All questions tagged case studies - Consulting Q&A - PrepLounge.com

Solo prep can only work for very specific aspects of case solving, and only after having received appropriate coaching. It can NEVER work for the entire skillset that is needed to ace case interviews - so don't waste your time trying to prepare over books etc. You have to find someone who knows what he is talking about to give you feedback and guidance.

Cheers, Sidi

Hi!

I believe in your situation it is extremely important to get systematic coaching from a very strong expert AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! You need to understand the difference between Coaching Sessions and Practice Sessions. The former you do with the expert, and the latter you do with (strong) peers. Usually, you should go through 2-3 rigorous coaching sessions to learn the first principles required to approach and structure cases in the right way, to quickly become independent of frameworks, and to build awareness of the process discipline and “habits” required. Then you use the practice sessions for repetition and solidifying your case muscle. Every 3-4 practice sessions you should re-iterate with your coach to polish and get rock solid.

This process normally takes about 6-8 weeks. But I have had comitted candidates who became “ready” within one good month.

By the way - the above applies to both business and non-business background candidates! In fact, if you internalize the principles of how to think about case problems, your background is simply irrelevant!

Cheers, Sidi

Hi,

My candidates had 3 types of cases for these roles:

• Cost-cutting cases with layoffs, outsourcing, shared service center, etc.
• M&A deals integration
• M&A deals synergies with the focus on people

1) Here is a basic structure for cost cutting cases:

Structuring:

• What is the cost composition and what are the biggest costs
• Benchmarking of the biggest costs to find the improvement potential
• Process improvements to meet the benchmarks
• Costs and benefits of the proposed initiatives

The key concepts that you have to learn:

• Internal / external benchmarking
• Idle time
• Core processes (usually are optimized) and the supporting processes (usually are cut)
• Math structures (Frequency of operations * time per operation)
• Other useful structures (e.g. people - process - technology)

2) For M&A integration cases it was about understanding what should be the approach to Merging the companies. Make sure you cover:

1. Real reasons for the deals (Make sure you cover it in clarifying questions). Criteria for success
2. Integration focus and new org structure
3. Top management team composition
4. Integration plan across different entities
5. Communication to the employees and the clients.
6. Early wins and potential integration risks

3) For Synergies cases focused on people typically you use a value chain structure tailored to the industry (e.g. supply-production-distribution-marketing-after sales support) to calculate the overlaps and savings on people. Think of outsourcing and shared services as well. Also add Risks - major risks that can decrease the synergies (tip: don't underestimate the merging companies culture factor)

Good luck!

Feel free to reach me for further help with these cases.

Best

Hi Anna!

Thanks for asking your question on our Consulting Q&A!

I found these threads that might be useful for you:

• When to ask which questions: Which questions do you ask before you come up with a structure and which do you ask after?
• How to ask open questions

I hope this helps!

Best of luck for your case prep!

Astrid

PrepLounge Community Management

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Hello Sudipto,

the first part of this case would be only about crunching the numbers, then you will need to add some hypothesis and finally make some considerations.

----> Crunch the numbers to estimate the number of Wealthy people in each bucket

• 300/2 = 150 Million of male people
• 150/4 = 37,5 Million of male people in each bucket
• 21-40 & 41-60
  • 37,5*10% = 3,75 Million of Wealthy ppl in each bucket
• 61-80
  • 37,5*5%= 1,875 Million of Wealthy ppl

----> Add some hypothesis to estimate the addressable market of the magazine

• Assumptions on magazines' penetration:
  • 10% of the Wealthy people in the 21-60 range are interested in buying magazines: they are active people and they do not have a lot of free time to read magazines
    • (3,75+3,75)*10%= 750 K
  • 20% of the Wealthy people in the 61-80 range are interested in buying magazines: they have more free time
    • 1,875*20% = 375 K people that will buy the magazine
  • ---> Therefore 1,125 M of Wealthy people are interested in magazines
• Assumptions on features of the magazine:
  • The magazine is monthly
    • 1,125*12 = 13,5 M of magazines sold per year --> Market size in Volumes
  • The magazine has a price of 5$
    • 13,5*5 = 67,5 M$ of revenues from magazine per year --> Market size in $

----> Sanity checks and other considerations

• Remember that this is an estimation of the addressable market not the potential revenues of the company - you will need to assume a market share for those
• Remember to make sanity checks of the results - compare the results with the volumes of the other magazines
• Remember to consider the company as a whole - do not forget the other magazines (eg. cannibalization risks or cross-selling opportunities)

I hope that helps!

Best,

Guido

Quality > Quantity. Focus on:

1. finding the right partner, and / or expert to work with.

2. focusing on your negatives maniacally and not making those mistakes again

3. read through as many generic (tier-2) cases as you can to build a mental database of what to do when, and then try to start solving the tier-1, more difficult cases

4. Typically I see good case solvers once they've done anywhere between 20-40 solid, difficult cases covering a range of industries and business problems

Dear Anonymous A,

Congratulations on advancing with your Case prep.

Regarding your concerns about concluding/closing a Case, you should almost never use the approach you described (commonly referred to as a deductive or 'bottoms-up' approach that outlines all the steps you took to arrive at your ultimate decision); rather, your recommendation should be crisp, concise, data-driven, and communicated in a manner that is inductive (or 'top-down').

The most conventional form of the inductive Case close is one that can offer a single, 'headline' action-oriented recommendation and/or opinion based on the facts and deductions derived in the Case. This recommendation should then be supported by 2-3 mutually exclusive elements discussed in the case that lend authoritative weight to the headline recomemndation and/or opinion.

One might even go further (as many good candidates do) by identifying possible risks, hurdles, and/or alternate solutions to the headline recommendation/opinion given in the case. A sort of Devil's Advocate scenario, if you will.

The entire package should be communicated in a crisp communication style that is logically sound, thoughtfully structured, and easy to follow. A hypothetical example might read something like this:

[Eighteen-year-old girl making a choice as to which of her divorced parents she would like to live with]

[Recommendation/Opinion]: It makes sense to go and live with mum in London as opposed to my dad in Dresden. Three key reasons why are:

[Supporting Elements]:

1) Educational opportunity: I've already received a scholarship to study at the Imperial College in London. If I were to move to Dresden with my dad, I would undoutdely need to give up such a fantastic opportunity.

2) Language/Cultural Barriers: London is more familiar to me, and I speak English fluently. Living in Dresden would be tougher in comparison since I've only visited briefly during my last four summer holidays, and my German is hardly sufficient.

3) Emotional Support: My mum is a very practical woman, and as an eighteen-year-old with all the attendant distractions that come with being a young adult, my mum is more primed to be my pillar of support as compared to my dad.

[Counter-case]:

I realise that I could always stay here in New York where I went to secondary school and still avail myself of similar opportunities as living with my mum in London would offer since:

a) Columbia University: I have also received a scholarship to study at Columbia University which is equally as prestigious as Imperial College, London, and,

b) Older sister: my older sister who lives in New York has promised I can stay with her and her husband if I go to Columbia. She and I are very close, and she's almost as practical-minded as my mother.

Hi,

Think of it this way - many people who apply don't have a relevant background. That also means you have to develop business knowledge prioritising the industries that are most common in cases.

1) Retail - make sure you understand key retail metrics (P&L lines, same store sales, revenue per square meter and per person, etc) and how distribution works as well as its metrics (share on shelf, etc)

2) Airlines - read about profitability issues, different routing models, cost structure, industry metric s like load factor and make sure you know all possible additional revenue streams

3) Telecom - I would read industry reports and try to understanf how telecom is transforming with internet penetration and tech innovations

4) Banking - you should know the key products in corporate and retail banking and how they earn money (Interest, commision, transactional)

5) PE / M&A - go through available case examples and read about different PE strategies

Good luck!

The most common and critical mistakes are:

1) Not claryfying / asking the details of the business model in the begining

2) Not claryfying / quantifying objectives in the beginning

3) Using common frameworks and not adapting them to the case specifics

4) Not diging deep into the root causes of a problem and switching to other parts of your framework

5) Geting some data and not applying it (i.e. you should compare with previous periods / benchmarks / breakdown further into segments)

6) Slow math / math with mistakes / not stating clearly what you are trying to calculate and why

7) Providing a strong conclusion having limited data

8) !!! spending a lot of time on cases, having no fit interview practice

Hey! I have 2 cases which are related to the oil&gas industry (although I think even if you apply in a very oil dependent nation, you can expect any kind of case):

1. Oil Co is a holding company that manages a portfolio of companies related to oil exploration. The portfolio can be segmented as: An oil rig managed and operated by Oil Co; a group of companies (including Oil Co.) that have proportional stake in an oil rig, with each company sharingcosts and profits.Oil Co. wants to increase its profitability-->what are key areas you would look at to help the company?
2. The client is an integrated oil company and controls the entire supplychain from oil wells to gas stations. They have discovered a newautomobile fuel that will increase mileage by 30%. It will also cost10% more to produce the fuel. The fuel is similar to the old fuel inevery other way.What should they do with the new fuel? Additional information:There are 5 players in the industry (including our client). They all have equal market share. The interviewer asked to guesstimate what the demand would be like. No special environment concerns or advantages from the new fuel. Under no circumstances can the client capture more than 10% of the market due to capacity constraint. Margins on old fuel are 10%

Hope this helps you

Samir - I understand there is a conflict of interest in me recommending this (as I am an advisor here), but frankly, given that you are just starting off, there are only few good ways to really get up to speed and understand the what's and how's of case practice:

1. If you are part of an MBA program, join a consulting club ASAP and start going through their materials and case practise scnedules.

2. Take 1-2 classes with an advisor at PL or your case practise website of choice and ask as many questions as you can and get him/her to give you a practice case.

3. This will take longer and you may have to work on finding the right quality and quantity of partners, but if you aren't in an MBA and do not wish to spend the $s for #2, then start doing case practises here at PL with other students.

Hemant

Hi there,

I did an internship there ages ago (10+ years), in the Munich office, so my experience is probably of little help. But for some reason, I remember the interview relatively vivid.

I had three interviews, besides the general CV chit chat I had one market sizing case (number of Panini stickers and albums being sold in Munich - this was shortly before the World Championship in Germany in 2006). There were also quite a few relatively serious questions (considering that I was a student, coming in for an internship) about marketing and brand. I remember one case about the "awareness funnel" in marketing and one question about functions of a brand.

Hope that helps (a little bit at least),

Elias