Hi everyone, am going into interviews with Bain but couldn't find many Bain-style cases. Could anyone kindly share samples (preferrably the toughest) Bain cases you might have come across please?
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expert
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Toughest Bain Style case
2 answers
Hi,
That is an interesting question with no single answer. As a matter of fact difficulty of a case is relative and depends on multiple factors such as your background, your experience, the position for which you are being interviewed (junior vs. senior), the interviewer,... long story short: a case very difficult for you could be very easy for another candidate (and viceversa ).
As you probably know already, Bain uses the candidate-led case interview format where the interviewer presents you with an open question like "Your client is considering a merger with its next largest competitor. What should they do?" For your information, with the exception of McKinsey which uses to an interviewer-led interview, most other firms use some variation of the candidate-led case.
Having said that, you can practice for your interviews at Bain with any candidate-led case (there are many available online and Preplounge has an interesting collection as well https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases?language=en&style[]=1&sort=real-case-desc&page=1&perPage=20)
As an expert, I have experience with several real Bain interview cases (coming from my own experience while at the firm and other Bainies colleagues)...while I won’t be able to share the details here :) I can give you a couple of examples:
- Company XXX, one of the leader YYY companies in the world, is thinking about entering the retail business. Should XXX do so?
- Your client is an XXX company that is in the business of YYY for ZZZ in Spain. Your client would like you to advise them on how to increase revenues.
- Our client is a XXX company that has annual sales of 250m euros. It makes and sells a variety of YYY and is thinking about expanding its product line to include a ZZZ. The CEO has engaged our consulting firm to build the case on whether this is a good idea or not.
I hope this helps,
Jacopo
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Hello Anonymous,
I am also preparing an interview at Bain (Milan office). Let me know if you want to share some knowledge about potential business cases and maybe prepare some of them together.
Cheers, Lorenzo
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