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MBB Final Round | Pricing
Our client is a consumer nutrition company that has developed NuraOne, a pill that delivers a full meal's worth of nutrients and suppresses hunger for roughly twelve hours, with almost no calories. Nothing comparable exists: it is not a shake or a snack you consume instead of food, it removes the need to eat at all for half a day. There is no established category and no reference price to copy.
Management wants an answer two questions for the first meeting: (I) what price should we set for NuraOne, and (II) how should we take it to market?
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MBB Round 1 | Profitability
Our client is a national US fitness chain with roughly 200 clubs and around $600m in annual revenue. Over the last three years revenue has grown steadily, but profit has remained broadly flat over the same period.
The board has asked one question: why has the revenue growth not translated into higher profit, and what should the client do about it?
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MBB Round 1 | Market Entry
Our client is a family-owned European premium chocolate manufacturer with roughly €600m in annual revenue, sold mainly in Western Europe through its own boutiques and upscale grocery. Home-market growth has slowed to low single digits, and the board wants the company's next growth engine.
The board believes India could be it and has asked one question: should the client enter, and if so, how? Beyond a simple Go or No-Go, they want a defensible entry route and a realistic view of what the opportunity is worth.
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CleanWave – When the Suds Settle
CleanWave is a leading branded manufacturer of dishwashing products in Germany, primarily selling dishwashing tabs and liquids.
During the Covid period (2020–2021), the company experienced unusually strong growth in revenues and profits. Since 2022, however, CleanWave’s revenues and profitability have declined significantly.
Management believes this is mainly driven by weaker consumer demand and increased price pressure.
You are asked to:
- Estimate the size of the German dishwashing market
- Analyse the drivers of CleanWave’s declining revenues and profits
- Understand the impact of Covid and post-Covid market dynamics
- Develop strategic recommendations for CleanWave going forward
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Roland Berger Case: Launch of a Mobile Neobroker
"FemVest" is a venture-backed fintech aiming to launch a mobile neobroker in Germany in 2026. The company believes that women are structurally underserved in the area of retail investing: women are less likely to hold a securities account, invest smaller amounts on average, and enter the market later than men. At the same time, the financial relevance of women is growing — driven by rising incomes, demographic shifts, and inheritances.
FemVest has already secured regulatory approval as well as a custodian bank and execution partner. However, key strategic decisions remain open: the target segment has not been finalized, the product and service offering is not yet defined, the business model has not been established, and the go-to-market strategy has not yet been developed.
The board is asking you, as a consultant, to analyze the market potential, develop an initial business case, and derive concrete strategic recommendations for market entry.
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Simon Kucher Case: Unlocking Revenue at AlpenGlide
AlpenGlide is a well-known ski resort located in the Austrian Alps. Their revenues have stagnated over the recent years, and management is concerned that they are not capturing their full revenue potential.
AlpenGlide has engaged Simon-Kucher to help understand what’s behind the stagnation and recommend actionable levers to unlock new revenue growth opportunities.
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E.ON Inhouse Consulting Case: Heating Systems
The European Union pursues the target of lowering the CO₂ emissions of their residents. Therefore, the EU introduced a CO₂ tax to create incentives for consumers to switch to more climate friendly alternatives and stabilize carbon dioxide emissions.
Accordingly, and as E.ON’s strategy focuses on creating a better tomorrow for its customers, E.ON is investing significantly to grow its ‘Customer solutions’ area with climate-friendly solutions, including its heating solutions business.
You have recently joined E.ON Inhouse Consulting and E.ON’s Head of Heating Solutions has hired you to conduct an analysis concerning the European CO₂ tax. Specifically, you are asked to assess whether the EU uses the right tool to steer consumers towards more climate-friendly heating systems.
Bain Case: Old Winery
You have inherited the “Old Winery” from your grandfather, a winery that has been family-owned for five generations and can be dated back to the 16th century.
Half of the eleven hectares are used to grow white grapes, the other half to grow red grapes. They are grown in a conventional way, i.e. they are not organically farmed and certified. The vine stocks are in a good condition regarding age and care. Overall, the only ¼ of the harvest is made into wine by the winery itself; the rest is sold.
Your grandfather never wanted to change the image of the winery and left the managerial and administrative task to a young and energetic wine-maker. Due to the not so well-known brand, the demand for the “Old Winery” wine is currently rather low.
You do not intent to run the winery operatively, given your limited knowledge of winemaking, but find the idea of owning a winery exciting.
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GlobalAccess Health – Funding the Next Million Diagnoses
GlobalAccess Health (GAH) is a UK-based international non-profit focused on tuberculosis (TB) and other infectious diseases. It develops and distributes low-cost diagnostic tests to public clinics, NGOs, and private laboratories in low- and middle-income countries.
Historically, GAH has been funded almost entirely by large foundations and bilateral donors. Donors now want GAH to become more financially sustainable and have set a target that, within 5 years, at least 60% of GAH’s annual operating budget should be covered by earned income (fees from tests and related services).
GAH’s annual operating budget covers staff, training, logistics, and overheads and is USD 25 million, independent of volume within the ranges discussed in this case. Assume that manufacturing and shipping costs for the tests themselves are covered by a separate restricted grant for the next 5 years;
GAH has recently introduced modest prices for some partners, but earned income currently covers only about 40% of annual operating costs. Leadership is considering moving to a much more aggressive, tiered pricing and growth strategy, but is concerned about potentially undermining its mission to reach the poorest and most vulnerable populations.
GAH has hired your consulting team to advise whether and how it should pursue this more aggressive earned-income strategy while remaining true to its mission.
RWE Consulting Case: Floating Wind in Japan
RWE is an international renewables company with a proud heritage of more than 125 years in the energy business. Recently, during the Capital Markets Day in 2023, RWE’s CEO renewed the company’s 2030 vision of being a global leader in green energy. To achieve this, additional substantial investments in clean technologies are planned, allowing for a total capacity of more than 30 GW to be added until then.
Against this background,RWE is constantly scanning for attractive investment opportunities in core and new markets with a focus on renewable energy sources like offshore or onshore wind as well as photovoltaics. After winning an offshore wind project on the Japanese West Coast, let us assume, for the context of this case study, that RWE is now actively exploring additional opportunities in Japan. The RWE Consulting team was asked to evaluate the attractiveness of the Japanese market and find suitable additional investment opportunities with special interest in the new technology of floating offshore wind. Specifically, your job as a consultant is to provide a “Go or No-Go” recommendation on whether to invest in floating wind in Japan.
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E.ON Inhouse Consulting Case: E-Mobility
Climate change has become one of the biggest challenges in the 21st century, and with roughly 75% of all CO₂ emissions coming from energy, this sector plays a key role in the transition to a reduced carbon footprint. E.ON has taken up on the challenge to promote more sustainable and efficient energy solutions throughout its whole customer spectrum. Correspondingly, a shift towards more sustainable energy consumption is noticed across the globe with many cities having set themselves ambitious climate targets, among those are:
- Copenhagen -100% CO₂ emissions by 2025
- Amsterdam -60% CO₂ emission by 2030
- New York -40% CO₂ emissions by 2030
With E.ON focusing entirely on the “new” energy world, we have become the partner of choice for solutions propelling the energy transitions. Mr. Jensen, the mayor of Essen has come to E.ON requesting our help to accelerate the transition for his city.
Essen is a city with about 600,000 inhabitants and prides itself as a forward-thinking one with lots of ambitions to become green itself. The economy is well and with his freshly won election the mayor looks forward to put its promised big initiatives into real projects.
Bain Case: BeautyCo – Where Did the Profits Go?
Our client BeautyCo is a large European perfumery company with 500 shops across Europe. However, BeautyCo has been struggling with a decrease in profitability for some time and would like to work with us to understand what the causes and possible actions could be. Therefore, as a first step the client wants us to identify the cause of the profitability issues.
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BCG Platinion Case: Digital transformation of an entire corporation
The CIO of a major insurance company needs your support to renew the company's IT landscape as a starting point for their digital transformation.
The IT landscape of the client is highly fragmented and integrated. Most IT applications are "legacy" monolithic custom developments (running on Mainframe) and are hosted on-premise.
There are issues with stability and scalability of applications plus IT costs are ever increasing "Time-to-market" to release new functionalities is too high, due to constraints of current architecture.
You are asked to quickly assess the status quo, identify main areas of intervention and measures to address the pain points and renew the IT landscape.
Note: This case is interviewer-led. The cases in our interviews are more candidate-led. In this case, you take the lead and manage the entire case from start to finish. So be prepared for this when you apply to us.
Roland Berger Case: Onlinestar
Onlinestar, an online retailer of furniture and garden products (core business), has grown significantly in recent years as a result of an expansion of its product portfolio. The company mainly imports goods from Chinese manufacturers but also operates its own production of cat lavatories (special business) in Eastern Europe.
The company sells its goods via Amazon and eBay, and recently via an online shop on its website. Despite this development, the financial ratios have deteriorated in recent years. In particular, the gross profit margin decreased significantly. Combined with a significant increase in shipping costs, this led to a negative result for the first time in the recently ended fiscal year and a resulting strained financial situation. Against the background of expected stagnating sales for the current financial year, short-term action is required.
The board of Onlinestar asks you for an analysis of the reasons for the negative result as well as a derived recommendation for action. As a consultant, you should bring in your knowledge in online trading and develop solutions. In addition, the management board would like to receive a sales and gross profit plan from you for the current financial year.
Oliver Wyman Case: Full Electrons Ahead
Your client, large automotive OEM WyCar, has developed its first fully electric vehicle (EV) and introduced it as a pilot on the Austrian market last year. However, sales have been far below the expected numbers. The management has engaged you to support them in understanding the reasons and advise them on how to adjust the product offering.
Roman Roads – Launching Autonomous Taxis in Italy
UrbanAI Mobility is a European venture-backed startup specialising in autonomous vehicle (AV) software and fleet management.
The company is now evaluating its first consumer-facing market entry. Italy has been shortlisted due to its high urban density, significant tourist traffic, and a regulatory framework that recently authorised Level 4 AV trials in designated city zones. Rome has been identified as the priority launch city, given its combination of high ride-hailing demand, international tourism, and a mayoral administration publicly supportive of smart-city initiatives.
The competitive landscape includes established ride-hailing operators (FREE NOW, Uber), traditional licensed taxis (approximately 14,000 in Rome), and two European AV startups that have announced intentions to launch in Southern Europe within 18 months.
“UrbanAI is considering launching an autonomous taxi pilot in Rome. Should they do it and if so, how should they approach the market entry?”
PE Aurora Capital - Possible aquisition of Nordstock Exchange Group
Aurora Capital Partners is a European investment fund. Aurora is considering acquiring NordStock Exchange Group (NEG), a publicly listed company that owns and operates a Nordic stock exchange and related services.
NEG earns revenue from four main activities:
1. Equity listing fees (companies paying to list their shares)
2. Cash equities trading (fees on buying and selling shares)
3. Derivatives trading (options, futures, etc.)
4. Market data & analytics (selling data feeds and analytics to banks and investors)
NEG was historically seen as a solid, predictable business. However, over the last five years it has grown more slowly and is less profitable than some competing European exchanges. Its share price has also underperformed.
Aurora believes that, under new ownership, NEG could:
- Improve its technology and reduce outages
- Launch new derivatives products
- Grow its higher-margin data & analytics business
- Streamline operations and increase profitability
Aurora has asked you to:
1. Assess whether NEG looks like an attractive acquisition
2. Identify key performance gaps vs. peers
3. Estimate, in simple terms, how much profit could increase under an improvement plan
4. Suggest actions and a recommendation
Grocery Wholesaler
GroceryWholesaleCo is a leading international grocery wholesaler that sells, markets, and distributes food products, equipment, and supplies to restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities, lodging establishments, and other customers who prepare meals away from home. Historically, the client was able to ensure sustainable growth; however, profits have plummeted over the last three years.
As a result, GroceryWholesaleCo wants to discover the reasons for this decline in profitability and identify strategies to turn the situation around.
Opportunity Assessment: Alternative Revenue Streams for a Salt Mine
Salty Boy Inc. is an underground salt mine in Texas whose new leadership are supporters of the circular economy. Circular economy provides a pathway towards more sustainable production and consumption patterns – CE introduces circularity to many areas of production cycles and encourages using renewable, regenerative inputs (e.g., energy) and minimizing systematic leakage (e.g., waste).
After decades of extracting salt form the earth, Salty Boy’s new leadership find themselves in possession of a network of empty, temperature and moisture stable tunnels located conveniently near major fiberglass waste sources and logistics networks. As a result, Salty Boy sees the potential for an alternative revenue stream. Their rationale is that they have ample and well-located storage capacities in their tunnels that they could use to position themselves well for an emerging recycling trend that could turn fiberglass waste into an eco-friendly and valuable raw material. Salty Boy is looking for your help to assess this potential opportunity.
Options Evaluation: Profitability of Brewing Company Startup
Your client is Alistair, a brew master from the east coast of the United States. He has developed a beer recipe he believes will revolutionize the beer drinking experience in the US. Alistair was able to convince his family and friends to invest in his business idea after letting them taste a sample of his new beer. With the investment money, Alistair founded the Allstar Brewing Company (ABC) and bought himself a mothballed brownfield brewery. This was already one year ago and Alistair has been working on perfecting his recipe since, but he has yet to produce a barrel of beer from the acquired production site. In the meantime, ABC has been approached by two other companies that both submitted a respective offer. Alistair seeks your help in determining the best course of action.
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