Cases, also known as case studies, are business problems that a candidate is presented with during a case interview at a management consultancy. The challenge is to solve it under pressure and in a structured way.
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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?
Zero Carbon Mine (McKinsey 1st & 2nd round)
Client goalOur client is an international mining company Global Mining Corp (GMC) that focuses on copper mining and is interested in the possibility of producing and selling “green copper”, which is the same product as normal copper but with a certified zero carbon footprint for its entire life cycle until sale. The client engaged your team to help determine the prospects for achieving net zero for their Chilean and Australian copper mines in the next 10 years and decide whether they should pursue this path.Description of situationThe client operates open pit copper mines mostly in remote areas of Chile and Australia. In most cases, the copper ore is blasted with explosives and turned into rubble, which is then collected by heavy bulldozers in big piles, loaded by power shovels onto haul trucks, which transport the material over several kilometers to the processing site. Mobile equipment is diesel operated and very heavy, up to 400 tons for a fully loaded haul truck. During processing, a series of mechanical operations take place to break down the rubble further before chemical processes like acidic leaching are used to produce the final product: copper cathodes. This material is then transported by trucks and rail to the nearest port where it can be shipped to its final destination, depending on the customer.
Facilities in a restroom
A restaurant owner is currently setting up a new restaurant and making some basic decisions on how to fit it out. Today he’s deciding on facilities in restrooms for customers to dry their hands. He has 3 options: Paper towels, Roller towels, and Hot Air dryers. What should he consider in his decision-making process?
Practice Cases with Peers That Are Currently Looking for Interview Partners.
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.
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?
Caribbean Island – MBB Final Round
A wealthy client has recently bought an island in the Caribbean. She has engaged us to identify possible uses for her new island.
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?
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Case with a twist: Chinese Alloy Wheels – US Market Entry
Our client is an alloy wheels manufacturer based in China. The client is contemplating entering the US market. At this point of time, the client sells the wheels in the China market. In order to make the wheels for the US market, he will have to expand its production capacity. As a result, whether to enter the US or not is a high-stake decision. He has hired BCG to advise him on this issue.
Launching Caskets in North Africa - 1st Round BAIN case
Our client is Easywood, a furniture maker based in North Africa. Easywood serves the local market and sells mainly bedroom furniture. Last year, Easywood had a revenue of around $10m and a profitability of around 20%. Though Easywood is not concerned about the growth and profitability, they are worried about the cyclicity in the business. During the festival time, the business is good, however, at other times, the period is very lean.The CEO is considering entering into the market of caskets. He wants your opinion on whether entering the Casket market would be a good idea for Easywood.
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?
MBB Final Round Case – Non-Profit Museum Revenue Increase
Your client is ‘Muse 19’, a Museum in Paris with a large collection of 19th century artifacts, predominantly paintings and sculptures. The museum is run by a non-profit organization based in France. The museum is quite popular amongst students, artists and tourists. Last year the museum attracted almost 2 million visitors. Despite this, the museum’s revenue has been declining for the last three years. Surprisingly, other museums of similar nature have been doing much better than Muse 19. The museum director has approached you for advice.
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.
Grain Co-operative – Brand Launch
MeGrain is a co-operative of 5000 farmers in the central part of India. As a co-operative, the farmers came together to sell the grains to retailers and wholesalers. They are the 3rd largest grain sellers in India and sell 10million quintals of grains annually. They have operations in 4 regions in India, and head office in Mumbai. MeGrain mainly deals in 3 types of grains. Viz. Rice, Wheat, and Maze. The grains are collected from the farmers attached to the co-operative. The grains are sorted, packed, and stored at storage facilities spread across towns in the region. MeGrain sales team brings orders by visiting retailers and wholesalers across the country and abroad. The grains are dispatched directly from the storage facilities to the customers. Customers make the payment to the MeGrain co-operative, which then is forwarded to the bank accounts of the individual farmers.MeGrain management has observed that the FMCG market, including foodgrains, is changing rapidly in India. Mom and pop stores have given ways to supermarkets. Consumers are adopting branded products rapidly. Although there is no branded grain product yet, the management believes that there is a huge scope for a branded product in the grain market as well. Management is contemplating about launching a MeGrain branded grains in the Indian market. They have called you to advise them whether they should launch their own brand in the Indian market.
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?
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Consulting interviews are among the most competitive and difficult job interviews that exist. Interviewers use cases as an indicator to test whether you have what it takes to become a successful consultant. In order to pass, you need to ace the case interview part. And in order to ace the case interview part, you need to be well-prepared. Thus, practicing cases is one of the most important aspects of interview preparation in consulting. During different rounds of interviews you will have to solve cases again and again to prove your structured and analytical thinking as well as your communication skills.
You can practice cases on your own and go through them to get a first feeling for the structure. Afterwards, you should go into a real interview environment and practice cases with other members on the platform. You will find more than 50 mock-interview requests on the Meeting Board every day, which you can easily accept. If there is nothing suitable on the Meeting Board, you can also use the Candidate Listing. Here you can find active members on the platform and send them a direct meeting request. If you want to take your case practice to the next level, we recommend you to schedule coaching sessions with our coaches who have many years of experience in helping candidates receive their dream job offer.
In an interviewer-led case interview, the interviewer leads through the conversation. This means that the interviewer asks specific questions and also controls the time you have to analyze and answer different questions and therefore the depth of your analysis. In contrast, the candidate-led style (which is more common) is about you taking the initiative as a candidate. The initial problem is given to you by your interviewer. Afterwards, you have the freedom to structure the case according to your ideas and to ask questions proactively in order to find a solution to the problem.
Real cases in the PrepLounge Case Library are cases that were submitted by management consultancies and have been treated as such within the company. They were made available from the real interview process. In this way, you can gain deep insights into the requirements of the case interview with the respective top consultancies (e.g. Bain & Company, Roland Berger, Deloitte, Oliver Wyman). We have marked these cases with the corresponding company logo.
Expert cases were created by our PrepLounge coaches and either contain real problems that the experts have already dealt with in their lives as consultants or cases from actual consulting interviews they took part in. They offer you an optimal preparation through the different subjects, levels of difficulty and styles. And the best thing is: If you have questions about the cases, you can ask them directly to the authors.
Video case solutions are cases in which we provide you with a solution that includes a YouTube video. With this we want to help you to understand case solutions even better.
Every member has the possibility to rate a case and leave feedback on the case. This gives you the opportunity to call up a ranking and solve the cases that are particularly popular in the community. It also gives us the opportunity to continuously improve our cases in order to provide you with the best possible practice material.
Which cases are most interesting for you depends on your personal preference and your level of knowledge. If you are just starting with the case interview preparation, beginner cases are probably the most interesting ones for you. You also have the possibility to filter by different categories, such as personal fit, market analysis or brain teaser and many more, in order to address exactly the topics that are most relevant for your application.
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Invite other candidates for a meeting to crack the case interactively or solve it on your own. If you like to check your case approach just have a look at the given sample solution.
A Vast Selection of Management Consulting Cases
Our selection of case studies mirror the wide variety in real case interviews. Thus, you can solve challenging problems around market sizing, market-entry, pricing, or operations strategy. Moreover, all provided cases are marked with a level of difficulty and the respective case style. This will allow you to filter for interviewer-led (as used by McKinsey) and candidate-led cases. In addition, some of our corporate partners granted some great original cases that have been used in real interviews. Check them out to get some authentic insights about the real application process of top firms like Bain, Roland Berger, and many more. These cases are clearly indicated by the firm's logo.