the criteria would be to change geography and focus on the Middle East: there, a good amount of the MBB projects are related to public sector as well.

Finally, you should consider in the choice that your preferences may change in the future, and you may decide to switch to something different from the public sector. In this case, MBB would definitely be the option that could keep more doors open.

Best,

Francesco

In my opinion., No. The process remains same. they only try to match interviewer profile with yours.

Preparation should be the same.