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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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”.
Espresso, Whatelse?
Espresso Whatelse is an Italian company that produces coffee and espresso machines since 1908. It is the Italian market leader and has a strong presence overall in Europe. In 2019, Espresso Whatelse has increased its revenues but it has seen declining profit margin.Your client wants to understand the root causes of this 2019 trend and how to increase its profit margin again.
LightFast - Launching high-speed broadband in Indonesia
Your client is the CSO of LightFast, a Middle-Eastern telecoms and media player. They are a national incumbent player who expanded operations into South-East Asia and North Africa in late 2010s. Their operations in Indonesia include pay-TV and fibre-optic broadband. However, the broadband business has flat-lined since launch.LightFast is now looking to reset its Indonesian subsidiary and has asked you to advise them on whether they should re-launch or close operations.They would like you to advice on the size of the opportunity if they were to re-launch in Y1, estimate the expected payback period and then highlight key considerations to make a go/no-go decision.
Practice Cases with Peers That Are Currently Looking for Interview Partners.
Double trouble
Our client is RedBus, one of several operators of iconic double-decker public transport buses in London. Over the past three years RedBus have experienced declining profitability, as a result of reduced demand for buses due to growth in affordable taxi services, such as Uber.The client is looking to understand the root cause of the issue and discuss ways to improve profitability.
SuperMovil - Telco startup market expansion
Your client is the CEO of a Europe-based mobile Telco operator, SuperMovil. Their business model is very unique: they are a “virtual Telco”. They differ from traditional mobile operators (e.g. Vodafone, T-Mobile, Telefónica/O2, etc.) in that they do not own optic fiber, antennas and satellites, but instead partner with the cited traditional Telcos and rent capacity in order to offer their services. Hence, they differ from the classical Telco, since they don't make big CAPEX investments. Your client has expressed interest in expanding her company’s operations to a new country. Which are all the factors you would take into consideration to orchestrate this geographical expansion? *Note: The M&A department has shortlisted 10 countries as top candidates, but this info will be provided and worked on later on in the case.
BCG 1st Round Case – Water Flows [NEW]
Our client is a German-owned water provider company based in the southwest of the United States. As the biggest water provider in the region, they serve the majority of the southwest region.Profit growth has slowed down considerably in recent years, and the company is finding it difficult to continuously grow profits. Hence, the client would like you to develop a profit improvement strategy.
Bain Case Style - Growth offensive at ChemCorp [NEW]
Your client is the Performance Chemicals division (revenues of $500 million) of a Specialty Chemicals Company with total revenues of $14 billion. The CEO wants the company to become the fastest-growing specialty chemicals company and has therefore asked all the divisions to present growth strategies to him. Accordingly, the client would like us to help them develop their division’s growth strategy.
BCG Case Style - Online Groceries [NEW]
Our client is a supermarket chain that is considering whether they should enter the emerging online grocery delivery business where consumers order their groceries online and have them delivered to their homes. Currently, two competitors have entered the online market in the client's area in San Francisco. Both competitors are quickly gaining market share. Our client hired you to determine if they should enter the online market.
Sandwich Bags
ConsumerPackagingCo is a small, US-based consumer products packaging company that develops, produces, and sells plastic bags for storing sandwiches. The client currently owns one production line.Since demand for their plastic bags exceeds production capacity, ConsumerPackagingCo wants to determine how they can best utilize their current production capacity to maximize profits, and whether investing in a second production line would be economically viable.
Sprinker
Sprinker is a mid-sized, US-based publishing agency that develops, produces, and sells educational materials. It has come to their attention that some private schools are considering changing their first-grade textbooks, for which they would need a publishing agency.Sprinker is interested in participating in the closed tender and wants to determine whether this would be economically viable.
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Inverto Case: FashionForward’s Sourcing Shake-up
FashionForward is a mid-sized, private-label fashion retailer headquartered in Europe with €600 million in annual revenue. Its product portfolio includes fast-fashion collections for men and women, sold in 220 stores across six countries, and online.The company currently sources approximately 85% of its total production volume from Bangladesh, heavily relying on just three key suppliers for over 70% of that volume. Their procurement strategy is highly cost-driven, and supplier relationships are transactional. FashionForward has now asked Inverto to develop a new sourcing strategy.Over the last 18 months, FashionForward has faced increasing procurement challenges:A drop in demand for trend-sensitive fashion categoriesLong lead times (up to 40 days), limiting reactivity to seasonal trendsRepeated shipping delays and FX volatility from BangladesOverstocking in basics and stockouts of fashion-forward itemsESG non-compliance flagged in two factories during an auditGrowing pressure from the board to increase agility and reduce dependency on Bangladesh
Telekom Strategy Consulting Case: Fiber Optic Expansion
You recently joined Deutsche Telekom as a strategic project manager for the fiber optic expansion initiative. In this role, you act as an internal consultant, providing strategic guidance to ensure a successful fiber optic rollout in a mid-sized German city known for its vibrant tech industry. Your mission is to advise on delivering high-speed internet to residential and business areas, aligning the city's infrastructure with its rapid growth. This position allows you to influence the digital future of a growing tech hub and contribute to a project of national importance.The city you are overseeing has a population of 250,000 people with an average household size of 2.5. There are 50,000 businesses in the city. Deutsche Telekom aims to connect 90% of the households and businesses with fiber optic within the next 3 years, which also translates into your responsibility as a new project manager.
Inverto Case: VacuLuxe Innovations' Supply Chain Makeover
The client, VacuLuxe Innovations, is a manufacturer for vacuum pumps, e.g. rotary vane pumps, cryogenic pumps located in Germany. The company has grown from a start-up to a major corporation over the last 50 years. However, after benchmarking the economics of their business, the client discovered that their direct spend (i.e., COGS supplier spend) represented a higher percentage of their revenue than their closest competitors.The client's top management has engaged the SCM and procurement specialized consultancy Inverto to advise the company in this critical situation.An initial meeting with the CPO of VacuLuxe Innovations will be conducted tomorrow. VacuLuxe Innovations aims to discuss optimization potentials in the current collaboration with suppliers as well as levers to improve the supply chain resilience & carbon footprint. Unfortunately, VacuLuxe Innovations has only submitted the following high level data for their direct spend yet.
Inverto Case: Fast Dish Restaurant
Fast Dish, a publicly traded Quick Service Restaurant (Franchise) company with over €20 billion in revenue and more than 20.000 restaurants globally, has recently faced major challenges with regards to supply chain management and sustainability.The client's top management has engaged the SCM and procurement specialized consultancy Inverto to advise the company in this critical situation.
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.
Baby Clothing Market Entry
Our client is a consumer packaged goods company looking for top-line growth opportunities. They are considering extending its pre-existing baby products brand (e.g., Huggies) into a new product category – baby clothing.They are looking for this business to generate +$300M revenue per year, beginning in Year 1.Should our client enter the baby clothing market?
Overseas Market Growth - 1st Round BCG Type
The client is an Indonesian producer of paper boards which can be further processed into paper boxes, shopping bags, etc. They sell in both their domestic market i.e. Indonesia, and in the export market i.e. the US. Revenue last year was $5 billion, with 80% from Indonesia and 20% from the US. Overall they have been growing at 3% annually. The client wants to achieve a 5% growth rate in the next 1-2 years. With the resource constraint they have, they want to focus on one of the two markets. They want to know which market they should go after to achieve that increase in growth rate, and how.
Deep Water Rescue
Deep water is a European manufacturer of small yachts and premium boats for private customers. The company operates in Europe and the Middle East and is based in Northern European country, where its manufacturing site, as well as HQ, are located. Deep Water has a strong and recognizable brand as a manufacturer of luxury boats and (recently) also small yachts. Deep water has been experiencing significant financial difficulties related to its profitability during the several past years. Currently, Deep Water has about 200 M€ of sales p.a. The company wants to improve its profitability, maintaining at least the current level of sales.
Music Streaming - Market Sizing
Your friend is an aspiring artist and is asking for your consulting advise on a problem that he has been struggling with. Your friend (the artist) is trying to understand how many hours people listen to the number one music streaming platform (the one with the green logo) in total and on average per year. How would you approach this problem to help your friend answer his question?
Increasing net worth of Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp, now 56 years old, has started to feel that his acting career is about to get over. His net worth crossed over $650 million at the peak of his career but has since dwindled, amid lawsuits and lifestyle expenses. As such, he thinks that his current wealth might not be enough for his upcoming years. So, he’s hired you as a consultant to help him find ways to multiply his worth. What can you suggest?
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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.