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Supermarket turnaround
Our client is a supermarket chain in Britain called Sparx. They have been the market leader for more than 30 years. However 5 years ago they have seen growth stall and 2 years later revenues started shrinking, keeping so until today. The profitability of the chain has followed the revenue downturn trend, but dropped in percentage much more than the revenues.They now hold only 25% market share, with the second player getting dangerously closer with 23%.What’s wrong and how can you help them turn this situation around?
Disguise distribution
Your client is a German manufacturer of disguises for events and parties called KostümCo. They segment their products in two lines: round-the-year and seasonal products.Round-the-year products serve customers that celebrate birthdays and common parties during the whole year.Seasonal products aim at special occasions like the carnival or the beer festival in Munich and are only sold for some time before these events.KostümCo makes the design, manufacturing and resells the disguises to retailers in 5 different German cities.Recently, though, the largest retail customer complained that KostümCo’s prices are too high. After some internal analyses, the client found this to be due mainly to distribution costs. You have been asked to figure out how we can reduce distribution costs.
FibOp fibers
The new CEO of an optical fiber manufacturer, called FibOp, has come to you complaining that their revenues went down by 40% this year compared to last year.He wants you to help him figure out what they need to do in order to achieve the previous year’s revenues again.
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Pharma R&D
Your client is a pharmaceutical company which is worried about the portfolio optimization of their R&D projects.They hired us to investigate it and help them make the most return of their R&D investments in the short and mid-term (without totally forgetting the long-term horizon).How would you go about it and what would you recommend the client to do?
Retirement homes
Your client is a 5-year-old company that operates retirement homes (where elderly people can receive appropriate care) in Germany.A few months ago, they opened a new home in Munich. They are concerned about its profitability. How would you help the client?
Argentinian toy manufacturer
An Argentinian toy manufacturer has 50% market share in Argentina and is the market leader in South America. However, its international market share is only 5%.Their CEO wants you to brainstorm and structure potential ideas to increase the company’s profit margins and market share. The CEO also wants you to think about exploiting new revenue sources.
Chewing gum
Your client is a chewing gum manufacturer.The CEO of the manufacturing company wants you to find out why his company is experiencing a declining profit margin. He then wants you to suggest ways to improve his company’s profit margin.
Rally racing
Your client is the owner of UBS #42, a rally racing team. There are 36 races in a season. At the end of the season, the driver who has earned the most number of points will win the championship.Jeff Tarin, a well-known driver, races for UBS #42. He began racing in this tournament six years ago and is currently ranked fifth in a field of 40 drivers.The director of marketing at Jazz Sweets recently contacted your client to ask whether your client would like to start a second racing team that Jazz Sweets could sponsor. The director realizes that rally racing is the fastest-growing race sport segment among males aged 18-45. He has already asked a successful driver from a regional conventional racing circuit to be the new team’s first driver. Your client wants to know whether he should go ahead with this opportunity.
Fashion mail order
Your client is a direct mail clothing retailer. They primarily sell clothes through their product catalog. Next year, postage costs will increase to 40 cents per catalog. Your client wants to know whether his current business model is still profitable.
In-flight Broadband
Our client is a startup that can deliver broadband internet aboard commercial flights.The company owns a patent on a necessary technology. They want to know whether their current business model is valid.
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zeb case: Quo vadis, customer?
The bank "His Earlship Charles", a domestic retail and private bank is in a difficult situation. Profits have been declining over the past years due to the ongoing low interest rates set by the central bank. Additionally, the bank is suffering from a decreasing number of customers. The board of directors is worried about digitalization and wondering, whether the bank is adequately prepared for it.Please analyze the situation of the client and develop means to sustainably increase profits. Consider the worries expressed by the board of directors.
Retail Banking Profitability
RetailBankingCo is a regional, US-based retail bank that is looking to increase its revenues. As a result, the client is considering introducing a commission-based incentive program for its sales force.RetailBankingCo wants to determine the conditions under which implementing the incentive program would be economically viable.
Digital Lab at LETA Bank (McK/BCG Digital)
Let’s assume our client is LETA Bank, a large Central European bank with around 3M customers and within the top five banks in the mid-sized European country where it is operating. In a recent benchmarking exercise led by the European banking group that owns the bank, LETA Bank appears to be underperforming relative to competitors in terms of its personal loan sales. Our objective is to support LETA Bank in identifying the root cause of its underperformance and to develop a strategy for addressing it. The bank recently hired a new CTO who is excited about working with us and whose hypothesis is that the bank is currently lagging behind in terms of its digital assets and products, which makes it fall short of customer expectations, thus leading to lower sales across its product groups and especially in its most popular lending product – the personal loans.
Fast Food Pricing
Our client is a global fast-food restaurant that offers a wide range of breakfast and rest of day products including burgers, salads, fries, and beverages, and offers combo bundles. Over the last ~5 years in the US, our client has seen a relatively flat guest count, but a decline in profitability. They have launched severallarge national advertising campaigns focused on highlighting their "value" products which have not turned around profits the way they had hoped. The head of the US business has asked us to help him understand why gross margin is decreasing, and specifically to take a look at his menu's pricing.Is there an issue with the menu pricing structure? If so, what would you recommend to restructure the pricing?What is the overall implications to volume and gross margin with a revised pricing structure?
Nearshoring - Opportunity study and Business case
Your client is an international Corporate & Investment Bank (CIB). It is France based and has already expanded to Poland (Warsaw), Asia and Americas. Your client now wants to look into the development of the existing hub in Warsaw and is contacting you to help him assess this option. How would you help him?
PE Portfolio Strategy
We are a private equity firm operating primarily in the automotive industry. We would like you to figure out whether we should increase our portfolio in the sensor market or not.We would like you to do a profit/margin growth potential analysis and tell us how we can add value to this company given the other companies in our portfolio.
Travel Destination
Your client is the government of a region in southern Spain. Situated in this region are the country’s main tourist locations, mostly beaches.The government is not satisfied with the revenues of the tourism sector. They have contacted our company to find a solution for this problem.
Bank envelope
Your client, Customlope, is the leader in the US secure envelope manufacturing industry. Banks buy these envelopes for operations such as money deposits and high value transactions.Next year, a new digital technology will reduce the overall number of units sold in the industry by 25%.In the short term, our client wants to maintain his current profit level without investing in the new technology.How can you help him?
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Bank growth strategy
A bank based in a developing country in Africa has hired us to find out how it can grow its local retail banking business unit.What aspects would you investigate? What would you recommend to our client?
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