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StyleScape responds to customer feedback (McKinsey final round)
Style Scape is a mid-sized retailer that sells clothing, accessories, and home goods through its physical stores and online platform. The business has been around for over a decade and has seen consistent growth in sales in its home market of the United States. Style Scape operates 30 stores nationwide, and its online platform is relatively new, having launched only two years ago.Despite healthy growth, the company's leadership has noticed an alarming decline in customer satisfaction ratings and an increase in customer complaints. They are concerned that these issues will harm the company's reputation and negatively impact its bottom line. The CEO of Style Scape has requested your assistance in determining the root causes of these issues and developing recommendations to address them.
MBB - Climate Change Operations
A mid-sized manufacturing company is concerned about the potential impacts of climate change on its operations. The company has a number of factories located in coastal regions that are vulnerable to flooding and other weather-related events, and it is concerned about the potential financial and reputational risks associated with these events. The company's leadership team has asked your consulting firm to help them understand the risks they face and develop a plan to mitigate those risks.Clarifying Info:Our client’s objective is to maintain long-term profitabilityOur client’s factories are located throughout the US===================================================Note: Once you have solved this case, make sure to solve the 2nd version of this case: MBB - Climate Change Operations - Part 2 | PrepLounge.comThis case is designed to show you how a case can evolve/change based on new information. The first half of this case is the same, but diverges once data and #s are provided.To learn more about how to use case leadership to navigate dynamic cases, please read here: Candidate-Led Cases: What to Expect With Example Cases
GlowMobile Goes Digital (McKinsey first-round)
GlowMobile is a leading telecom operator with a strong presence in Southeast Asia. They sell regular products and services that any telecom operator would offer in their retail stores: cell phones, SIM cards, subscriptions, etc.Even though the number of digital customers in the region has grown exponentially, currently GlowMobile does not have an online presence and customers must go in person to retail stores for every interaction with the operator. In the past years, they have been losing a lot of customers due to bad customer experience.GlowMobile has asked our team to improve customer satisfaction through digitization. Specifically, they want us to help improve and digitize their operations and prepare a proof of concept for a digital customer journey for customers.The CEO believes that opening their digital channel would minimize the loss of customers due to bad customer experience and solidify their position as market leader. Right now, a digital journey does not exist.
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MBB 1st Round Case - Hazella Light
Our client is an Italian multinational manufacturer of branded chocolate and confectionery products. One of their most popular products is Hazella, a hazelnut spread.Despite its worldwide popularity, Hazella is considered to be high in calories by some customers. For this reason, our client has developed a new version of the spread, Hazella Light, and is assessing whether they should launch it in the Italian market.
BCG Final Round Case - Sugar to Indonesia
Our client is an Indian sugar producer exporting solely to Indonesia. Indonesia imports 5m tons of raw sugar per year.To make raw sugar, our client processes sugarcane at a cost of $25 per ton and they have a capacity of 1.5m tons per year. The only competitor that has lower production costs is from Thailand, and it delivers 1.7m tons per year at a cost of $20 per ton.Our client recently found out that the Thai producer will expand its production to 2m tons, and as a consequence the market price for sugar in Indonesia may drop.They contacted us to assess this situation.
Kearney First Round Case - Top Chemicals
Our client is the US-based biotech company Top Chemicals. They have just developed a fertilizer that is waiting to get approval for commercialization. They hired us to identify the best price for it.
BoxxFitness Gyms
Our client is the CEO of BoxxFitness - a leading gym chain in the US with over 1,500 gyms. BoxxFitness is a premium gym concept with an annual membership fee that is 2-3x higher than most mainstream gyms. Each gym has a limited number of membership slots. Each member gets a dedicated locker, unlimited personal training, unlimited classes, and unlimited equipment usage. In the last 3 years, the chain has seen a decline in its profit margin.Can you identify the potential reasons for this decline?
Poliglot Language App Needs Users
Let’s assume our client is Poliglot, a popular language app. Poliglot is five years old, originally from the US, but available worldwide. The app currently offers the possibility of learning over twenty languages for free, with extra benefits (e.g., no ads, additional exercises) available to premium members.Historically, the app has been very successful and has seen significant growth over the past few years. However, over the past year, the app noticed a stagnating usage and app adoption. Considering that the market is very competitive, the client expects a decline in the customer base unless the root causes are identified and addressed. As a consequence, the CEO of the company that owns the app asked us to support them in figuring out the reasons for the decline and laying out a plan for growth.
Market entry: Disrupting the New York - Boston railway industry
Currently, there is only one train company operating the Boston – New York route: AMTRAK. The option of traveling by train between the two metropolis is gaining traffic, particularly in winter times, during which it´s the best way to avoid weather-related delays. Furthermore, it´s the most environmentally friendly of all available options. Your client is a powerful investor who is assessing business options in the US (with investment sizes averaging 100M$), and has approached you for advice on starting a new train operation company to compete against AMTRAK.In particular, she wants to start by opening a new service between New York and Boston. Should the investor go ahead and launch the business?
Swiss Coffins – The Death Business
Your client is the CEO of a coffin manufacturing company based in Geneva, Switzerland (Europe). The company has existed with little changes to the business model for three generations, manufacturing high-quality, hand-crafted coffins, with a highly skilled and specialized labor force. The industry has been recently disrupted by new technologies that no longer need human manufacturing: machines can manufacture faster and cheaper. Your client needs your help in deciding whether to invest in this technology and transform his business, or remain in the hand-manufactured business for coffins*Note: On top of this initial question that focuses on the strategy and should be tackled by the candidate with an issue tree, the case includes more questions that can be found in the "Detailed solutions" and "Difficult questions" boxes below, with the correspondent proposed answers.
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Merger of two beer manufacturers
Our clients are two beer manufacturers from a well-developed country who just decided to merge. We can call them Company A and Company B. The decision about the merger has already been taken and our clients are certain it will soon be approved by regulators.What is expected from you is to help them with two objectives: Firstly, they would like you to help them decrease the costs of their post-merger operations. Secondly, they would like you to help them develop a new marketing strategy.How would you like to go about helping our clients?
Bain 1st Round Case – BlissOttica
Our client is a BlissOttica, an Eyewear Manufacturer that is looking to reach a 10% increase in profits. How would you help our client?
MBB Case: JimboTel
Our client is JimboTel, an African mobile telecom company with operations in four West African countries: Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana and Sierra Leone. JimboTel has experienced revenue declines in the last two years.How can JimboTel grow its revenues organically in the next year?
MBB Case: COVID-19 Vaccine
The COVID-19 pandemic has killed millions of people worldwide and led to devastating economic impact. A vaccine is one of the biggest hopes for stopping the pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) is working with multiple stakeholders to ensure groups at higher risk of becoming infected and dying (e.g. elderly people and healthcare workers) receive a safe an effective COVID-19 vaccine in the next six months.The WHO’s Director-General asked your help to build a plan to achieve this goal. What should be included in this plan?
Changes in cookies market
Your client is a US-based manufacturer of branded cookies, Gumbread Inc. The client realized that their sales have declined in recent years. The client wants to know what they should do to do drive sales again.
CoffeeWorks reusable cups
CoffeeWorks is one of the leading coffee retail chains in the UK. The client is planning to introduce reusable cups with an aim to decrease the consumption of single-use disposable cups. The main goal of the client is to enhance their brand image as a sustainable retailer without harming current profitability levels. Thus, they approached us to check whether they should go ahead with their plan.
MBB Case – Consulting a Government
Our client is the government of an imaginary country which is suffering from strong protests and riots by its own population. The client would like to understand the reason for these protests. In a second step, the client wants you to make suggestions for improvement to end these protests. In answering those two questions, what factors would you consider in making your potential recommendation?
Car rental market entry strategy
The client is CarRentalCo, a global car rental company present on the European and North American markets. In Europe, it is present in most EU countries but has not yet entered the Baltic countries. CarRentalCo has asked us to determine whether or not they should enter the Baltic (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania being here considered as one market) and, if so, what should their entry strategy be.
MBB Final Round Case - Smart Education
Our client is SmartBridge, a nonprofit educational institution offering face-to-face tutoring services. The client operates in the US.The mission of SmartBridge is to help as many students as possible to complete studies and prevent that they drop from the school system, in particular in disadvantaged areas.The client is considering starting operations for its services in the Chicago area. They hired us to understand if that makes sense. Due to the nonprofit regulation, SmartBridge should operate on its own in the market, without any partnership.How would you help our client?
COVID-19 impact on Heathrow Airport
Your client is the CEO of Heathrow airport (London), the busiest airport in Europe in terms of commercial traffic.Due to COVID-19, the airport's operations and hence, revenue streams, have been severely affected.The CEO asks for your help with the preparation of the upcoming Steerco, focused on:“How to secure Heathrow's revenue streams during April-June 2020, mitigating the effects of COVID-19”.
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