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What is the meaning of a „total market “?

My question is in regard to the following McK case http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/interviewing/electrolight, especially question number 2! Regarding my background, I am a specialist in mathematics and I could solve the math part of this case easily, but I have some weak spots, when it comes to economical terms. Problem: If the launch of a new product, produces cost of 40 Mio. € and each sold bottle generates 1 € profit, is it not the easiest solution, to just wait till enough bottles got sold and the cost are covered? Or do I need a certain share of market? If a total market includes 8 billion gallons, does that mean, that each year an amount of X (in this case 8 billion gallons) is consumed? Would the common definition then be, that the market share, sizes the volume or revenue of a market for one year? But if so, the question should be “what share of the electrolyte drink market would Electro-Light need to capture in order to break even within one year?” or do they assume that automatically by mentioning “break even”?

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Clara
Coach
on Nov 13, 2023
McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut

Hello!

Precisely for the high amount of questions (1) asked by my coachees and students and (2) present in this Q&A, I created the “Math & Formulas - Economic and Financial concepts for MBB interviews”, recently published in PrepLounge’s shop (https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/prep-guide/economic_and_financial_concepts_for_mbb_interviews).

After +5 years of candidate coaching and university teaching, and after having seen hundreds of cases, I realized that the economic-related knowledge needed to master case interviews is not much, and not complex. However, you need to know where to focus! Hence, I created the guide that I wish I could have had, summarizing the most important economic and financial concepts needed to solve consulting cases, combining key concepts theorical reviews and a hands-on methodology with examples and ad-hoc practice cases.

It focuses on 4 core topics, divided in chapters (each of them ranked in scale of importance, to help you maximize your time in short preparations):

  • Economic concepts: Profitability equation, Break even, Valuation methods (economic, market and asset), Payback period, NPV and IRR, + 3 practice cases to put it all together in a practical way. 
  • Financial concepts: Balance sheet, Income statement/P&L and Performance ratios (based on sales and based on investment), +1 practice case
  • Market structure & pricing: Market types, Perfect competition markets (demand and supply), Willingness to pay, Pricing approaches, Market segmentation and Price elasticity of demand, +1 practice case
  • Marketing and Customer Acquisition: Sales funnel, Key marketing metrics (CAC and CLV) and Churn, +1 practice case

Feel free to PM me for disccount codes for the guide, and I hope it helps you rock your interviews! 

Anonymous
on Sep 15, 2016

Just took a look at the case out of curiosity and agree with you:

  • It doesn't say that the market value is on an annual basis, but would assume it as well
  • It doesn't say in the question that the cost needs to be recuperated (break-even) within a year.

So if it was a real case situation, I would ask these questions for clarification. Otherwise (and probably more naturally), you would be able to make the money of the investment back over a longer period, say 2-3 years and would require only a lower market share.

No idea whether it is intentionally ambiguous or just assumed to be clear, but your thinking is spot on. :)

2
Anonymous
on Sep 18, 2016

Just as a side note, not directly linked to the case at hand, but maybe for your future (consulting) life:

The question "What is my market?" is probably one of two or three make-it-or-break-it questions in business. Because the answer is often not obvious and success in a given case may even depend on ignoring the obvious answer.

For more on this, I strongly recommend these two books:

"The Innovators Dilemma" by Clayton Christensen

and

"From Zero to One" by Peter Thiel & Blake Masters.

Both yield extremely interesting insights into this question. Thiel for example propagates that rather than going for 1% of an 8 bln USD market, it's probably wiser to go for market domination in an 80 mln market and then see where you go from there.

Christensen demonstrates how industries become disrupted by companies and products that are sub-par in an existing market (the "obvious answer" I mentioned above) by creating a new market where the new product is competitive and then ladderig their way upmarket.

Hope that helps,

Elias

2
Anonymous A
on Sep 18, 2016

Thank you both! Seriously! And of course, I'll have a look at the recommended books mentioned above. 

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