Co2017 Isb Case Book

INDIAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS CONSULTING CASE BOOK Class of 2017

THE CONSULTING CLUB HYDERABAD | MOHALI

Contents From the President’s desk ..................................................................................................................3 Letter from the Vice President ............................................................................................................5 Acknowledgements............................................................................................................................8 MANAGEMENT CONSULTING INDUSTRY .............................................................................................9 KNOW YOUR COMPANY ................................................................................................................... 15 McKinsey & Company................................................................................................................... 16 Boston Consulting Group .............................................................................................................. 17 Bain and Company ....................................................................................................................... 18 A.T. Kearney ................................................................................................................................ 19 Accenture Strategy ....................................................................................................................... 20 The Parthenon Group ................................................................................................................... 21 Deloitte USI S&O .......................................................................................................................... 22 Ernst and Young – Performance Improvement .............................................................................. 23 KPMG .......................................................................................................................................... 24 Roland Berger .............................................................................................................................. 25 Dalberg Global Development Advisors .......................................................................................... 26 ZS Associates................................................................................................................................ 27 PREPARATION FOR DREAM JOB ....................................................................................................... 28 CV/COVER LETTER ............................................................................................................................ 33 Resume........................................................................................................................................ 34 Sample Resumes ................................................................................................................................. 39 Sample Cover Letters .......................................................................................................................... 40 PERSONAL INTERVIEW ..................................................................................................................... 42 CASE INTERVIEW APPROACH ............................................................................................................ 47 CASE FRAMEWORKS ........................................................................................................................ 53 PROFITABILITY FRAMEWORK ........................................................................................................ 54 MARKET ENTRY FRAMEWORK ...................................................................................................... 64 PE INVESTMENT FRAMEWORK ..................................................................................................... 69 VALUE CHAIN FRAMEWORK ......................................................................................................... 70 M&A FRAMEWORK ...................................................................................................................... 72 NEW PRODUCT LAUNCH FRAMEWORK ......................................................................................... 75 PRICING FRAMEWORK.................................................................................................................. 76 1

SALES FORCE EFFECTIVENESS FRAMEWORK .................................................................................. 78 OTHER TYPES OF CASES ................................................................................................................ 79 GUESSTIMATES ................................................................................................................................ 80 KNOW YOUR INDUSTRY ................................................................................................................... 86 Pharma (India) ............................................................................................................................. 87 Healthcare Industry ...................................................................................................................... 88 Telecom Industry ......................................................................................................................... 89 FMCG ........................................................................................................................................... 90 CASE EXPERIENCES ........................................................................................................................... 93 McKinsey & Company................................................................................................................... 94 Boston Consulting Group ............................................................................................................ 135 Bain & Company ........................................................................................................................ 144 A.T. Kearney .............................................................................................................................. 159 Accenture .................................................................................................................................. 164 The Parthenon Group ................................................................................................................. 179 Deloitte USI (S&O) ...................................................................................................................... 183 Ernst & Young – Performance Improvement ............................................................................... 191 KPMG India Pvt Ltd..................................................................................................................... 196 PwC India Pvt Ltd. ...................................................................................................................... 200 PwC DIAC ................................................................................................................................... 205 Roland Berger ............................................................................................................................ 208 Dalberg ...................................................................................................................................... 211 Mu Sigma ................................................................................................................................... 216 Cognizant interview tips ............................................................................................................. 219 PLAN B : WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? .................................................................................................... 223 What is a Plan B?........................................................................................................................ 224 Why is it important? ................................................................................................................... 224 How to interpret the testimonials? ............................................................................................. 224 APPENDIX ...................................................................................................................................... 231 Personal Interview Question Bank .............................................................................................. 231 Gallup Personal Interview questions ........................................................................................... 238 SOP for Standard Activities – Hyderabad campus ........................................................................ 239

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From the President’s desk Dear Consulting Enthusiasts, I take immense pleasure in sharing Co2017 case book with you and I hope this document acts as a good guiding document about the club and related activities. Broadly, consulting club aspires to help students do following: Provide clarity on the consulting as a career Prepare complete life cycle of the interview process Exposure through case competitions and networking Consulting is a myriad of opportunities. Providing clarity helps student understand various career options within consulting. Club organizes a number of events to increase awareness about types of consulting firms and understand nuances about roles they offer. We invite experienced consultants and partners to share their experience and address student’s queries. Lifecycle of an interview process can be overwhelming in ISB’s fast paced curriculum. Planning your prep by understanding relative importance of each phase helps to identify improvement areas and avoid issues such as information asymmetry. Club focuses on all the aspects starting from resume building to mock interviews. Club arranges workshops from the best in the industry and assigns a buddy for personalized coaching for the shortlisted students. This casebook intends to apprise you especially regarding the case preparation. Overall, preparation is a robust process and enables students to assess their profile and chances of success on the D-day. Consulting club organizes ‘Consilium’, a business strategy case competition, inviting students from other top B-schools and offering a platform to compete with the best. Competition is judged by a consortium including judges from the top consulting firms. Although, going forward, it is plausible to engage with a consulting firm and explore opportunities such as pre-placement offer. Also, club arranges networking events prior to 3

placements to learn about different interview experiences, lifestyle and career progression of these firms. Successful implementation of all the above mentioned activities requires support and participation from ISB students. Participation in huge numbers drives motivation of the overall campus and helps club assess student’s requirements. Lastly, I’d like to thank all my colleagues who contributed their case interview experience for this case book. I’d also like to thank the alumni involved in guiding us through our placement process as well as contribute ideas to the club activities. I request all of you leverage consulting club to the fullest and wish you all the very best for your dream jobs and career. Cheers, Kanishk Chaturvedi President, Consulting Club Class of 2017

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Letter from the Vice President Dear all, I hope you are enjoying the ISB experience and learning from the varied opportunities that ISB has to offer. Now that you have opened this case book, I am sure that your dream job is to get into a top notch consulting firm. As you would have stepped into ISB, our alums would have advised you to use your time wisely to get those grades and prepare yourself fully for the coveted consulting job. This case book is an attempt to help you thoroughly prepare for the consulting interviews. Before you dive into the case book, I would like to elaborate on how to best leverage this book for your preparation. Pre-preparation – many of you would have come from a non-consulting background. The Co17 has worked extremely hard to compile a section for you in the case book to help you understand how the industry is structured, who the top players are and what the typical career graph is like. I hope this benefits everyone in the class to be better prepared for personal interviews at consulting firms and also to understand which firm suits their pre-ISB experience the best. Resume and cover letter – the first time a consulting firm will ever get to know you are through your CV and/or cover letter. A well – structured resume can significantly increase your chances of getting that coveted shortlist. You will hear alums tell you that you need 20 – 30 iterations on your CV (sometimes maybe more) and they are right! I cannot stress more the importance of having a well – rounded CV. The section on ‘resume and cover letter’ details out how you need to work on your resume and cover letter with appropriate timelines on when you should begin and have a draft ready.

Personal interview – most consulting aspirants leave out this part thinking that majority of the weightage is given to case interviews. Well, consulting companies look for well-rounded personalities. Yes, critical thinking is an important aspect of a 5

candidate’s personality but a candidate is also judged on how hardworking he/she is, how well he/she can work in teams and how comfortable he/she is interacting with clients. All these qualities come out through the personal interview. We have compiled a list of questions in the appendix and also have pointers on how to prepare for the personal interview in the ‘preparation for the dream job’ section.

Buddy groups – it is extremely critical for you to know which of your classmates are interested in consulting so that you can form peer buddy groups with them. The good thing about ISB is its peer diversity and the fact there is so much to learn from every student at ISB. Therefore, find your friends and form buddy groups ASAP!

Case interviews – probably the most dreaded and the most difficult part of a consulting interview! Well, fear not. The consulting club is here to help. This part of the preparation should begin with understanding the case frameworks and practicing at least 4 – 5 cases with your buddy group every day. The intensity should definitely increase once you near your placements. Remember, frameworks are just a guiding tool. On the day of the interview, the interviewer would prefer if you can exhibit out of the box thinking while solving cases. The section on ‘case experiences’ will help you to understand how the Co17 tackled the cases during their interviews.

If not consulting, then what? – as much as we would like it to get our dream jobs in our post MBA careers, sometimes things may take a different turn and land us in a completely different field. That doesn’t mean that you are any less than the rest of the class. Many of the alums/batch mates actually end up making wonderful careers. Read on the section on ‘Plan B’ to understand what other options you can have apart from consulting. Don’t ever be disheartened if you don’t get into a consulting firm. Remember, whatever happens, happens for the best! Now that I am on the other side of the table, I would just like to reiterate not to get stressed with the amount of work that needs to be done for consulting interviews. You are all

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brilliant ISB students and will fare well. Be disciplined, start early and keep track of your progress. Lastly, I hope you enjoy your entire ISB journey. Remember, the school has a lot to offer and I hope you work on building on your soft skills, leadership abilities, and network with classmates and alums in order to learn from their experiences. It is not just a school that will help you get the dream job but a platform that will help you build your career. I am confident that you will graduate from ISB with flying colours. I wish you all the best with your preparation! Best wishes, Grishma Chowdhery Vice President, Consulting Club Class of 2017

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Acknowledgements It took almost over a month to compile the casebook and restructure the same. We have added new sections and restructured the format to enhance the preparation for the future batches. I am grateful to the following people for working on the case book for the year 2016-17: Ambuj Tiwari Ashish Khanna Asif Zafar Dhruv Goel Divya Garcha Gaurav Pansari Hridhay Rajkumar Kaushal Narayan Kunal Jain Mugdha Dhavalikar Pranav Prince Pranjal Deshmukh Premanand Hegde Sean Fernandes Sibin Varghese Tanuj Govil Varun Sugandhi Also, special thanks to our batch mates who patiently documented their interview experiences and shared the same with us. Without your support, this case book wouldn’t have been possible! Best wishes, Grishma Chowdhery Vice President, Consulting Club Class of 2017

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MANAGEMENT CONSULTING INDUSTRY

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“A management consultant is a man who knows 101 ways to make love but doesn’t know any women.” Now that we have your attention, we hope to, in the next 15 minutes, give you an overview of the industry you wish to join. This article is divided into 3 sections. We begin by describing what consulting is via ‘Consulting 101’. Next, we take a shot at classifying different types of consulting firms. Finally, we leave you with a list of the major consulting firms (most of which hire from ISB) along with links to additional resources so that you can dig deeper at your leisure. Part 1: Consulting 101 Consultants are problem-solvers for hire: businesses and government bring them on board when they have a problem that’s too complicated or the resources needed would be too great for internal staff to resolve. Let’s zoom out. The consulting industry is part of the much bigger ‘Professional Services’ industry. Management consultancy, investment banks and big law firms are considered the Holy Trinity of white-collar careers and, that’s probably why this job tickled your fancy.

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Let’s zoom in now, shall we? At the heart of the industry stand 5 main segments–Strategy Consulting, Operations Consulting, HR Consulting, Financial Advisory and Technology Consulting. While there are many types of consulting firms, we will focus on the management consulting firms (firms that offer strategy, operations and human resources consulting).

Part 2: Types of Consulting firms Hold on, what’ the difference between management consulting and strategy consulting you ask? The two terms are often blurred together, because ‘strategy’ seems to get MBA students, such as you, to perk up their ears. A firm that calls itself a ‘management consulting’ firm on its website, will probably tell us that they are a ‘strategy’ firm in their PPT (Pre-Placement Talk). However, let’s answer a basic question first: What the heck is strategy? This is how Bain & Company describes it: Imagine you are a CEO. You are beginning to lose market share on your key product. Marketing urges you to increase advertising and reduce prices. R&D has high hopes on a new product and wants more money. Finance is worried about your debt level. Human Resources does not find enough qualified people to support your development. And you have just been offered to buy (at a good price, of course) one of your competitors. What do you do? First, you'll have to make choices. Then, you'll have to ensure that these choices will give you the proverbial competitive advantage. Maybe you need to trim costs. Maybe you need to spend more to innovate. Maybe you need to expand to exploit economies of scale. But whatever you do, you must do it better than the competition.

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That is business strategy. Strategy consulting is done at a very high level in the organization, typically that of the Board and the CEO. These are the ones making the choices. Below, the organization focuses on implementing the decisions (sometimes assisted by OTHER consultants). These ‘other consultants’ are the ‘non-strategy’ consultants providing Operations Consulting, HR Consulting, Financial Advisory & Technology Consulting. A partner at a strategy consultancy claims “OTHER consultants sit at the front of the classroom. Strategy consultants stay in the back, not paying attention, throwing paper airplanes. But they still get the girls and get rich.” Ouch. But it does contain a grain of truth. These OTHER consultants—the fine-detail guys who tinker with businesses’ internal processes to make them run better—generally do not enjoy the same glamour or financial rewards as strategy specialists, whose job is to advise firms on make-or-break deals, adopting new business models and other big stuff. However, the important point to remember is that though there is a difference in initial (joining) salary between strategy and non-strategy (other) consultants, in the long run the best of both get similar compensations. Strategy firms like McKinsey, Bain and the Boston Consulting Group (also known by ‘MBB’) are packed with highly paid partners and whisper their counsel in CEOs’ ears. In contrast, non-strategy consulting firms such as Accenture and the Big Four accounting firms (Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC) employ armies of specialists; and tend to answer to the client firm’s finance or tech chiefs. However, that line has begun to blur as Big 4 + Accenture have all either acquired or have started their own strategy practices. Their push into strategy has been a decade in the making - they foresee the two sides of consulting converging as more clients want a onestop shop that can both devise a strategy and execute it. That foresight is backed by data which proves that at traditional strategy-consulting firms (MBB), the share of work that is classic strategy is now about 20% - down from 60% to 70% some 30 years ago.

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Part 3: List of firms and links to additional resources The following is an attempt at classifying some of the best-known consulting firms. Group#1 (Crème de la crème):

Group#2* (focused on strategy):

Group#3 (do all kinds of consulting, including strategy, but do not have a sharp focus on strategy):

*Several of the Group#2 companies have their roots in a specific domain/function and are a force to reckon with (i.e. they are better than MBB in that domain/function). Parthenon Education Strategy, A.T.Kearney - Operations Strategy, Accenture - Technology Strategy, Roland Berger - Manufacturing Strategy.

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For the curious cats among you, here’s some more information on consulting: Want to know how to customize your cover letter for each firm? You’ll want to find out what each firm is looking for in the MBAs they hire. Get that information at Poets & Quants’ MBA Career Guide. http://poetsandquants.com/mba-career-guide/ Wondering about the future of the consulting industry? Find our more in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) article - Consulting on the Cusp of Disruption by Clayton Christensen et al. https://hbr.org/2013/10/consulting-on-the-cusp-ofdisruption Curious about the history of management consulting? The ‘Consulting Industry Overview’ on STREETOFWALLS is an excellent resource. http://www.streetofwalls.com/finance-training-courses/consulting-interviewtraining/consulting-industry-overview/ If you want to dig deeper still, the following additional resources are a good starting point: a) CaseInterview.com: What is Management Consulting - Victor Cheng (http://www.caseinterview.com/management-consulting) b) MBA Crystal Ball: How the consulting recruitment cycle works on campus at ISB Kanav Sharma (http://www.mbacrystalball.com/blog/2016/05/18/consultingrecruitment-cycle-isb/) c) Vault (http://www.vault.com/industries-professions/industries/consulting.aspx) Note: Several infographics, paragraphs and sentences in this article, have been quoted from Consultancy.uk, The Economist, OpenBusinessCouncil.org & Getajobinconsulting.com

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KNOW YOUR COMPANY

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Overview

McKinsey & Company About – McKinsey and Co. is a global management consulting firm and also forms a part of the elite big-three ‘MBB’ consulting firms. Types of consulting services offered – Management Acquisitions of other consulting companies (last two years) o Quantum Black (data analytics firm) o Lunar (design consulting firm) o 4tree (German big data solutions company) Strategy vs implementation? – Primarily strategy but increasingly moving towards implementation as well Non-hierarchical, strictly merit-based firm with a fantastic training and review process

Typical career

Junior Associate

path

Manager

Quick facts

Established - 1926

Associate

Associate Partner

Consultant

Engagement

Partner

Number of employees (worldwide) – 10,000+ Number of practice areas with few egs. – General Practice, Industrial Operations, McKinsey Digital Number of offices and countries present in – 110+ global offices across 60+ countries Global MD – Dominic Barton; India MD – Gautam Kumra Interview

Pre shortlist – Resume (the standard ISB format), no cover letter

process

required [ the most crucial stage] Round 1 – Personal + Case interview Round 2 – Personal + Case interview, post which a shortlist for round 3 is released Round 3 – Mostly personal interview with a short case N.B – In some cases an offer can be made even without having a round 3 interview. Basically, you need to receive a green signal from two partners.

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Overview

Boston Consulting Group About –One of the Big Three consulting firms globally, with 3 offices in India (Mumbai, Gurgaon, Chennai). Features regularly in top consulting and top workplaces lists Types of consulting services offered - BCG offers strategy consulting for corporates, public sector and social sectors Strategy vs implementation? – BCG’s major projects are in sync with industry demands and most projects are end to end provision of consulting services, i.e. it includes implementation of solutions. The firm believes in a bottom- up approach to solving problems. Lookup BCG Henderson Institute for details on research in BCG.

Typical career

Senior Associate (Typical hiring position from ISB) > Consultant>

path

Project Leader> Principal> Partner

Quick facts

Established - 1963 Number of employees (worldwide) - ~12,000 Number of practice areas with few egs - Diversified Number of offices and countries present in – 88 in 48 countries

Interview

Pre shortlist – PPT -> Resume Shortlist -> Buddy Program ->

process

Dinner/ Lunch -> Interviews Round 1 – Interview with a team lead, lasting 45 min. Round 2 – Interview with another Project lead. Case was one that he was working on presently Informed about selection for next round within 5 min post interview Round 3 – Interview with Project Lead. Live case discussion and conversations around different projects the PL was working on. Round 4 – Interview with Partner lasting about an hour. Case he had recently completed. Additional info: All the interviews were conversational – no pressure situations Confidence in the interviews is must

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Bain and Company Overview

About - Bain & Company is an American global management consulting firm headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It provides advisory services to businesses, nonprofit organizations, and governments, and is one of the Big Three strategy consulting firms (MBB). Types of consulting services offered - Strategy Strategy vs implementation? - Strategy Great work culture, strong peer group, amazing exit opportunities

Typical career

Associate Consultant -> Senior Associate Consultant -> Consultant -

path

> Case Team Leader -> Manager -> Principal -> Partner

Quick facts

Established - 1973 Number of employees (worldwide) - ~6,000 Number of practice areas with few egs - Private Equity, IT, CPG, Corporate Finance etc. Number of offices and countries present in - 50+ offices in ~34 countries

Interview

Pre shortlist – CV

process

Round 1 – Case interview with a manager, minimal PI (hardly 5 minutes) Round 2 – Case interview with a manager, minimal PI (hardly 5 minutes) Round 3 – You may or may not have an additional case interview with another manager. Same format as the above rounds. Round 4 – Case interview with Partner. Limited PI, focusing broadly on work experience and why consulting.

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Overview

A.T. Kearney About – A.T. Kearney Types of consulting services offered – Strategy, Procurement and Analytics Strategy vs implementation? – Both The firm has two practices: General Practice (GP) and Procurement & Analytic Solutions (PAS). GP recruitment is for the India team and these recruits are usually staffed on engagements within India. PAS recruits are a part of the Global Staffing and majorly work on International engagements.

Typical career

Analyst, Senior Analyst, Associate, Manager, Senior Manager,

path

Director, Vice President, Partner

Quick facts

Established - 1926 Number of employees (worldwide) - 3600 Number of practice areas with few egs – GP & PAS Number of offices and countries present in – Offices in more than 40 countries

Interview

Pre shortlist – Resume

process

Round 1 – Case Interview & PI Round 2 - Case Interview & PI Round 3 – Case Interview & PI

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Overview

Accenture Strategy Accenture Strategy operates at the intersection of business and technology. Vault ranks it as the 5th best strategy consulting firm. Consulting services offered - Strategy/Operations/Technology/HR Acquisitions - SBC, Kurt Salmon, 2nd Road, Javelin Group, Seabury Group, Axia Limited (6 acquisitions in past 2 years). Accenture Strategy is primarily focused on strategy. Other Accenture divisions focus on implementation. Industry specializations - 15 different focused industries, including media, energy, life sciences, banking, health, public service etc. Insights – Prioritizes hiring women (40%+ consultants are women). Futuristic (looks for entrepreneurial disruptor mindset in new hires). Hires for 2 divisions IB (India Business) and CN (Capability Network). IB serves Indian clients while CN serves global clients. Globally ranked # 1 consulting firm for IT, # 3 for Ops. and Energy

Typical career

Analyst -> Consultant (Associate) -> Manager (Engagement

path

Manager) -> Senior Manager (Principal) -> Managing Director (Partner)

Quick facts

Established -1951 (formerly known as Anderson Consulting) Number of employees at Accenture Strategy - 9,000 (worldwide) Accenture (ACN) is the world’s largest stand-alone consulting firm with ~ 400,000 employees in 200 offices across 120 countries

Interview

Shortlist - Resume based screening. Unlike other major consulting

process

firms, they do not filter based on GPA. Work exp. is key criteria. Round 1 - Case interview with some behavioral questions Round 2 - Case interview (intense). Given a live case (Interviewer was working on it). Look for practically implementable solutions. Round 3 - Partner round. He already has feedback from the previous interviews. Casual chat to evaluate for cultural fit.

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Overview

The Parthenon Group Founded in 1991 by 2 Bain consultants – John Rutherford and William Achtmeyer Focuses on strategic consulting primarily Look to hire ‘smart’, ‘nice’, ‘driven’ individuals Works in multiple sectors such as consumer, education, financial services, healthcare, life sciences, oil and gas, private equity etc Global leaders in education consulting

Typical career

Associate > Senior Associate > Principal (Hired from ISB) > Senior

path

Principal (Vice President) > Partner (Managing Director)

Quick facts

EY advisory purchased ‘The Parthenon Group’ in June 2014 Number of countries present in – 22 countries Number of employees (worldwide) – 600+ Company hires for their Mumbai office from ISB

Interview

Pre shortlist – PPT -> Resume Shortlist -> Buddy Program ->

process

Dinner/ Lunch -> Interviews Round 1/2/3 – Interview – could be personal interview or case based Round 3/4 – Partner Round – A case presentation to partner for 45 mins. Case to be provided 30 mins prior to interview Additional info: People from firm judge you on how well you will be able to fit in the company fabric Cases can vary from guestimates to Private Equity or Mergers Company practices double staffing i.e. employing a consultant on 2 projects in parallel, hence do pursue the interviews only if you are willing to give all your time to work Confidence in the interviews is must

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Deloitte USI S&O Overview

About - Deloitte is one of the "Big Four" accounting firms and the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of professionals. Types of consulting services offered - Strategy Acquisitions of other consulting companies - Monitor Deloitte, exists as a separate entity Strategy vs implementation? - Strategy Notable developments in the past 2 years - Joint Venture between USI and other member firms Amazing work culture, great mobility options

Typical career

Consultant - > Senior Consultant -> Manager -> Senior Manager ->

path

Director

Quick facts

Established - 1845 Number of employees (worldwide) - 244,400 Number of practice areas with few egs - Strategy & Operations, Technology, Strategy & Architecture, Human Consulting, Technology Consulting

Interview

Pre shortlist – Only CV required

process

Round 1 – 30 mins PI and guesstimate with a manager Round 2 – 45 – 60 mins case round with a panel Round 3 – 30 mins PI with a partner and a manager

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Overview

Ernst and Young – Performance Improvement About – EY is one of the big four accounting firms. Its Performance Improvement service (under its advisory division) helps clients solve their management and operational challenges Types of consulting services offered – strategy, supply chain, finance, customer and people and organization Strategy vs implementation – high focus on implementation with some strategy projects Industry – TMT, Industrials, Infrastructure and Consumer Goods, Financial Services, Government Advisory Lots of opportunities available within the firm to grow quickly and ample travel opportunities within India

Typical career

Analyst

path

Associate Consultant Consultant Senior Consultant Manager Senior Manager Director Executive Director Partner

Quick facts

Established - 1989 Number of employees (worldwide) – approx. 200,000 including audit, tax and advisory Number of offices and countries present in – 700 offices in 150 countries

Interview

Pre shortlist – CV

process

Round 1 – 30- 45 mins case round with a manager Round 2 – 30 – 45 mins PI with a partner. May include a case too Round 3 – 30 mins PI with the HR manager

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Overview

KPMG About - A professional services company and one of the Big Four auditors, along with Deloitte, EY and PwC. Types of consulting services offered – KPMG offers operations, strategy, and management consulting services under its Advisory wing. Strategy vs implementation? – In keeping with industry requirements, most of KPMG’s projects are an end-to-end provision of consulting services i.e.: it includes strategy and implementation. The firm prefers developing industry-level expertise among its consultants, rather than taking the generalist approach.

Typical career

Analyst/ Associate Consultant

path

Consultant (Typical hiring position for ISB) Senior Consultant Manager Senior Manager Partner/ Associate Partner

Quick facts

Established - 1987 Number of employees (worldwide) – 189,000 Number of practice areas with few egs – Audit, Tax and Advisory (with Consulting coming under the wing of Advisory services). Number of offices and countries present in – 152 countries, multiple offices in each country.

Interview

Pre shortlist – PPT -> Resume Shortlist

process

Round 1 – Group Discussion lasting ~20 minutes Round 2 – Personal Interview with a Partner and a Manager, lasting ~1 hour

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Overview

Roland Berger Global Strategy Consulting firm based in Munich Strategy , Management & Ops Consulting Acquired FMC Consultants Project continuity till strategy implementation Expanding globally especially in India A lot of new projects that the company is working on

Quick facts

Established - 1967 Number of employees (worldwide) - 2400 Number of offices and countries present in - 50 in 36 countries

Interview

Pre shortlist – CV required along with optional cover letter

process

Round 1 – Interaction round where they ask questions to understand you better + case. After successfully finishing the case , the interviewer opened the floor to ask any questions the candidate had regarding the firm or the role Round 2 – Some of the interviewees had an intermediate round which was along similar lines as detailed in the Round 1 description Round 3 – This round was with the partner. It was mainly conversational. It started off with personal questions and some current affairs discussion. May include a case. The candidate was asked to ask any questions he/she might have.

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Overview

Dalberg Global Development Advisors About - consulting for the development space. Typical clients include Governments, NGOs, impact funds, private companies looking to work in the development space. Types of consulting services offered - mostly strategy Strategy vs implementation: mix of both. But more strategy than implementation. You need to be ready to work in this space for some time before getting into it. Typical aspirational exit opportunities include central agencies like World Bank.

Typical career

The rough path is: Consultant, Senior consultant, project manager,

path

senior project manager, Partner

Quick facts

Established - 2001 Number of employees (worldwide) - 200 Number of offices and countries present in - 15

Interview

CV shortlist

process

10 minute Skype interview testing reading comprehension, basic quant and the motivation to join Dalberg. Round 1 – typical case interview in the development space with a consultant Round 2 - typical case interview in the development space with a project manager Round 3 – Case interview with Partner Round 4 - Case interview with Partner

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Overview

ZS Associates About - ZS Associates is a global management consulting firm specializing in using data driven strategies to provide sales and marketing solutions. Types of consulting services offered - ZS services include consulting, outsourcing, technology, and software Strategy vs implementation – Mostly implementation with a bit of strategy Industry specializations - Pharmaceuticals Notable developments in the past 2 years – The company has been growing at an accelerated rate with a total strength close to 4K in India itself The firm believes in partnering with the clients and helping them solve their problems in a collaborative fashion

Typical career

Consultant

path

Manager Associate Principal Principal

Quick facts

Established - 1983 Number of employees (worldwide) - 5000 Number of practice areas with few egs - Sales and Marketing Consulting; Outsourcing; Technology Number of offices and countries present in – 22 offices across the globe

Interview

Pre shortlist – PPT

process

Round 1 – Behavioral interview - 45 minutes

CV with cover letter

Round 2 – Case interview - 45 minutes Round 3 – Partner round – 30 minutes

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Resume shortlist

PREPARATION FOR DREAM JOB

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This section summarizes what you need to do to prepare for the dream consulting job. The information is collated from the experience of the Co17 batch as well as those of our alums. What do you need to prepare? Resume Personal Interview Course material knowledge Case interview, including guesstimates Company specific knowledge Timelines • Resume – First cut: Beginning of term 3, Finalize: End of 4th term • Personal Interview- 5th term onwards • Case interview- 5th term onwards • Company specific knowledge- Few Weeks before interview Resume Get started with building your resume ASAP. This is not a small task and can easily take over 4 to 7 days and much iteration. Go through the resume section of this book. Also compare your resume with that of people who were selected last time. You don’t have to create a final copy now, but write everything down and identify what is missing. Are you coming out as a balanced personality with some kind of focus or peak in life? If there are holes in your resume fill those in next couple of months. E.g. what extracurricular activities you have done lately? Have you demonstrated leadership anywhere? Revisit your resume at the end of fourth term, get it reviewed by your friends, alums make sure there are no holes. Again compare your resume with that of people who were selected last time. Course material knowledge Focus on studies for the first four terms. Get as much knowledge as possible, get grades as well. After fourth/ fifth term (our placements took place in the beginning of term 6 in Nov) you don’t need to worry too much about the grades, but focus on interview preparation. Focus on selective subjects in electives. Revise following subjects before you go to 29

interview: Marketing Frameworks Competitive strategy frameworks Micro economics Macro economics Operations management/strategy Accounting Make sure you review the following core term lecture slides (they are packed with interesting frameworks) – Marketing Management (Term 1), Managerial Economics (Term 1), Competitive Strategy (Term 2), Marketing Decision Making (Term 2), Global Economics (Term 2), Management Accounting in Decision Making (Term 3), Corporate Finance (Term 3), Operations Management (Term 3), Management of Organizations (Term 4). The following elective courses could also be useful – Business Valuations using Financial Statement, Strategic Performance Management, Corporate Control, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Consumer Behavior. Personal interview preparation Starting 5th term make groups with other people interested in consulting and start preparing for interviews. Limit the group size to max 4. Know your resume in and out. Don’t think that you have made your resume and thus you know it all. The interviewer can ask questions on even a single word that you have written. There is a huge list of personal questions, take that and see if you can answer those questions. If possible write down your answers. Do mock interview sessions in your interview preparation groups. Case interview preparation Loads of cases are available in ISB consulting books over the years. Focus should be first on completing ISB books and then moving on to other. Do mock case interview in your interview preparation group + Solve cases on your own + live cases once shortlist is out. Try to identify case categories and create a mental map of how you would approach a particular type of case.

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Also, maintain a notebook where you write down case tips, PI tips, structures and any notes that you might pick up during your practice sessions, alumni sessions etc. It is easy to review a single notebook that pour over case notes, lecture notes etc. The notebook will also prove to be very valuable on D-Day. Company specific knowledge A few weeks before the interview, go through the website of the company that is interviewing you, understand their offerings, their revenue figures, how they are growing, what are their problem areas and any recent press coverage. You can also talk to alums that are in the company to know company specific culture. If some info is possible on the interviewers ten that also is helpful. D-Day – What to expect! Day 1 can be arduous, especially for those with multiple shortlists. It is an emotional roller coaster. Hence, you should preserve your mental and physical stamina on that day. You need to be as fresh at 9pm as you were at 9am. You could be giving anything from 2 interviews to 15-16 interviews on that day. During the last 15 days, try doing couple of marathon case sessions (including PI) with different people on same day. On the day before, make sure you get lots of sleep. Relax and take it easy. Everyone has their own way of doing this. If it makes you feel better, run through your notes, but avoid doing cases. CAS plans your interview schedule to avoid conflicts. Review this the day before. Physical Stamina -

Keep a stock of chocolates, water etc. Keep your energy levels up.

-

Have someone close to you (family/friend) accompanying you. It helps take your mind of distractions.

-

The day actually zips through before you know it. There might be times during the day when you feel exhausted. Sit down and relax.

-

Be alert! There will be lots of phone calls from firms confirming you for the next round, re-scheduling interview etc.

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Mental Stamina -

Take it 1 case at a time. Don‘t worry about what happened in the preceding interviews. Always remember that there is no gain in crying over spilt milk.

-

Hopefully, by now, you would have had a lot of practice. That really makes a man perfect and case cracking would become second nature to you. Be natural.

-

CAS plans your interview schedule to avoid conflicts. Review this the day before. Deal with clashes by calling up the volunteers and seeking re-scheduling.

The Interview -

Enjoy it!

-

Connect with the interviewer during the PI. Almost all firms share the profile of their interviewers in advance.

-

You will have the opportunity to ask the interviewer questions. Use this well. Prepare your questions in advance.

-

If you have multiple shortlists, have an internal pecking order ready. It will help as you come down to the final rounds and are still interviewing with multiple firms.

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CV/COVER LETTER

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Resume Introduction Resume is that one piece of paper that will actually get you the shortlists that you want, specially consulting. Therefore, it is extremely critical to have a well-made resume failing which a lot of people start missing the shortlists of their dream companies. Resume making marks the start of the placement preparation at ISB. A good resume is a tool which effectively communicates your story and differentiates you from other candidates. It is ‘not’ a laundry list of achievements you might have had in your life. It should highlight the so called “spikes” that you have as a person, be it in professional, academic or any extracurricular phases of your life. You should be able to highlight your key skill sets and achievements required for a successful management consulting. One should start working on their resumes a bit early (in early August). This is because companies like McKinsey, come for resume review sessions in early September and if you have a draft ready, and you can benefit a lot from that. Primary sources needed for making a good resume are KM Portal, alum reviews. A good resume may take anywhere from 20 to 40 iterations so be prepared to get it reviewed by as many alums and friends as possible. Expectations of top consulting firms from a good resume Each consulting firm on campus has its own subjective/objective criteria of short listing of resume. It completely depends on how you can highlight the relevant skill-sets better than others and convince the firm that you have the ‘spike’ in your resume. Typical characteristics that firms look for in a candidate are: 1. Analytical skills 2. Problem solving 3. Communication 4. Leadership 5. Client/Senior Leadership management 6. Business/Commercial knowledge

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7. People Skills 8. Creativity 9. Quality of work experience 10. Non-Academic initiatives What is a ‘spike’ in your resume? Typically, lot of big consulting firms look for 2 spikes from the 3 sections of your resume (Academics, Extracurricular Activities and Work Experience). You will hear this word very frequently and wonder what exactly it means to have a spike in your resume. However, there is no fixed rule or set guidelines which companies use to consider any achievement in your resume as spike or not as the boundaries of spike are very vague. Here are a few examples that can give you some clarity Spike in academics: If you are among the top 10% of the ISB class, consistently very good performance in academics since under-graduation, any Olympiads or competitions that you may have won, or Extraordinary GMAT score etc. Spike in work experience: Brand value of your previous organization such as ITC, McKinsey etc., Role and responsibility handled in your previous job,

any significant value addition to the

organization, some very good projects that you might have done in your previous work place, your rating as a profession at your work place Spike in extracurricular: Any significant position of responsibility (in ISB or outside), Extra-ordinary achievement in sports/cultural events, passion that you pursue with full dedication such as dance, adventure, and theatre can be used here. It is noteworthy not to write something very inconsequential. Remember what you write as an achievement is reflective to the company of what you think is an achievement? (THINK RELEVANT) 35

DISCLAIMER: This illustration by no means implies that if you don’t have these things on your resume, your chances of getting shortlist are by any means less. These are factors in resume which enhance your chances of getting a shortlist from a consulting firm. STEP 1: Making the first draft The best way to start making the resume is to list down all the achievements you have done till now. After that the next step is to go through the KM Portal and download all the resumes of the alums that have been recruited by your dream companies. After that skim through each of the resumes and find the ones that match a bit with your profile. This step is primarily important because, it makes it a lot easier for you to present the information/achievements that you have in the correct way on your resume. Once this activity is done, start prioritizing your achievements. Make sure you try and give equal weight age to all the sections of your resume – academics, work experience and extracurricular while selecting your achievements for the resume. However, not everyone has all the 3 sections as strong. Therefore, it is advised to focus more on the sections that can be your potential spikes, but at the same time the weaker section should not be ignored completely. The weaker section becomes your hygiene section where you should at least have certain things that you have achieved which may not be significant. SEAL also holds a resume making workshop which details out the template used by ISB and list of catch keywords that can be used on the resume to capture the attention of the recruiter. You have only one page to convince the recruiter that you are the best fit. Therefore, use every line of your resume wisely. Make sure that your achievements are recent but more importantly give an underlining story about you as a person. A good framework to draft your bullet points in an effective and impactful manner is context-action impact. For a good bullet point, make sure all these elements are mentioned. Impact if quantified through numbers or comparison with known references leaves a better impression than a qualitative one. For e.g. “Youngest to get promoted in 2 years” is good but “Youngest to get promoted in 2 years against an average of 4 years” makes it even more impactful. Another example can be related to any impact that you

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might have created by getting business to the firm, or any saving that you might have achieved for the team which you can quantify. Note: Some of the tips when you are working on each line separately in your resume. 1. Don’t bold too many things, just what you think are the important ones. Another rule is that try to bold things which if only read without the not bold ones , it should still make sense 2. Make sure that no statement that you write is vague, it should give some relevance and impact that it has created 3. If you have done a lot of things in one section, for eg. Dance in Extracurricular activities that you can create the sub-section separately and highlight all the achievements Check and double check any spelling mistakes. Take sample printouts to check for the margins. 4. If possible, stick to the ISB format. Don’t try to be extravagantly different in format. 5. Get constant feedback from family/friends/alums on your resume. 6. Use informational interviews rather than company presentations and websites to find out what is really different about each firm, and why you would be a good fit. Think carefully about which of the three typical CV formats (Chronological, SkillBased or Hybrid) you should use – there is no one “right answer” for everyone. STEP 2: Quick Tests to check your CV’s effectiveness So what Test For every bullet point you write, you should ask yourself “so what if I did ___”. For e.g. if I have led a team of 5 people on xyz assignment resulting in 10% cost saving. Now you should ask yourself “so what if I have done this”. Is this a strong enough differentiator for it to come on my CV? Does it suggest a strong skill required for consulting which gets communicated through this point and appears nowhere else on my resume? Is it something which sets me apart from the rest or makes for an interesting read for the reader? If answer to any of the questions above is yes, then keep the point or else discard it.

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Half Page test Once the first draft of your resume is done, take a printout and fold it into half along the longer side such that only the first half of every bullet point is visible. See whether the first half of every bullet point gives the reader an idea of the content of the bullet point. If yes, the bullet point is correctly framed or else you have to reframe the point in such a way that the first 4-5 words describe the point. This rationale behind the test is as humans, we tend to focus more on the initial part of sentence while scanning. Details in the middle part or the latter part of the sentence tend to get missed out when we are hurrying through things. Try to put quantitative numbers that you want to highlight in your resume in the left side, i.e. in the first half of each statement. 30 second Test This should be done when you have almost reached your final version of resume. Give your resume to one of your friends who haven’t seen your resume before for exactly thirty seconds. Take back your resume after 30 seconds and ask him/her what he/she remembers about your resume and looking at the page, what he/she can make of you as an individual in one line. This test gives a check of whether the storyline you want to communicate through your resume is actually getting communicated to a third person. If not, you need to focus more on the points which reflect your skills sets and leave an impression on the reviewer. STEP 3: Making the final draft After you are done with whatever you can do best at your end, it is now the time to show your resume to as many people as you can. These people will be mostly your alums, or who you think might give you a critical feedback. Make sure that you also show your resume to people who don’t know you at all to get an unbiased feedback, because in reality this will be the case most likely. Ask them whether your resume communicates the messages you want it to convey or is it just another laundry list of bullets. Reach out to alums and seek their advice on how your resume can be improved. This process is very iterative and takes most of the time in resume building.

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Some precautionary Don’ts 1. Mention anything fake or something you would not be able to pull off in the interview. 2. Inflate numbers or your responsibility/work area. Interviewers have been short listing resume every year and can differentiate actual from inflated. Time Line (Tentative) Term 3: The ideal time to start with your resume first draft is somewhere near mid-term 3. Take at least a week to figure out your story i.e. how would you like to put forth your candidature. Have a look at various resume of previous years on KM Portal. Also, get acquainted with ISB resume format by end of term 3. Term 4: First week of term 4 or the term break, you should start the iterative process of refining your resume. Contact alums/consulting club members/family/friends and start taking their opinions about the resume. Term 5: Towards the start of term 5, make sure you have a semi-finished draft in your hand. There will be a lot of resume review workshops conducted by CAS/ professional clubs/ consulting firms. Make sure that you take full leverage of these workshops to fine tune the shortcomings in your resume. Sample Resumes Look at few resumes below from previous years’ batches to get an idea of an ideal consulting

resumes.

Also

do

go

through

resumes

(http://172.16.0.171/CAS-KMP/Account/Studentpanel.aspx)

Sample 1.pdf

Sample 2.pdf

Sample 3.pdf

39

available

in

KM

Portal

Cover Letter It is your expression of interest for the job posting and is very important for some firms like Parthenon etc. This piece can be make or break case for short listing. Few points to note while writing expression of interest are: 1. Give a personalized reason in your cover letter for why you are the best candidate for the job. Be sure to make a bridge between what you have done, where you want to work and how the particular job posting help you to achieve your career goal. 2. You need to exhibit some knowledge about the firm and demonstrate a fit between the company and yourself. Previous years’ EOI on KM Portal, alums working in the firm and company’s website might come in handy for gathering information about the company. 3. Address the EOI to the right person and the firm. 4. Do not copy letters or pieces of letters from sample sources. Recruiters do recognize them easily. 5. Do not exceed 1 page for the cover letter. 6. Do not use any fluffy or generic statements about yourself or your experiences (e.g. excellent interpersonal skills, team player) unless you back them up with tangible examples. 7. Do not use generic statements about the company you are applying to (e.g. leading firm, excellent reputation, blue-chip Company etc.). For one, this also applies to most of their competitors. For another, this shows that you have not done your homework to identify why you really want to join the company. 8. Get your cover letter reviewed by at least two other people to check for spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and ease of reading

Sample Cover Letters Here’s one sample cover letter along with resume. For many more, please go through KM Portal. (http://172.16.0.171/CAS-KMP/Account/Studentpanel.aspx)

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CV (14).pdf

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PERSONAL INTERVIEW

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Personal interview questions form a critical segment of the entire process and for the interviewer. If you would go through case experiences of people, you will find that this portion of the interview set the tone of the next portion, which is usually a case-interview. Remember, you never get a second chance to make the first impression so prepare well, and you will go a long way in a successful consulting career. What is it? Your consulting interview usually kicks off with a 5-7 minute personal interview that is mostly based around the CV This is the best time for you to connect with the interviewer. Many alumni will tell you that if you handle the PI well, the case is usually easier to tackle Be original in your answers and be truthful. Interviewers are mostly Partners and Principals and they can quickly make out if you are truthful or not Try to engage the person – Remember, they are interviewing for as long (if not longer) as you are and they are humans too! Maintain eye contact and sit/talk confidently Regardless of which interview in the day it is for you, stay peppy and smile Brevity is important What are the firms looking for? The idea behind the personal interview is to know the candidate better and to answer a few questions: Will the candidate be able to handle the pressure of the consulting world- this is reflected by assessing the candidate’s demeanor, which should be confident and comfortable Is the candidate agile and can he/she take up challenges- this is reflected in the candidate’s ability to portray leadership skills and he/she can take up initiatives Can the candidate work in teams- this is reflected either in prior experience of the candidate or questions asked in the interview process Lastly, it is difficult to survive in the consulting world without showing some drive, passion, aspiration, energy and of course morals and ethics

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At every stage in the process, remember you are being tested on several factors including teamwork, leadership, and ability to handle failure, level of gumption, persuasion skills, and strong communication skills. How do I practice? What is your story: Every individual is different (just like everyone else) and hence it is important to have a story that is yours, completely. This must be a continuation of your CV. The story that you wove together in your CV must come to life during the interview. Although you won‘t have too much time, get every strand of your story in place. The interview could touch any part of your story You must know your strengths, weaknesses, your fit as a consultant and more specifically your fit with the firm Do not neglect the PI to the very end. Keep working on it from Term 5 – Keep playing your story repeatedly in your mind The firm: If you know about the ‘dream’ firm you want to join, you will find yourself more convinced, your voice will have more conviction when you tackle the personal interview questions. Equally important to an interviewer (besides your analytical horsepower etc.) is why you want to join a firm. They don‘t expect you to parrot the usual (what you will find in the ―’About Us’ section of their website). They want you to go deeper and understand the true nature of the firm Spend the last few weeks before the interview in de-constructing each of the firms you are interviewing with. Visit websites, check out their profiles on Vault, and speak to alumni, read case studies (HBS has case studies on unique aspects of all firms). Attend all the sessions that firms keep organizing throughout the year. You will get to listen to interesting aspects of the firm that you will otherwise not know Where do I start? This is a question that haunts everyone – where to start and when to start. When you go through the repository of the questions attached, you might feel these are questions you can handle with a blink of the eye once you know ‘your story’ and ‘the firm’. However, this

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isn’t completely correct. These questions need their own sweet preparation time for you to make the first impression you want to. There are several categories in which we can divide the personal interview questions and some of the lines between the categories might be blurred but it does not hurt to overprepare just a little bit. While you go through these, always remember two things – what is going to take you a long way is clarity in what you want, conviction in what you speak and being truthful to your story. 1. Personal: This is primarily ‘your story’ which includes who you are, what are your goals, and how does consulting fit into your goals and in bigger scheme of things (philosophically known as life). This is where your values, what you believe in also becomes important. The interview tip here is to know yourself in an out, know what you stand for, what are your goals and be true to them. 2. Management/ leadership style, and interpersonal skills: This ties back to knowing your leadership and management style. Are you a leader who believes in leading by example, or are you a collaborative leader. Remember, no leadership style is right or wrong but knowing your style is critical. It is ok to have multiple leadership styles, which can change with situation but what is your core style is important to answer all question – situational or direct. 3. Strengths, weaknesses and skills: Know yourself. This should not be easy. I am sure by the time you would have started preparing for these questions, you would have built on what you would have already known while preparing for ISB interviews and other job interviews. Focus on strengths and don’t ignore your weaknesses. One tip, look for real weaknesses and not the ones those look good. 4. Extra-curricular: This again forms a part of your personality but serves independent mention primarily because it communications whether the candidate has passion and interests outside studies. This is a direct reflector of passion, dedication, and a well-rounded personality. Important thing to note here is not how much you can blow out, but how passionately can you speak about it Personal interview preparation process will not just help you in the job but to understand yourself better as a person. Go through the process diligently. We have shared list of questions that one will usually come across in the Appendix.

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CASE INTERVIEW APPROACH

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What are case interviews and what do firms look for? A case interview is nothing but a short business case/situation, which is often representative of a real-life consulting assignment (obviously, condensed to facilitate a 3040 minute discussion) that the interviewer was a part of. These interviews can be divided in two types – guesstimates and business problems. Guesstimates are focused towards assessing the analytical skills of a candidate. Businesses cases used in interviews mostly do not have a predetermined answer and candidates are evaluated based on how he/she deals with the problem. Assessment is done based on how one approaches the problem and if one can reach a well-supported conclusion. Ability to prioritize issues and exercising judgment based on the business context is crucial to the process. The interviewer is looking to test a few things during a case interview – your ability to think in a structured manner, analytical skills and creativity, test of skills learnt in the MBA, test your pre-ISB work experience and ability to handle ambiguity among other things. How should you approach a case? Interviewers are necessarily looking to see you show your prowess in solving a case across four broad steps. [REMEMBER 3S -> Scope, Structure, Summarize leads to 4th S Success) Define the Problem -> Structure the Problem -> Analyze logically to develop answer -> Synthesize the discussion Define the Problem: 1) Listen closely to problem definition 2) Take notes and ask questions to improve understanding 3) Synthesize the facts to confirm the problem statement (restate if necessary) 4) Remember that some information may be less important Structure the Problem 1) Organize your thoughts, structure your ideas 2) Describe / syndicate your approach

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3) Break the problem into discrete pieces / issues / State / syndicate crisp assumptions (be creative) 4) Avoid using frameworks explicitly Analyze logically to develop answer 1) Walk the interviewer through your thinking 2) Prioritize issues 3) State your assumptions and ask for relevant facts o State findings for your analysis 4) Refine your solution 5) Probe further if necessary Synthesize the discussion 1) Develop overall recommendations 2) Discuss trade-offs 3) Relate back to problem statement 4) Suggest next steps It‘s important for you to also keep track of the interviewer. While it is always advisable to display your skills across all the four steps, you might find the interviewer wants you only to focus on one of these steps. In such cases, follow the interviewer‘s lead. There is no hard and fast rule. Some DOs 1) Make it a dialogue; not a Q&A – Think of it as a joint problem solving session. No one is looking for industry expertise. 2) Bring insight; it‘s an intellectual discussion – Organize your thoughts and stay structured. Be creative and push for conclusions. 3) Communicating effectively is critical – Listen (take notes if you wish) and explain your thought process. State your assumptions.

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Some DONTs 1) Resist force-fitting a framework or defending impractical solutions – A framework is a proxy for structured thinking, but the best frameworks are those which come naturally during the course of your thinking. Remember, there need not be a solution for the case. 2) Don‘t stop or waste time if you are stuck. It‘s ok to acknowledge this and ask the interviewer for help (don‘t make a habit out of it though!) – It’s a good sign, indicating receptiveness. 3) Don‘t be hasty and jump to conclusions. Everything should be logically thought through and concluded. The interviewer will be dropping hints throughout the interview – never forget to pick them up. If you ignore hints, it will be seen as an inability to be receptive. 4) Do not shy away from numbers. Embrace them! You will not be asked to calculate 234533 divided by 45223. The calculations will be very basic, write them down and avoid mental arithmetic. How should you practice? Form a good group of 3-4 people o Let people from different backgrounds be there [or different industry or role] o Choose wisely: Seriousness of each candidate is important Each person prepares 1 case and asks another, so in total the take away for the group would be 3-4 cases in one sitting. Write the cases & the workings you do in a separate notebook No. of Cases: Many questions arise on the magical number of how many cases need to be done for cracking the dream job. Frankly, it is not the number but the depth and breadth of cases covered. If done diligently any number around 50-60 would do. Breadth & Depth of the cases covered: Industry & Sector: Since cases can be from any industry and any area, it is important to cover different industries to understand the industry’s dynamics, problems, solutions and other aspects [This is where your peer form different industries help]. As a consultant, you

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would be expected to work on problems in different industries, many of which you would have no experience in. Same is expected from a case interview. Types of Cases: Not just different industries, but different types of cases are also to be covered. Profitability, growth, market entry, Market Sizing, pricing, M&A, Response to Competition, new product development etc. [If constrained by time the first 5 Main types can be selected] You can create a matrix (like below) to keep a track of whether you have covered everything or not. Main List of Industries Banking Manufacturing Retail / FMCG Pharma Technology / IT Non Profit Logistics Education Telecom

Main Types of Problems

Profitability

Not Done

Weak

Good

Good

Not Done

Not Done

Good

Good

Weak

- Rev Pb - Cost Pb Pricing Market Sizing Market Entry Growth M&A Competitive Response

Not all kinds of cases can be found, but make sure the main industries and main types of problems are covered [NOTE: The above matrix is just for illustration purpose and can be done by your group itself]. Profitability problems if covered across all industries will give you a very good overview of revenue and cost drivers of a particular industry and different trends in the industry! General Tips: While practicing a case, the interviewer [person who prepared the case] would ask the interviewee. Let it be as formal as possible so that there would not be any jitters on the interview day. Even PI questions can be mixed with the case to be as realistic as possible. 51

After everyone has solved the case, the case can be discussed as a group to see where the improvements can be made. Ask inputs from any person from the same industry [Peers or Alums etc.] Write down the mistakes you have done in the case and where improvements can be made. A note book just for the mistakes & insights will be a great asset before the D – day. Buddies: Many of you would be allotted buddies from different companies. Make sure you leverage that. The cases you do with them are truly invaluable because they are in the industry and can give you accurate feedback. Share those feedbacks and cases with your peers and vice versa. What are the general resources for the preparation? Go through these as you start your case preparation. Both should go in parallel for effectiveness. Case in Point by Marc Cosentino [All the cases] Wharton’s Guide to Solving Cases Previous years’ ISB case books (must!!) + One other school – IIMA, Ross, Cornell Kellogg etc Cases from buddies Few Self-created cases from newspapers and latest current affairs. [In our batch, Ex: Flipkart billion day sales – insights, problem, solutions etc.]. You can expect the interviewer can take that day’s newspaper and frame a case then and there! Be ready for everything! Extra References: Victor Cheng – Only if time permits – See the best case scenarios. Most cases are US based; format has changed pretty much now.

Be sincere and focused! Above all, enjoy the preparation.

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CASE FRAMEWORKS

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Frameworks can act as useful tools to structure thoughts during a case interview. Moreover, they ensure that you ask the right questions and help you reach the answer fast. By using frameworks, you will seldom miss solutions to ‘standardized’ cases such as Profitability, Market entry etc. However, interviewers these days enjoy asking abstract cases such as “How will you reduce terrorism in India” or “Should Subhash Ghai sign Aishwarya or Katrina for his next movie”. You definitely can’t apply standard framework to such cases. You are expected to relate the problem to a business situation and create your own framework on the spot.

Below we have collated a few important frameworks, from different casebooks, to help you get an idea of how any problem can be broken down into:

PROFITABILITY FRAMEWORK

Profitability cases are the most common type of cases that you will see. The importance of the case stems

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from the fact that profit-making is the final goal of every business problem. It is always recommended to think on first principles when you approach a case-problem. Here we will try to run through the anatomy of a profitability case. Breaking profitability down to its simplest components is the key in consulting cases. Dividing profitability into components such as revenue and cost can be helpful in discovering the causes of a less than favorable bottom line. It is to be noted that many a time, the interviewer will not specifically mention the type of the case. The candidate is expected to follow a sequence of logical steps by gathering information (by asking relevant questions). The structure shown above will be useful in exploring how to go about exploring the case. Deconstructing the case-problem The profitability problem is very vast and generally comes in varied dimensions. Thus, scoping of the problem becomes very important in order to make a structured headway in the case. This could be done by asking a sequence of logical questions. The idea behind these questions is two-folds – a) to scope the problem, b) to gather relevant information available with the interviewer. Defining the problem (Scoping) Q1) What is the magnitude of loss/profit? Since when has the trend occurred? Also, it is noteworthy to inquire if profits are declining or profitability has been affected. (These are two different things. Profits are merely a difference of Revenues and Cost, while Profitability is a measure of profit margin. •

Gross profit, operating profit and net profit

Dep/Amort + Interest + Tax + Profit =

Revenue-COGS

-

SG&A + R&D + Restructuring + Licensing and regulatory

Writeoff + Losses/gains

Blue: Gross profit Red: Operating profit Green: Net profit Q2) Ask if gross margin/operating margin or net margin which is facing the decline? Now, going ahead with the framework, we first define profits as ‘Revenues – Cost’. Thus, it is a function of two drivers. We deep dive into one driver and hold on to the second one for the time being. Q3) what is the target of profit / profitability? Any other constraints or secondary objectives (eg market share)?

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Q4) is there a timeline that the company wants to solve the problem in? Q5) Just to get a background of the company, I would want to know the product mix and revenue streams for the company. Q6) Ask for data on trends of each product and ascertain the product(s) which is leading to the problem. Q7) is the profitability problem across the industry and trends for the product? If problem is across the industry ask for context •

Demand o Macroeconomic factors o Changing priority of customers – change in demographics o Regular market disruptions Supply o Regulatory – change in policies o

Increase in fragmentation (high supply, low demand) – leading to commoditizing the product

Q8) Competitive landscape – No of competitors, market share and its trend Define and reiterate the statement: Improve Profits in X product from A% to B% by n years. A brief structure as below would help to landscape the problem Structure

The problem may lie in two areas - revenue and costs. What are the trends of revenues (up or down) and costs (up or down)? Depending on the response, choose which one to go in first and take buy-in of interviewer REVENUES Revenues are dependent on two factors – Average Price Thus, if revenue side has been affected then either Average Price across the product mix has decreased (Majorly due to competition or company policy). Quantitatively, we can see that – Average Price = Price of all the products/Total number of products Here, the advice is to stick to first principles and be aware of the fact that Price of the products in the product

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mix and total number of products could also affect the revenues. Internal factors Company tried to reduce price to increase revenues but it backfired o Increased price because costs increased o Transfer pricing (may be relevant if problem is limited to a division of a company) External Factors o Price war o Other stakeholders demanding more in value chain eg – increased distributor margin o Government regulation (price cap) o Customer preference changed. Had to reduce price Resolution: • Product Differentiation – 1. Better features 2. •

•

Better brand

3. Better packaging Innovative Pricing Methods 1. Loss Leader Pricing/ Captive Pricing (Razor Blade), 2. Bundle Pricing Different methods of pricing: 1. Value based Pricing (Premium Pricing & Price Skimming) o Aspirational value of a similar product o

Opportunity cost of not getting the product/service

o

It is also a function of the size of the target customer segment. As larger size would allow us to charge lesser than the maximum aspirational value in order to penetrate into the new market

2. Cost plus Pricing o R&D Costs o

Manufacturing/servicing/construction costs – Fixed and Variable Costs

o

Break-even costs, WACC

3. Comparable (Parity) Pricing o

Existing products with similar features => Marked Price + Mark-up

o

Existing products with superior features => Marked Price of the existing product + Value of additional feature to the customer

o

If no similar product exists, then consider => NPV of substitute product

Bundling & Cross selling Consolidation: Acquire other markets players – Charge premium price, Have more units sold.

In case Product/Service mix – volume has changed…. Identify which product’s relative volume increase has led to overall revenue decrease. For that product, following parameters could be assessed –

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Product Related Problem • • • • •

Poor product quality Problematic product mix Inadequate breadth of product line Depth of product line Network effects with other products/complementary products

Service Related Problem o o

Poor service quality High cost of service

o

Training adequacy o Curriculum o Frequency of training

o

Depth and Breadth

Volume Ascertain changes in number of units sold. The two potential reasons for a volume decline are – a) Market share decline b) Market size decline If Market share declines... Market Share = %Aware X %Preference Buyers X %Available X % Time for adoption X %Repeat Purchase • •

Price o Have these increased? What is the elasticity? Product o Share of Mind (Likeability) Poor quality • network effect with other products • substitutes • product mix • better product in market • quality of service Perception of poor quality but good product • check perception and preference map o If problem in perceptual map, check for accuracy in positioning • training adequacy (curriculum or frequency of training) •

•

Remember – The final consumer might not always be the purchase decision maker. There might me other stakeholders involved, for whom we might need to make the product attractive.

Promotion Share of Voice (Awareness) – how to increase awareness. Check for failures in each of the following stages.

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o

Promotion schemes for enabling purchase – eg financing options, discount coupons etc

SOV x SOM X SOD = Availability x Product Offering (Likeability) x Accessibility One must try to think in terms of consumer purchase funnel -

•

Place o

Share of Distribution (Accessibility) – penetration, trade mix, lead time, distributor margin (agency problem), sales force (less or not trained), Skill and will of sales force

If market size decline…

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Demand (mature stage in PLC) o Check product life cycle o Demographics change o Product obsolescence o Usage rate gone down Solution – Ansoff Matrix Same Product - New Market (Geographic expansion) Which geography? Consider risks such as attractiveness of overseas market can the firm establish competitive advantage by replicating the strategy identify the right geographies Price: Play with elasticity (skim vs penetration)

New Product - New Market (Diversification) Related diversification – developed market Unrelated diversification – developing market Look at synergies (asset utilization)

Same Product – Same Market (Market penetration) Capture market share: 4P, Product Mix

New Product – Same Market (Product Development) Vertical integration New product development based on attractiveness, capability (asset utilization)

Increasing the pie: New target segment (user), different application (uses), per customer Consumption (usage). This is more applicable in mature/declining phase of industry life cycle

•

Supply (still in growth stage of PLC) o Are you the only supplier and constrained by supply? o

Are the SKUs being offered being liked by consumer? Change in consumer preference for another SKU

Solution: o Short term

o

o Increase distributor margins o Target new segments Long Term o Launch new SKUs

COST Break the costs into a) Fixed costs and variable costs

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a.

In a high fixed cost business there is very high temptation of price wars (Remember MADM fundas). For Fixed Costs, following considerations need be made – a) Capacity Utilization b) Increasing the scale of business/manufacturing – What causes it?

c) Complex Product: High Costs - What causes it? Complexity arises from additions to number of different products produced or activities managed Often without increase in overall volume That cannot be added at low marginal cost or minor adjustments in production/staffing Complexity can arise in numerous parts of cost structure – Manufacturing: machine change-over and setup; increased inventory - Starter runs: Machine changeover and setup - Higher inventories: especially if little interchangeability - Additional/longer product lines: often at lower volumes Sales/distribution - Sales force requires in-depth knowledge of full product line - Increased storage facilities, distribution logistics Administration - Tracking and coordination issues b.

Remember it can be a product specific problem or a product mix problem something such as that we are selling more of higher cost product

b) Albeit simpler, FC and VC approach is considered limited in considering the entire set of costs related problem. Here Value Chain analysis helps us to consider all the costs in detailed.

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The value chain depicted above represents a manufacturing setup. However, thinking on first principles one can easily construct a value chain for any business mentioned in the case. For starters, think of Suppliers, Distributors (inbound/outbound), storage/warehouses, end-customers (VERY IMPORTANT) c) Costs income statement wise (COGS, SG&A, Interest, Depreciation, Tax) What is the percentage split of costs across these different processes? • In case one particular head has highest % say 50% or more then you can ask the interviewer that you would want to look at this head to start with. •

Many a time there might not be one major head and there could be two heads with 30%-30% split. In these cases you’ll need to explore both heads and also see that the profitability decline could be partly because of one and partly because of another.

Exploring each head one by one In case of manufacturing Industry, • Raw Material Cost: o Start by asking type of good (Perishable/durable)? o Where does Competitor source from – does it get better prices? o o o

If says same price, ask about efficiency of utilization – conversion ratio/wastage/efficiency for us. If efficiency is improved => less RM lead to reduced costs If the problem is higher price or higher overall procurement cost then: Resolutions Specification Substitution (Different Raw Material) Cheaper material - indigenization/rationalization? Quantity Value engineering (Use lesser Raw Material) Per unit price Same Supplier

•

o

Better Negotiation/Bulk Order – Can you provide something in return for a better price?

o

Time of Sourcing (Opportunistic) – Buying when prices are low

Alternate supplier o o o o

Currency Hedging – Use forwards/futures if prices are expected to rise. Also use call or put options for the variable part of future demand. Standardization of Parts– ordering more of same type of good Backward Integration Cheaper supplier - china etc.?

•

Inbound Logistics: Do you and your competitor use the same Mode of Transportation? Do you incur the same rates and same overall cost? Explore Distance Travelled – could be that the rates are same but your factory is further away from the supplier base. Are you ordering at the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) – Trade of between Set up cost, holding cost and expected demand

•

Production/Operations: Explore Labor cost and efficiency vis-a-vis competitor. Inventory Cost (EOQ) Overheads such as Electricity/Rent same or higher? Machine Utilization: % Downtime - High? Machine broken? Maintenance/spare cost Power outage? Labor unavailability? Total availability will be a function of (% of time labor, % time machine available, % Idle time) Resolution – additional dimensions: Outsource Economies of Scale/Learning curve Labor cost arbitrage

•

Distribution/Outbound Logistics: Explore same as (Inbound)

•

Post Sales Cost: Installation Service or Warranty cost?

•

Gross margin is same but Operating margin has reduced: Marketing & Administration – SG&A R&D cost Restructuring cost Licensing and regulatory costs

•

If NOPAT is down Depreciation & Amortization Interest Expense Tax rates – which geographies (VAT) does our company operate in? Inventory Write off Gains/losses or external investment Loss due to some catastrophic event

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MARKET ENTRY FRAMEWORK To put it very simply, there are two basic considerations for market entry – a) is it a good idea? b) How to enter? We will try to put together a framework which strives to answer these two questions quite exhaustively. Structuring the problem Structuring a market entry case problem is a four step approach – 1) Deciding on the Goals/Objectives – a) Strategic Intentions b) Economic Intentions 2) Evaluating whether to enter the industry or not is a function of three parameters – a) Industry Attractiveness b) Financial c) Strategic Intentions. The 3 parameter approach helps one to answer the two fundamental questions associated with market entry – a) Where to invest: Value chain wise, Geographically b) How to Invest: Mode of entry 1. GOALS/OBJECTIVES

Defining the problem Q1. Motivation behind entry? a) Why into new industry? b) Why into this particular industry? c) Anything other than profits a motivation? Q2. Target for profitability? Timelines? a) Cost of capital? Target Rate of Return? b) Target market share? c) Target revenues and target profits? Q3. Any constraints on investment and scope of thinking? a) Levels of investment b) Geographies of investment Q4. Understand the company, line of businesses and the existing business model a) Will help from the synergies point of view b) Corporate structure/Organization structure

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2. SHOULD WE ENTER?

Evaluation Parameters

INDUSTRY ATTRACTIVENESS

FINANCIAL GOALS

STRATEGIC GOALS

Affecting Factors - Market Size - Growth/life cycle - Value Cycle: competitors, substitutes, suppliers - Customers – WTP, Demand-Supply, price elasticity, backward integration, switching cost, brand loyalty - Barriers – Regulatory, forward integration, economies of scale - Risks – PESTLE Analysis: External Vs Internal - Quantitative analysis to evaluate on the Financial Metrics (Mentioned Below) -Organization Design/structure - Sustained competitive advantage: VRIO framework, Brand Equity, Market share gain, Patent/Proprietary Technologies - Cost-Benefit of entry: Economies of Scale, Supply Chain/Distribution Synergies, Breakeven is aligned with goals, competitive advantage

Industry Attractiveness – ANSWERING THE ‘SHOULD WE ENTER?’ QUESTION: This part of the structure tries to determine how attractive the industry is? Sometimes one may be asked to evaluate/compare more than one option. At other times, you might be required to generate the options and the case opening can be vague. In such cases, the best option is to draw the value chain (with the help of the interviewer), and identify which part of the value chain the company should enter. A short-listing criterion like top decile of return and bottom decile of risk can be used. Whenever you have to make a choice, remember you need to develop a choice rule or mathematical metric of evaluation. However, the choice cannot be made entirely based on qualitative analysis and quantitative metrics need to be developed in order to exercise the choice. The metrics of evaluation could be – o o o o

Investment (Upfront, Change in Working Capital) ROI/IRR/Payback Period NPV/Profit EVA – Economic Value Added: NOPAT – WACC x Invested Capital

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o o o o o

Opportunity Cost of Investment Real Option Projected Cash flows Terminal Value Risk

A best case/worst case analysis can be performed if required. Based on the above analysis, we can move towards evaluating the market entry case by using a Fundamental Attractiveness Vs Relative Competitive Positioning graph – Fundamental Attractiveness: o Barriers to Entry o

Government Regulation

o

High Capital Requirements

o

R&D – IP/Patent

o o

High Brand Equity Human Capital – High Costs

o

Economies of scale/scope

o o

Switching costs – Network Effects Distribution Network

o Competition o Consolidated/Fragmented Market o Market Share distribution among competitors o Supplier/Distributor Channel – Strength & Weakness o Contractual customer lock-ins define market trends o Buyer o

Segment Growth

o

WTP – f(demand)

o o o o

Distributor Channel Preference (Outbound Logistics) Demand-Supply Gap (Important) Price Sensitivity – Ascertains whether to go for Premium Pricing or not Threat of forward integration – VERY HIGH SUPPLIER POWER

o

Needs w.r.t current product mix being offered in the market

o Value Chain & Substitute products o o o o o

Switching cost of buyers/suppliers Threat of backward integration – Competition might acquire vendors to control its supplies of RM et al. Manufacturing Resources – Talent/Expertise availability? Availability of substitute products? Consumer Behavior evolutionary trends

Relative Competitive Positioning: f (Financial Goals, Strategic Goals)

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Also, it is prudent to assess the relative competitive gains for our client on following parameters – o o o o o

Brand Equity Economies of Scale Supply chain/Distribution Synergies Market share gains Patent/Proprietary Technologies

o

Organization Design/structure

o

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Strategic Goals Strategically, does it make sense for the company to enter the market? Short Term (FIT) : o Prior Experience in moving to new markets o Synergy with existing operations o Tactical Decision – 4Ps o Game Theoretical perspective – Strengths/Weakness of each player o Competition Response Long Term : How to build a sustainable competitive advantage? o Create Barriers to Entry/Exit o Create Customer Lock-ins Now for case solving purposes we might as well plot the graph between Fundamental Attractiveness Vs Relative competitive positioning and mark the client’s positioning on the graph on the basis of both qualitative and quantitative assessment made above. Graphical presentation of your analysis earns you more points –

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3. MODES OF ENTRY – ANSWERING THE ‘How to Enter?’ QUESTION:

Parameters Financial

Greenfield

Franchise

M&A

JV

Profits Investment Operational Management Control Expertise Cultural fit Strategic Vision Risks Lock-in Coordination Cross effects Threat of competition Also, following parameters need be considered to ascertain how the weights are to be distributed Risks Financial Risks – o Cash position of the parent firm? o Impact on the financials of the parent company if this new venture fails? Technology Risks Political Risk People Risk Management Control

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PE INVESTMENT FRAMEWORK This section discusses investment into a business for financial gain. Whenever asked to evaluate an investment it is essential to understand the objective first. o o o

Why? – Objective of investment: direct return from investment, incentives in the current business, synergies, etc. What? – What is the target rate of return from investment When? – Timeline of investment

Once the expectation setting is done, rationale to make an investment can be evaluated as follows:

Only if the industry is attractive, target has high potential and expected return from the investment (from all sources) exceed target ROI, investment is justified.

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VALUE CHAIN FRAMEWORK Value chain analysis is an extremely useful tool to solve many business problems. The basic idea here is to understand different parts of the value chain and look for abnormalities/inefficiencies at each leg of the value chain. A general value chain structure is as follows (some parts may not be relevant for certain industries):

Demand

Sourcing

Forecasting

Warehouse ing

Logistics (inbound)

Manufact uring

Logistics (outbound)

Distributi on

After Sales service

A few important questions to ask under each part of the value chain will result in insights for problem solving: Demand Forecasting How volatile is demand? What is the method used for high demand and high volatility raw materials? Recommendations – Careful estimation of raw material quantities for high profit margin and high variability products Sourcing

RM Costs

Transportation costs

Supply - Price - Negotiation - Long term/ future contracts - Volume discounts - Suppliers - Supplier rationalization (alternate suppliers, consolidation etc.) - Backward integration

Demand

- Reduce Wastage - Operational improvement (value chain analysis) - Substitutes - Change specification - raw material specs - finished product specs

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- Price (Negotiation, LTC/ futures etc.) Network optimization - Supplier rationalization - Mode of transport - Efficiency of transport (TAT, load factor, quantity transported per trip etc.)

Warehousing Are warehousing costs significantly higher than the industry average? Warehouse capacity sufficient? Is warehouse optimally utilized? Visibility of SKUs? Automated vs Manual operations Recommendations – apply EOQ to reduce inventory costs, manpower rationalization, layout modifications etc. Manufacturing Benchmark all costs with industry average o Direct Labour o Direct Material o Overheads Reason for higher costs? o Process (process parameters, sequence of operations, utilization etc.) o People (Incentives, skill, motivation etc.) o Technology (obsolete, inefficient etc.) Recommendations – Make vs buy (outsource?), Consolidate manufacturing capacity (Economies of Scale and Scope), upgrade technology, people management and training, process redesign etc. Logistics Benchmark with industry average Price (Negotiation, LTC/ futures etc.) Network optimization Supplier rationalization (consolidation, alternate suppliers etc.) Mode of transport Efficiency of transport (TAT, load factor, quantity transported per trip etc.) Distribution Penetration (no of distributors) Shelf space (% of own items vs % of other’s items) Recommendation – look at distributor commission structure (push), discount schemes (pull), expand distributor network etc. After Sales Service Service time, quality and cost Variety of services Accessibility/Availability Benchmark with industry average Recommendations – improve the metric (time, cost and quality) which is most important to the customer, open more service centers, relocate centers, acquire other service centers, outsource etc.

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M&A FRAMEWORK There are two ways any M&A can generate value – 1) Value of Control 2) Value of Synergy. The actual value of how the acquirer benefits will depend upon the premium paid. There are two types of M&A. Strategic: Value Generated = (Vat – Va – Vt) + (Va-Va’) Non Strategic: Value Generated = (Vat – Va – Vt) Opportunity Cost: (Va – Va’) Competition o Industry Note: Va = Value of acquirer, Vt = Value of target, Vat = Value of combined entity, Va’ = Value of acquirer if someone else acquires the target company

Synergy Operational

Financial

FCF

Tax Savings

Long Term Growth

Bankruptcy Cost

Abnormal Growth

Decreased Agency Cost

Ra Time of Abnormal G

Less Asymmetry info

Type of Synergies Operational: FCF = EBIT (1-Tax) + Depreciation – Change in WC – Capex EBIT = Revenue – Cost Revenue = P * Delta Q + Delta P * Q + Delta P * Delta Q Delta Q: Ability to sell more o Better Product a) Combining Strengths: Examples: Distribution network + Sales force, Access to cheap funds, better geographical reach – say more offices, Increased Management Bandwidth, Combining Sourcing capability with Distribution Reach Cross Selling: Doing this is very risky though

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Bundling Up-selling Delta P: Ability to price higher Low Competition New products or Better quality Increase pricing power in case of Strategic acquisition Cost COGS decrease (Dis) Economies of Scale/Scope: There can be losses as well if there are coordination problems or management bandwidth issue. o IT budget streamline o Pooling of technology o Reduction of overhead SG&A reduction o Remove duplication of Sales force o Promotion Streamline R&D cost reduction o Linking innovative capability o Sharing technology Reduction in threat of Hold up cost o Future Price Increase o Not in time supply o Not appropriate quality product Depreciation Tax Shield Asset write up: One time gain as assets are market up to market value on acquisition o

Change in Working Capital One time gain in case acquirer has better receivable management practice Capex investment If Asset Turnover (Sales/Assets) increases then less Capex investment required in future Growth: Long term Growth doesn’t change generally Look for opportunities that enable permanent competitive advantages Abnormal Growth: Ga = ROC * Reinvestment Rate ROC can increase due to higher EBIT or higher Asset turnover RR can increase due to availability of more positive NPV project Abnormal Growth Time Period Can increase due to erecting barriers to entry Ra Beta or systematic risk can reduce in case you combine: Cyclical (Corporate Banking) + Counter Cyclical (Bankruptcy Advisory) Cyclical (Luxury Business) + Non Cyclical (Tobacco) Vertical Integration sometimes reduces risk

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Financial Synergies Tax Savings: o Tax loss carry forward from a winding business o Ability to take more debt – hence more tax shield Bankruptcy cost: o As per MM, if Bankruptcy costs exist (that is there is destruction of value) then this adds value Lost Customers Lost Employees Lost Supplier relationships o Reasons for default: Cyclical business Cash Flow volatility Competition Technological obsolescence o If Bankruptcy costs exists then savings happen due to merger Reduced Agency Cost o Debt brings discipline Reduced Information Asymmetry o Internal capital markets (use of most economical source of funds) o Exploit any mis-pricing in the markets

Analysis of RISKS Fit Cultural Fit Are the cultures of the merging entities coherent? for e.g. both are entrepreneurial orgs •

Are the cultures complementary? For e.g. an entrepreneurial design org and a highly organized sales org Do we expect significant cultural clashes on merger? For instance formal vs. informal Strategic Fit Are the long-term strategies of the merging firms in tune? Will the merged firm evolve a new long-term strategy? Costs associated with percolating new strategies through the merged org. Organizational Fit Degree of similarity in org structures. Matrix, functional, divisional etc. Management overlap and talent

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NEW PRODUCT LAUNCH FRAMEWORK This is a very basic framework of approaching such questions in a consulting interview. However, if you are preparing for Tech companies you should definitely refer to various other sources for an exhaustive framework. Step 1: Understand the company, its objectives (Optional, if already provided by the interviewer) Step 2: Understand more about the product Step 2.1 Value Proposition, Targeted Customers, Any substitutes, Cannibalization, Any disadvantages Step 3: Ask about the Market/Product segment where the new product will be launch Step 3.1 Do a detailed industry analysis (Growth, size, competition, entry barrier, distribution) Step 4: Do Market Sizing (Apply guesstimates funda) [Rank if multiple segments are present] Does it make financial sense to launch the product? Step 5: Delve deeper -> Cost of producing/launching the product (Variable Cost, Fixed Cost etc.) Step 6: Pricing of the Product (Refer to Pricing Framework in next page) Calculate break-even volume, ROI, break-even period Now give a brief summary to interviewer whether numbers make sense or not and then move to strategic reasons considering strategic fit, potential risks, competitive response etc. Step 7: Strategic Fit Existing Product line Resources/Capabilities Distribution Risks o Competitive Response o Implementation related o Future economic outlook o Technology changes in future

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PRICING FRAMEWORK

PRICING

COST BASED

COGS & Expected Margins Breakeven / Payback Period Price Elasticity Distribution & Logistics Cost Product Mix / Line Details Activity Based Costing This is usually the Lower Limit of the Pricing Strategy

COMPETITIVE

Proxy Industries or Products for any new products Information about Industry structure (consolidated vs Concentrated; price wars Etc.) This is usually in between Cost and Value based

VALUE BASED

Select Target Segment List alternatives and substitutes for the segment Calculate Willingness to Pay range for the segment Beware of Supply & Demand This is usually the Upper Limit for the Pricing problem

Tip: Many Pricing cases also turn out to be masked ‘market demand estimation’ cases. Defining the problem Identify if it’s a bidding, auction or a straightforward pricing problem Get a clear picture of the product and the target customer segment

o Single product or product line? o Commodity or differentiated product? Identity what value the client is adding to the customers? o

Is the product Luxury or Necessity? Is the product patented? Is it imitable easily?

o o

First time entrant? Does the firm want to grow the market share or Top-line? Does the firm want to push the competitor out? Does the firm want to play price war?

Get a clear picture of the firm and their objective with this product

Structuring the Case The framework to solve pricing problems is relatively easy one o

o

Once the framework is laid, start getting in-depth in each bucket (Cost, Competitive and Value based Establish the border constraints (e.g. policies & regulations etc.)

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o

Once you calculate the lower and upper ends of the pricing, offer a rational explanation which price range you would choose

o

Price lower than Value based pricing and above Cost based pricing calculations. Reason: Customer switching costs, fluctuations in WTP etc.

Tips: 1.

Many pricing problems are masked ‘market size’ estimation problems. When the conversation goes in that direction, ensure you specify that you’d calculate the market size before pricing the product

2. 3.

There’s no single price – Always offer a price range. Mentioning the sensitivity metrics in calculations would fetch additional brownie points. Think about competitive reaction in the market

4.

Topics like bundling and other innovative prices (discount scheme etc.) will fetch brownie points

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SALES FORCE EFFECTIVENESS FRAMEWORK

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OTHER TYPES OF CASES 1) Game theory, auctioning (Revise Economics) 2) Abstract Ones (Open ended cases such as ‘Swatch Bharath’, Political Campaign etc.)

a. Always Scope, Structure, Summarize b. Try to create a flow of process and then analyze each piece c. When providing solution again follow the same structure and flow d. This will ensure that even in abstract cases the thought process is structure. 3) Prioritization Matrix (2 by 2’s): Can be used to evaluate any project/R&D activity. There are number of ways to do the same a few are outlined below –

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GUESSTIMATES

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Do not neglect this section and be thoroughly prepared with the same. A guess estimate can be asked in multiple ways, even while solving a normal profitability case. Once you have completed the guess-estimate then try to include the following to make your analysis much richer – a. Verification of data – Identify a few sources from where you can get the right numbers to further refine your estimate. b. Sensitivity Analysis – Conduct a basic sensitivity analysis and identify the most critical assumptions you made. Such an extended analysis shows that you have thought through all the assumptions made and are not arbitrarily using any number to estimate. Although the numbers do not matter here but having a basic sense of the numbers used, knowledge of conversion scales and identifying the potential areas of over/under estimating helps a lot. Guesstimate problems can be solved through three methods (with certain other variations): 1). Top Down Method 2). Bottom Up Method 3). Employing a proxy Tips: 1). When you receive a guesstimate question, please make sure you scope it down so that applying a method becomes easy 2). Use simple numbers and round off intelligently so that you don’t get stuck on account of calculations 3). Please try to write the guiding formula you are going to use and explain it to the interviewer so that while you are performing the guesstimate, he follows you. 4). whenever you make an assumption, please take a buy in of the interviewer asking “Does that make sense?” 5). Whenever you make and assumption, please make sure that the actual no. can be found out through a public information source, so even if your assumed no. is not correct, it can be correct. Be sure to state the same. 6). Try and be MECE (Mutually Exclusive Collectively Exhaustive), just like in solving cases, at each step

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Example 1: Estimate the no. of auto rickshaws in Delhi Whenever you encounter such problem, please be sure to ask the interviewer whether he wants you to solve the problem from supply side or demand side. From Demand Side You actually go about determining the actual demand of auto rickshaws. The steps followed could be as under: 1). Formula: No. of auto rickshaws = (Total No. of Auto Passenger Trips to be travelled per day in Delhi)/ (No. of Trips/Auto/day)*(No. of Passengers/Trip)* Utilization factor 2). Now in order to calculate Auto passenger miles, we would divide the trips into trips into trips made for regular usage ( done by professionals ) and occasional trips, and use top down method to calculate each 3). We would first figure out trips done for professional usage by figuring out how many people use auto rickshaws for professional usage on a daily basis, using filters such as income. Top down Method Population of Delhi = 1.2 Crores % Working (say 1 per household) = 1.2/4 = 30 lacs Auto Fare per day =Total kms* km rate = 20*15 = Rs. 300 Total monthly expense = 300*30 = 9000 Assumption (A person can at max spend 10% of his income on auto rickshaw) = 90000 Rs per month should be his income) % people in urban Delhi in that income bracket (10%) = 3 lacs % People who shall be travelling by auto = 1-% people who use own vehicle-%people who use metro = 40% No. people who would use auto on a regular basis for professional usage = 3 lacs*0*40% = 1.2 lacs Hence no. of passenger trips from professional usage = 1.2*2 trips/day = 2.4 lacs auto passenger trips

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Similarly, we can find out for occasional usage ( we can also employ 80:20 rule as well, saying majority of trips are for professional usage, lets add 20% to account for remaining trips, but such justifications should be backed well with data) On no. of trips an auto makes, you can use the following formula = (Average speed of an auto) * No. of operating hours* (Idle time)/ Average distance per trip And verify this no. by using your judgment whether it looks practical or not You can similarly find out, the other terms in the main formula and figure out the number. From Supply Side 1). In order to verify this you can employ supply side through following formula = (Average Total No. of autos sold in Delhi/year)*( Average life of an auto) 2). You can find out the first term by looking up the sales numbers of all the major auto players for past few years ( In the interview you would have to assume or ask) and average life of an auto also is a similar information Similar Problem: Estimate the Airplane Fleet size of Air India Example 2: Estimate the two wheeler market in India Please make sure you ask whether the market has to be estimated in no. of units or you can again approach this problem from supply side and demand side. You need to clarify the same with the interviewer. Demand Side 1). We would divide the demand into : New Demand ( new users) and Replacement Demand ( Existing Users) Replacement Demand = ( Total No. of Two Wheelers Currently in India)/ ( average replacement period) New Demand = (Population segment Growth Rate) * Total no. of two wheelers currently in the country 2). Two wheelers can be of two kinds: Domestic (owned for personal usage) and Professional (owned by professional agencies such as dominos, police, postman) 3). To estimate for personal usage, we would employ top down method 4). Start with population of India, 1.2 Billion

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5). Urban (30%) and Rural (70%), which implies 0.36 Billion Urban and 0.84 Billion Rural 6). No. of Urban Households 0.36/4 = 90 Million and No. of Rural Households = 0.84/6 = 140 Million 7).Now we need to figure out how many can afford a two wheeler and remove the elite population that only owns four wheelers. Hence, we shall have to find out the income level and figure out the number of two wheelers in households hence. 8). Lets say that no. comes out to be 30 Million Now , based on the current no. we can find out the expected replacement demand Replacement Demand (Domestic) = 30/4 = 7.5 Million New Demand = 30*2% (growth rate of eligible population segment) = 0.6 Million Hence total domestic market = 7.5+0.6 = 8.1 million/year 9). To calculate Professional Demand, we can use proxy and bottom up combination So, first assumption is professional usage is primarily urban Then take a city and categorize various types of uses (This is bottom up approach): 1). Police 2). Dominos 3). Postal Services 4). Others Estimate each of these and come with a number Then employ proxy method as under Total Professional usage = (No. of vehicles in the city)*Urban population in the country/ (Population of the city) * Correction factor Supply Side: Similar approach as Example 1, please try it yourself Similar Example: Estimate the pet food market in India Estimate the luxury home market in Chandigarh

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Example 3: Can two dogs have identical no. of hair in the world? Short Answer is YES! This one is an application of pigeon hole principle (Such problems have been asked in Oliver Wyman in past) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeonhole_principle#Hair-counting A few other resources are below:

283799818-Guesstim Guesstimation.pdf ate-in-the-Indian-Context.pdf

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KNOW YOUR INDUSTRY

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Many a times, we are given cases from industries which we are completely unfamiliar with. Asking the right questions in a case interview is extremely important as the time is limited and you want to make the first impression quickly. The following section will give you some insights into 4 major industries. It is advisable that you too create a template similar to the one shown here for other industries. It will help you gain an understanding of the industry and ask relevant questions at the interview.

Pharma (India) INDUSTRY TREND

The pharmaceutical industry in India ranks 3rd in the world terms of volume and 14th in terms of value The industry is highly fragmented with ~400 organised and ~15,000 unorganised players Indian pharma companies in the recent times have increased spending on R&D specifically in specialty drugs and complex generics The government has been undertaking several proactive measures to promote investments and exports in the pharmaceutical sector 100% foreign direct investment is now allowed in the biotech sector without compulsory licensing from the government KEY ECONOMIC DRIVERS

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Government led initiatives Median Age of Population Increasing penetration of health insurance REVENUE STREAMS

COST STRUCTURE

Raw Materials – 41% Manufacturing cost - 12% Research & Development- 8% Marketing costs – 26% Wages account – 13% The industry also faces high liability insurance costs and high legal fees and settlements

Export of generic drugs to developed nations (US, Europe etc) Government grants for R&D High seasonality effect on certain products like vaccines and cold medicine Growth in disposable income and increased potential for health coverage to sustain domestic revenue streams CUSTOMER SEGMENTS

Patients/consumers who need these drugs/medicines Two other target stakeholders: 1. Doctors who prescribe 2. Insurance companies that pay

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MAJOR PLAYERS

Sun Pharma – The market leader with a share of ~10% Dr.Reddy’s Lupin Cipla Cadila Healthcare CHANNELS

Over-the-counter outlets Prescription drugs: Hospitals, pharmacies RISKS

Low expenditure on R&D Intense Price Competition Change in drug utilization and mix patterns Unfavorable government healthcare polices Pressure owing to consolidation with foreign players entering the market

Healthcare Industry INDUSTRY TREND Major health firms will continue to develop a pan India network (Fortis, Max, etc.) Nature based treatments (Ayurveda) will continue to find more growth in both services and products Medical Tourism will continue to grow and will expand to more types of treatment Aadhar related identity linkages will become more prevalent The number of people with health insurance will continue to increase KEY ECONOMIC DRIVERS Increased health insurance coverage Greater Disposable spend among the consumers Increased parity with western standards – devices and procedure quality Increased public awareness – government and public awareness campaigns REVENUE STREAMS Hospital care - $929B Physician and clinical services - $588.8B Prescription drugs - $262.3B Nursing - $238.6B Dental services - $116.6B Research, Equipment, Investment - $161.5B

COST STRUCTURE (as a % of total GDP) US - 17.1% Europe - 10% OECD - 12.4% Latin America - 7.6% MENA – 5.3 % Asia – 4.4 % India – 4.7% China – 5.5% South Asia - 4.4% World – 9.9%

CUSTOMER SEGMENTS

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Age : Below Average / Above Average Social Background : Economically poor , Middle Class, Affluent Type : Cosmetic , health hazards All generations: Baby Boomers, Generation X, Y (Millennial generation), and Z Awareness : First time , Casual , Regular, Savvy MAJOR PLAYERS Device Manufacturers : Johnson & Johnson | General Electric | Novartis | Siemens | Baxter Major Hospitals : AIIMS | Apollo Hospitals | Fortis Healthcare | Max Healthcare Major Pharmaceuticals: Sun Pharms | Lupin | Dr Reddy’s | Cipla | Aurobindo Pharma CHANNELS Hospitals | Doctor’s clinics | Nursing homes | Specialty Clinics | Rural Clinics | Medical equipment

RISKS Increased need for ensuring operation integrity – protocol adherence Awareness about dubious treatments and charlatans Need of more medical centers to cater to increasing population

Telecom Industry INDUSTRY TREND

After over a decade long growth, the global telecom industry is starting to saturate as subscriber penetration has peaking in traditional voice, SMS and data services. The telecom industry ($1.6T in 2015) is growing at different rates in different parts of the world- North America (+1%), Latin America (-1%), Europe (-4%), Middle East & Africa (+4%), Emerging Asia Pacific (+7%), and Developed APAC (+1%). The telecom operators are facing significant competition from OTT players such as skype, WhatsApp etc. causing declining voice revenue The future industry trend will see better customer management using analytics, establishing partnerships with digital players, operators entering in to ICT solutions, and cost reduction via network sharing and acquisitions. KEY ECONOMIC DRIVERS

Efficient pricing Easing government regulations Increasing penetration of digital services Customer management REVENUE STREAMS

COST STRUCTURE

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Data, Voice, and TV Tariffs Interconnect Charges Enterprise solutions for businesses

The margin of major Indian telecom operators last year was in the range 25% to 40%, with power and fuel cost, employee cost, “other manufacturing expenses” comprising most of it. CAPEX investments are large part of operator’s P&L, and depreciation is typically 15-20% of total revenues.

CUSTOMER SEGMENTS

On the basis of product (Fixed line vs Mobile vs Other services (enterprise solution etc.)) Business customer vs non-business customers MAJOR PLAYERS

India (Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodaone-Idea, Aircel, BSNL) Global (AT&T, Verizon, Telefonica, Etisalat, Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, STC, Millicom, Orange, Zain, MTN, China Mobile etc.) CHANNELS

Own Stores Retailers Online RISKS

Intense price competition leading to tariff war Growth saturation in developed country Stricter regulations for telecom players compared to OTT players Pressure owing to consolidation

FMCG INDUSTRY TREND The FMCG market has three main segments - Food & Beverages (19%), Healthcare (31%), House & Personal Care (50%). It is the fourth largest sector in the Indian economy. Retail market in India is estimated to reach USD 1 trillion by 2020 from USD600 billion in 2015, with modern trade expected to grow at 20 per cent per annum, which is likely to boost revenues of FMCG companies. Source Report: https://www.ibef.org/industry/fmcg-presentation

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KEY ECONOMIC DRIVERS Growing awareness, easier access, and changing lifestyles have been the key growth drivers for the sector. People are gracefully embracing Ayurveda products, which has resulted in growth of FMCG major, Patanjali Ayurveda, with a m-cap of USD 14.94 billion. The company aims to expand globally in the next 5 to 10 years. Major growth drivers are rising incomes driving purchase, desire to experiment with brands, evolving consumer lifestyle, new product launches, growing rural market, growth of modern trade, strong distribution channel, availability of online grocery stores, increasing consumer demand, greater awareness of products brands, government reforms to encourage FDI inflow and market sentiments.

REVENUE STREAMS

COST STRUCTURE

Hair Care is the leading segment, accounting for 23 percent of the overall market in terms of revenue. Food Products is the 2nd leading segment of the sector accounting for 19 per cent followed by health supplements & oral care which has a market share of 16 per cent & 15 per cent, respectively

The cost structure in the FMCG industry is uniform: Raw Material Cost, Salaries and Wages, Indirect Taxes, Power and Fuel, Depreciation Cost, Financial Charges, Admin & SG&A charges

CUSTOMER SEGMENTS End customers and businesses, based on geographical, demographic, social, economic and behavioral segmentation

MAJOR PLAYERS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

ITC Limited Hindustan Unilever Limited Dabur Limited Godrej Consumer Products Limited Patanjali Ayurveda

CHANNELS 1. Direct distribution - company engages directly with the customers or through exclusive distributors

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2. Indirect distribution - company to distributor to wholesaler to retailer to customer Further classification: a. Grocery classification - discounter, hypermarket, general store and supermarket b. Convenience classification - cstore, kiosk, gas stations and street vendors

RISKS 1. Financial risk - huge investments involved in setting up distribution networks, advertising to maintain competency in market and maintaining a huge working capital for operations 2. Operational risk - maintaining supply in the market and decreasing defect rate 3. Regulatory risk - compliance to consumer court laws and environmental laws 4. Customer dissatisfaction risk - ability to satisfy the needs of the customer

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CASE EXPERIENCES

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McKinsey & Company

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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief:

Anshul Patel ITC and OYO Rooms, operations. ITC – Supply chain operations, process improvement projects OYO Rooms – Central customer experience projects Company: Mckinsey Number of rounds: 2 Interview Format: Guesstimation + Case Interview + PI Interviewer: Partner Any specific skills that you believe the Analytical ability and communication skills interviewer was testing you on? ROUND 1 Case Type: Case Narration:

Case + Guesstimation It is the year 2000 and ITC ltd. has come to you to help with diversification of their business. How do you proceed This was followed by an attempt to guesstimate the confectionaries market in India

Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Recommended Approach:

The partner outlined a situation where the only directive given to you by the chairman of ITC was to diversify. Possible scoping questions over here could be - What is the motive behind diversification - What are the current lines of business ITC is in (as of 2000) - What is the scope of diversification (geographic , business lines) - What is the timeline company is looking at (Rapid or organic), does it matter? Based on my scoping questions, there are a few facts that I discovered. ITC was in tobacco business only and it wanted to enter businesses where the “wills” brand could be built and it would rub off on tobacco. With this very limited sense of objective, I broke down the problem into the following screening criteria 1. Take a bucket list of all the industries available 2. Filter on the basis of fundamental industry attractiveness 3. Check whether ITC core competencies would fit to succeed in the attractive businesses 4. Quick check on investment required to build additional competencies and take a go/no go decision The interviewer was OK with the approach and asked me to focus on

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points 2 and 3 and the discussion went on with me asking more specific questions about specifics of what ITC does and what industries would be relevant in line with objective. We finally arrived at a 2X2 where the vertical axis had attractiveness and horizontal axis had competency fit. The partner asked me to fit a few typical industries in these 4 quadrants and we discussed a couple of industries qualitatively This overflowed into a guesstimate where I was asked to estimate the confectionary market in India. I was asked to just do the math and he observed without much conversation. Finally I arrived at a number which was off by a factor of 15-20 and we discussed the assumptions did not hold true. Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

Connect with the interviewer personally than looking at it as a case only. For most part, the case of ITC was a way of him recounting his experience as this was the first project the partner had done at Mckinsey. Verify assumptions wherever you can. In case of guesstimates, if you arrive at a number finally which seems off to you, it is important to know what assumptions did not fit. There is no need to panic if you get the number wrong.

ROUND 2 Case Type: Case Narration:

Unconventional 1. You are a fertilizer manufacturer, you want creative ways of improving demand for your product 2. How much money do I need to retire by the Age of 40

Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

1. The questions were about the nature of firm, its motivation to increase demand. I was informed that I need not go through a structure and the partner just wanted to see creative ways of marketing a commodity. 2. For case 2, I deep dived into the profile of the partner, his motives after retirement, his current asset base, the family that he needs to support etc.

Recommended Approach:

1. The case of fertilizer manufacturer was such that the commodity was not at all differentiated and the company had excess capacity which needed to be utilized. Since I was explicitly advised not to go through a structure, I went free flow on this I spent a lot of time understanding the target customer. The partner told me that the typical customer is 1. Illiterate

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2. 3. 4. 5.

Has a family with children Runs his business on credit Buys multiple inputs other than fertilizers Few of them look for alternate employments in off crop season

I had concluded that product in itself has no differentiation, so you could differentiate by engaging the farmer on other fronts. I gave suggestions that targeted the needs of the farmer on each of the above requirements and hence improve brand recognition by making it a part of his life. 2. I broke down this case into 1. Sources of income in future – Through alternate sources, through investments in assets 2. Consumption requirements – lifestyle maintenance, children education, one time asset investments, healthcare After taking a buy in from the partner, the scope was simplified and he asked me to ignore inflation etc. So I broke down post retirement life into two phases, 40-50 years and 60-80 years. I probed further to get actual numbers for each of the heads within a structure and arrived at a corpus of around 18Cr. required to retire at 40. This was a quick check of my ability to crunch numbers as well as structuring. Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

You have to understand what is being tested specifically in the question and design your approach based on that. In my case the first case was to test my ability to think creatively and second one was to check my math plus ability to structure an unconventional problem. As always, it is important to engage the interviewer by asking intelligent relevant questions, the final number doesn’t matter.

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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief:

Ashish Gupta Operations (1 year) and Product Management (almost 2 years) at ITC’s Personal Care Products Business Company: McKinsey & Co. Number of rounds: 4 Interview Format: Case Interview + PI Interviewer: Any specific skills that you believe the Structured thinking + communication skills interviewer was testing you on? ROUND 1 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach: Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

ROUND 2 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

PI NA NA

NA Interviewer: Rajat Gupta (Sr. Partner) It was only a PI interview over VC. The interview lasted for around 30-35 minutes. Rajat asked me a lot of questions on my resume – one that I specifically remember is that he asked me to explain the most important and impactful project that I’d done at ITC. I generally feel very comfortable with PI and hence was able to engage in a fruitful discussion with Rajat. For McKinsey, it is very important that you be prepared with PI as McK does give a good weightage to PI. It is also important to be as genuine as possible, since being fake and overtly diplomatic can leave a bad impression. . Being a PI only round, I felt very comfortable and confident after the round. Cost optimization An integrated Zinc company wants to optimize its EBITDA margins. Suggest ways to do so. Interviewer: Abhijit Kulkarni (Associate Partner) Where is this company based out of? How many mines does it own? What is its current EBITDA and EBITDA margins? What is meant by optimization of EBITDA margins? Interviewer told me himself that I should focus on costs and not revenues (this was actually going to be my next question anyway).

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Recommended Approach:

I started by drawing the value chain. Value chain looked like this: Mining area Milling (Concentrator) product

Smelting

Finished

However, after 2-3 minutes into the case, after doing the initial scoping, I realized that this is not a conventional cost reduction case that can be done through value chain easily. Company had 5 mining areas. The extraction cost in each area was different and each area also had a different extraction capacity. Let 5 plants be A, B, C, D and E. A and B had a common concentrator that was placed in the location of B. Likewise, C and D had a common concentrator in the location of C. E had a separate concentrator for itself. For all the 5 plants, there was a common smelter. Then costs at each stage for each of the 5 processes were given. I started finding out the total cost for each plant operation. After I found that out, I started allocating the production from the plant that had least cost of production. Interviewer: How much production can you allocate to the 5 plants combined? Ashish: The answer lay in the bottleneck. Smelter was the bottleneck and based on its capacity, allocation to various plants had to be done. This was the only real catch in this question.

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

After identifying this, I was able to allocate the production to various plants so as to minimize the total cost. There was no framework at all that I could’ve used here. What helped me here is DMOP. I had liked DMOP as a course and optimization in general and hence allocating cost to optimize EBITDA came fairly quickly into my mind. I would suggest that you revise the core courses (at least go through the slides once before). I was pretty lucky in that sense since I hadn’t revised DMOP at all but thanks to all the attention that I paid in class, I was able to think of this was of optimization quickly. (Even otherwise, this way of cost optimization is pretty intuitive, but it just helps if you know various ways of optimizing costs).

ROUND 3

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Case Type: Case Narration:

Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Banking market entry, guesstimate Interviewer: Peeyush Dalmiya (Partner) Case 1: A retail bank wants to enter. How would you evaluate its entry? Case 2: Estimate the number of trains leaving Jaipur junction in a day. Before the case began, I had a PI for around 15 minutes. He asked me to tell about myself, my experience at ITC, what did I like most at IIT etc. Then we quickly jumped into 2 short cases: Case 1 Scoping questions: Where is this bank based out of? Belgium What type of customers does it cater to? Not any specific customer segment Here I confirmed with Peeyush whether the bank has decided to enter or we need to evaluate that as well, to which he said that we need to evaluate.

Recommended Approach:

Case 2 No scoping required. Case 1 Without further scoping, I started analyzing the attractiveness of Indian banking market. I started with Barriers to entry - here I listed down a lot of Points. I think one point that caught his attention was when I said that the availability of distribution channel (rural v/s urban) could be a barrier if this bank primarily caters to low-end customers (counterpart of rural people in India) in Belgium. Hearing this, he moved on to the next case. Case 2 I listed some approaches to estimate the number of trains leaving Jaipur junction in a day: - Demand side (based on number of people entering the Jaipur junction - Supply side (Based on number of rails) - Using a similar junction’s data I told Peeyush that I would like to use the number of rails to estimate the answer. I then took 2 minutes to think about it and came up with this

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formula: No. of trains = No. of rails * (No. of trains/rail/hr.) * Operational hours Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

ROUND 4 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach: Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

I knew that because my second round was with an AP, I would have to go through another round. Hence, this being round no. 3 did not intimidate me. Again, staying calm and not showing signs of nervousness are the key. In case you get stuck anywhere, just ask the interviewer for a minute, gather your thoughts during that time and then come back strong. Thankfully, I was able to channelize my entire energy and focus on to the cases. PI helped become comfortable with Peeyush.

NA Interviewer: Navtez Singh Bal (Partner) NA

NA All my rounds had gone pretty well and I was feeling quite confident. When Navtez called me into his room, the first thing he said was, “We should have gone out. The weather is so nice outside”. Hearing this, I sensed the good news coming. He then started looking at my resume. I had mentioned sports (cricket and athletics) that I’d played in college. Seeing this, he asked me if I had interest in dramatics as well. Here, I said that while I don’t have much interest in dramatics, I’ve trained myself a bit in Hindustani Classical music. Hearing this, he asked me to sing a song (I honestly hadn’t seen this coming). However, I cleared my throat and then started singing (Yes, you need to do this to land your dream job :P). After singing just 2 lines, Navtez stopped me, saying that he was just pulling my leg and said the lines I’d been waiting for – ‘Welcome to the firm’. Overall, I would suggest that you stay calm and composed (I know it’s easier said than done but try. If you have a tendency to get nervous, start meditation and yoga. Yes!! It works. A friend of mine used to get highly nervous even when doing cases with us. But, with proper meditation, he was able to land a job at McK after just 2

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rounds. And finally, McK, unlike many other firms, wants to know you as a person. So make sure that you are extremely comfortable with the PI part.

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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief: Company: Number of rounds: Interview Format: Interviewer: Any specific skills that you believe the interviewer was testing you on? ROUND 1.1 Case Type: Case Narration:

Case Approach: Abstract case Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Recommended Approach:

Chitraketh Yandoori Operations and Planning , ITC Limited McKinsey 3 Case Interview + PI Sudipto Paul, Associate Partner Analytical ability and communication skills

PI + Case Q1) What is the impact on GDP due to demonetization? Quantify it. Q2) Our client is a cement company. How are the company’s operations affected by demonetization and what can be done to improve the situation. Q1) No scoping questions Q2) Use Victor Cheng’s 3C+P framework to get an understanding of the situation. I asked for the business model of the company and got a lot of useful information from that. Helped me reduce scoping time. Info Provided by the Interviewer : One of the largest Players(No 3 in Industry) Operates in North, Central and East India Has only 1 Plant Value Chain: Plant Warehouse or Dealer Customer(Contractors or general consumer) The case was happening via Video Conference (VC) and therefore structuring the case was very important. GDP: I had two approaches to look at the impact of demonetization of GDP. Approach 1 : Split GDP based on Agriculture + Industry + Services then look at the different industries Small + Medium + Large Connect to the cement firm from this approach. Mistake I made: I assumed this is the approach he wanted. After a few minutes he asked me to look at the cases as 2 different questions. Then I told him my second approach. Approach 2 : GDP = G+I+C+NX He seemed happy now. Looked at each of these in detail. C: Split the consumption into Rural and Urban Had a general discussion on the issues people face in both urban and rural India. Low liquidity, long queues in banks, less number of banks, Problems with e-payments (PAYTM) in rural India were

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some of the issues discussed. I = He asked me what is going to happen to investments. Money deposited in banks Banks become cash rich Encourage loans (Reduce interest rate as repo also will reduce) More loans and therefore more investments. He then asked which industries would benefit. Split the industries based on their need on cash. Had a general discussion on real estate and impact of Foreign investments in India. He then asked to look at the cement industry case. I started with value chain because he gave information about it during scoping. Had very little time so I said I will look at it from the Macro View and then drill into the details. (This approach can be very useful if u can explain what your approach well and ask the right questions. E.g.: For Manufacturing I asked: Is the firm able to produce as per the demand it gets without any issue. He said Yes. The I reconfirmed saying , “So is it safe to assume raw material sourcing to manufacturing is in control and may I move on to the distribution “. He said yes again and I moved ahead “) Split the Chain into : Manufacturing Distribution Customer 1. Manf. = Everything from RM to end of factory gate = No issue here 2. Distribution= From factory gate to Retail = Reduction in cust. Pull 3. Customer = Wants to buy but can’t buy. I said it could be a liquidity issue because of no cash. He stopped me here and said the problem was that the firm was not willing to sell material on credit (which was a major means of transaction) after demonization Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

Had a very brief PI. Tell me about yourself and then we discussed a little bit about my Scuba Experience in the Andamans. He then moved on to the cases. What went well : I was positive, smiling and walked him through the case. Since it was on VC it was very important to keep the structure clear. What Could have gone better : I tried to link both the cases because of which I lost my flow initially. He asked me to quantify impact on GDP but we really didn’t discuss any numbers. That could have been a problem.

ROUND 1.2 Case Type: Interview Format:

Case Case Interview + PI

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Interviewer: Akash Lal, Senior Partner Any specific skills that you believe the Analytical ability and communication skills interviewer was testing you on? Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Recommended Approach:

Banks is facing a problem with long queues. What should be done? The case seems to be very simple but the catch is in the way the question is asked. The Interview started with a discussion on my work at ITC which was based on operations. While having the discussion Akash started talking about his work at McKinsey and suddenly slipped in this question as though it was a part of the PI. Fortunately for me, my buddy did a similar thing during case prep (I bombed that case) so I was quick enough to catch it. So watch out for such things in the interview. Since it was so sudden I couldn’t think of any standard framework.

I started discussing each of them in detail In utilization we discussed about temporal variation in demand, cross training of employees, employee monitoring systems and incentives, process improvements, segregation of queues based on amount of transaction etc. In capacity creation I spoke about increasing the number of counters, Increasing the number of ATMs where people can deposit cash. The solution was ATMs so he told me that’s what they did. Then we also spoke about soft operations such as putting mirrors, TVs, magazines, train employees to be friendlier with the customers and token systems instead of queues. At the end of the case, I added saying that most of the time recurring problems have simple solutions that go unnoticed and I spoke about a process improvement project at ITC. ( He didn’t ask but I thought it was relevant in that context) He said I could leave but I asked him if I could ask a question regarding McKinsey and asked him about how McKinsey evaluates managers/partners on impact ( Don’t know if it was the right thing to do but I just took a shot)

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The same case can be solved using the People + Process + Technology framework. With this framework it becomes very easy. Use it for service operations during case preparation and it might be helpful (Also check the 7P framework) Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

What worked for me: I was confident and smiling throughout and kept thinking out loud. I always ensured that the interviewer is engaged and I think it’s very important. Remember they are always willing to help. I also kept mentioning my experiences from banks and operations and I think it worked since firms also check if you can use your previous experience in other projects. What went wrong: Nothing. Selected for Round 2

ROUND 2 Case Type: Case Narration: Interview Format: Interviewer: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Abstract A smart city is facing mobility issues What should be done? Case + PI via Video Conference Suveer Sinha,Partner PI: The interview started with PI. I was waiting for the interviewer for about 10 minutes so I quickly wrote a short poem. We started the interview about a discussion on poetry and it lightened up the mood. Then he asked me about PAEV which was on sustainable housing .The interviewer was working on smart cities so we had a good discussion and I could establish a connect. Case: I asked what he meant by mobility wrt: Mode of transport, Route, Time, Affected stakeholders. The issue: reduced average speed experienced by young professionals travelling by road (all modes) from office back home at around 7; 00 pm. On enquiring about the locations in consideration I realized the city was radial with houses in the central areas and offices in the peripheral areas.

Recommended Approach:

It’s an abstract case so there is no recommended approach I said ill analyze the status quo first and then look at what can be additionally built in the city to improve the situation. (Throughout this case I gave probable issues and kept giving

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possible recommendations ) I split speed as distance by time. Factors for Time increase : Traffic = F(vehicles,signals,discipline,infrastructure,etc) Discussed each of them in detail Cars had gone up 10X (main issue) @Increased signals change them to roundabouts @ Toll gate : Not the case @ Poor roads in important areas. How that can be highlighted. Lot of startups working on it. @Traffic discipline and how that can be improved Distance (Kept this short) Spoke about how damaged roads can lead to people using smaller lanes Or alternate paths Avoiding bottlenecks to escape traffic. Then on the infrastructural improvement I discussed about how current infrastructure can be used better by optimizing routes (change to 1-ways) during peak traffic times and how Chennai does that well. Also spoke about the outer ring road, flyovers and alternate mode of transports. Overall he was happy and he asked me to come up with ways to reduce car traffic (major car users were young professionals) I split this problem into 2 parts = Disincentivize private transport and promote public transport disincentivize private transport : Corporates to increase parking fees could lead to car pooling Corporates can start their own buses and to more locations Incentivize public transport Subsidy on passes Increase quality of public buses (AC+ TV) Increase frequencies of buses Increase bus routes Look at alternates modes of transport. (Local trains, metro etc.) He seemed very happy and said we had a good discussion. Got the offer! Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

Established an initial connect. Started with the basics and tried to cover as many aspects as possible. Kept sharing my experiences from Chennai and Hyderabad and how we can use such practices. Almost everything went well in this round!

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Be confident, think out loud and smile. All cases can be solved and if it’s a tough case the interviewer understands it. All you need is a calm mind.

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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief: Company: Number of rounds: Interview Format: Interviewer: Any specific skills that you believe the interviewer was testing you on? ROUND 1 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Recommended Approach:

Abhiram Reddy Senior Analyst, Strategy, PwC McKinsey & Company 2 Case Interview + PI Sasi Sunkara, Partner Analytical ability and communication skills

Sales Force Sizing Our client is a microfinancing company who is looking to dispense currency via third party agents. How should our client go about this? a) Client – Who exactly is our client? What is their business model? Our client is a microfinancing company who provides loans to Selfhelp Groups (SHGs) in the form of prepaid cards. Since the recent demonetization move, our clients’ customers are having difficulties withdrawing the cash in their cards to service their daily needs. Hence, the company has come up with an idea to partner with local vendors to dispense cash at their outlets to our client’s customers. b) Service Provider – Who exactly is the service provider? What is his incentive? Our agents are neighborhood vendors (think mobile recharge shops, stationery shops, etc.) who are already present in large numbers in most localities where our clients live. The service providers receive a commission of 0.5% of the transaction value. c) Why exactly is the objective of our client? To ensure that our customers have enough service providers in their vicinity to withdraw currency without facing any challenges. We need to estimate the number of such partners we need in every locality. After a long PI interview, which lasted for almost 25 mins., I was finally relieved to be moving on to the case interview. The interview was overall very warm and friendly. Sasi seemed genuinely interested and engaged throughout our 45 mins of conversation. We started the case by talking about Demonetization and how several startups have leveraged on the cash crunch to come up with quirky services. After asking my scoping questions, I quickly went to the case and started explaining my thought process. I told the interviewer that I intend to estimate the demand in terms of number of withdrawals in

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each area and then go ahead to my supply side analysis and compute the number of agents required to satisfy this demand. I first looked at the demand side and wanted to start my analysis by looking at geographical distribution of customers. Sasi quickly pulled out a sheet of paper and explained: Assume that we are looking at the problem from a branch-level point of view. Each branch services 4000 new customers every day, who are evenly spread out across the 4 areas in its vicinity. 1000

1000

.

BRANCH 1000

1000

I then went ahead and explained to Sasi that I want to compute the demand in terms of transaction volumes and then figure out the estimated number of service providers in each area based on the volume of transactions they can service per day (service rate) No. of Service Providers = Total transaction volume / Service Rate (required in each area) To this Sasi quickly observed that there was no constraint to the number of transactions the partners can service every day. He asked me to think further and figure out if there was any other constraint on the supply side. I took a minute to think and then deep dived into the incentive structure of the service partner. After a volley of questions to the interviewer, I was finally told that the service partner looked to make INR 200 every day on commissions. AHA! It finally all made sense. The commission of 0.5% from the scoping question finally seemed relevant. I then quickly restated my initial equation to: No. of Service Providers= (Total Transaction Value * 0.5%) / (INR 200) Sasi seemed happy and asked me to go about estimating the Total

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Transaction Value in each area. By this time, there was a knock on the door and we were told we overshot the schedule by 10 mins already. I drew an issue tree and started brainstorming the drivers behind “Total Transaction Value” in every area. In haste, I restated my equation as: Total Transaction Value = Total Loan amount value * (% withdrawn) The interviewer instantly retorted - Assume that the average loan amount is INR 1L and 100% of the amount is withdrawn in currency. I sheepishly corrected the equation as: Total Transaction Value = No. of customers in area * Avg. Loan Value The interviewer didn’t look so pleased and asked me to quickly think about other factors that I might be missing. I drew a process diagram: LOAN > CUSTOMER > WITHDRAWAL After wasting a couple of precious minutes analyzing the loan sanctioning process and hitting a dead-end, I went ahead and started analyzing the currency withdrawal behavior of customers. How often do they withdraw? How much do they withdraw? Where else do they withdraw? The broad smile on the interviewer’s face gave it away that I had hit the nail on the head. Our clients’ customers usually withdraw the loan amount in two phases Sasi gave me a plethora of numbers and a few seconds and some simple math later, I estimated that the client would require around 6 agents in every locality. The interviewer suddenly interjected and asked if I was sure of my answer. I went ahead and did a sanity check. I estimated the number of service partners per 100 customers in every area and both of us were satisfied with the service level metric. The interviewer went ahead and explained how this was a real-life scenario, where a client of his was facing attrition from service partners, largely because they were not meeting their target

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commissions.

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

He explained that this was largely driven by the fact that customers usually withdrew almost 50% of their loan amount in cash at the bank branches on day of loan sanction itself, and thus the withdrawal volumes at ATMs and other POS systems were considerably lesser than national averages. Building a lot of rapport with the interviewer during the PI part helps to sail through your case with ease. Confidence and Presence is something which the interviewer is constantly judging and this is evident during multiple junctures in the interview. As much as you practice frameworks, you invariably have to start from a clean slate in a case based interview. It is necessary to not lose your calm if an unconventional case like this is given to you. Case prep develops a structured thinking approach for you which come in very handy in cases like these.

GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief: Company: Number of rounds: Interview Format: Interviewer: Any specific skills that you believe the interviewer was testing you on? ROUND 2 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Abhiram Reddy Senior Analyst, Strategy, PwC McKinsey & Company 2 Case Interview + PI Peeyush Dalmia, Partner Analytical ability and communication skills

Guesstimate Estimate the number of Bullet motorcycles in the country a) Clarification – In India, the term ‘Bullet’ is usually used to refer to all Royal Enfield motorcycles colloquially. Am I specifically looking to estimate the number of Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycles or all Royal Enfield motorcycles like the Classic, Thunderbird, etc.? I’m interested only in the number of Royal Enfield Bullets. b) Product Life – In my experience the Bullet motorcycles, despite their constant niggles, usually have a very good build quality and have a long life. So, may I assume a 5-year life of the motorcycle? Sure, you may assume that.

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Recommended Approach:

As soon as I entered the interview room, Peeyush told me that he didn’t have a lot of time and wanted to jump straight to a case after a brief introduction from both sides. He seemed very serious. In my introduction, I had touched upon my association with Royal Enfield and was very lucky to get a guesstimate on one of my most favorite brands and something I had a strong connect to. I started off by stating that there are a few ways to estimate the number of Bullets in the country – specifically I could estimate it from the Demand or Supply side. The interviewer said he’s okay with either approach. I went ahead and said I wanted to look at the supply side. Most people, myself included, have a 6 month to 1 year waiting period for their Bullet motorcycles. Hence, the supply (and not demand) was a constraint when it came to Royal Enfield motorcycles. Peeyush remarked that was a very good insight and asked me to quickly prod on and estimate the number. Next, I drew the entire supply value chain: RM Sourcing -> Manufacturing -> Logistics -> Dealer -> Customer An idea suddenly struck me. I knew that the PoD of a Bullet vs. all other Royal Enfield motorcycles was the fact that every Bullet tank was pin-striped by hand. Also, I remembered from an old Royal Enfield video that this hand pin-striping is an extremely high skilled job and it was passed on generation-to-generation within a single family in Chennai (where the Royal Enfield plant is located) I explained the entire value chain to Peeyush and then said I wanted to look at the bottleneck in the entire supply chain. I then narrated the above story and told him that I think the hand pin-striping of the tank was indeed the bottleneck in the entire Bullet value chain from RM to Customer. The interviewer genuinely looked happy after this. I then went ahead and quickly estimated the required numbers as: No. of Bullet Motorcycles = No. Manufactured per Year * Product Life = Bottleneck Capacity * 8 hrs a day * 300 working days a yr * 5 yrs (per hour) I made an assumption at this juncture. I assumed it takes about 10 mins. for pin-striping a single tank by hand and got the buy-in from

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the interviewer to validate my assumption. Thus, the bottleneck neck capacity was 6 units an hour. (Each bike required one tank and the bottleneck was the painter who could pinstripe each tank in 10 mins, i.e., 6 tanks an hour) Peeyush stopped me here and said he was satisfied with my approach. After the guesstimate, he seemed a lot more relaxed and went back to PI. We had a very quick chat about my leadership experiences at IIT. Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

Got an offer immediately after the interview! While McKinsey usually doesn’t have stressed-based interviews and most interviewers are very chilled out, you might occasionally be faced with an interviewer who is of the serious-type. Keeping a cool mind and a relaxed demeanor really helps, not only in thinking out of the box, but also in portraying a great attitude to the interviewer. To emphasize again, Confidence is key! Appearing confident to the interviewer, irrespective of how confused you are internally, is critical.

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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief:

Ankana Risk analyst, EY (close to 2 years) Economics graduate, SRCC Company: McKinsey and Company Number of rounds: 2 Interview Format: 1st round- 2 interviews (Mandatory) followed by 2nd round (for some interviewees it may go up to 3-4 rounds) Interviewer: Partner Any specific skills that you believe the Problem Solving and communication skills interviewer was testing you on? ROUND 1 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Business Case Help the CEO of a large FMCG company in India estimate the benefits that it can derive from the implementation of GST The following questions should be asked: 1. Product mix and range of the FMCG company. (The company produces personal care products such as moisturizers and shampoos) 2. Where does it operate within India? (I was told it is present Pan- India) 3. Where are the manufacturing and distribution centers of the company? (It had one manufacturing center in Uttar Pradesh and one in Maharashtra. There were 30 large warehouses spread across the country and multiple distribution or stocking centers around these warehouses)

Recommended Approach:

You may ask other related questions as well. I started by sketching the value chain of the company. The interviewer helped add some additional information that was unique to the model that the company followed. I explained that GST is most likely to have an impact on the interstate transportation and distribution due to its impact on taxes on interstate taxes. He asked me few questions to check my understanding on the topic (It could be because I am an economics graduate that I am expected to know these things well) I clearly stated three main transportation networks that I would look into- a) From the suppliers to the manufacturing sites, b) From the manufacturing sites to the large warehouses and c) From the

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warehouses to the smaller distribution centers. I clarified if the company looks after the transport channel only up to this point and if I should also explore any online sales network. I was told to go with the above three. As I went deeper into each transport network, I was able to rule out raw material transport. On probing into the costs, it became clear that the cost of operating the warehouses (currently one in every state) was higher than the distribution centers. Also, I asked about the number of trucks, total capacity of each truck and cost/ km to transport to the warehouse and to the distribution center. The trucks were of varying capacities and the per kilometer cost of transport was different for the two transport network. The total volume of goods transported was fixed and I confirmed if I can take the same average volume for each state for simplicity. I did some number crunching and it revealed that the current model of a warehouse in each state may not be most efficient but was helping in saving taxes. Under GST, it made more sense to have clustered warehouses that catered to the demand in multiple states.

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

ROUND 2 Case Type: Case Narration:

On comparing the two costs, I could finally come up with an approximate value of benefits that the new model of warehouses under GST could produce. I was asked to synthesize the case. This round was through a video conference as the Partner was in Singapore. In a VC round it is very important to be articulate about what you are solving and it helps to do a few cases with a buddy or a friend on a call. Once in a while you may even pick your sheet to show your structure to the interviewer. 1. Keep confirming your assumptions with the interviewer. 2. It is alright to restrict the scope to only the gains pertaining to the firm and ignore indirect gains, if any. 3. It is important to have some basic awareness of key political and economic issues and it is good idea to show whatever you know in a topic like this to scope the question well. Abstract Estimate the size of land that should be bought in order to build an IT park which also supports residential living and is self-sufficient. Land is very costly to acquire. So it is important to buy only necessary (yet sufficient) area of land.

Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

One should clarify basic objectives of the IT park. I also confirmed if I should take into account a growth factor and whether we would like to keep certain amenities that wasn’t very clear.

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Recommended Approach:

I took a few minutes to chalk out the various heads under which I would need to allocate land. It is important to make this list as exhaustive as possible and check with the interview if the list is good to work with or if he believes you are missing any major heads. I went by first noting the following heads: 1. Administration (Govt. offices, law and order and judiciary etc.) 2. Residential (Living spaces along with parking lots) 3. Recreational (parks, entertainment centers, Marketplaces like malls or kiosks) 4. Commercial (main IT office spaces, industrial spaces etc.) 5. Amenities (Schools, hospitals etc.) 6. Green cover (mandated to be 33% of total land area) + Marshy spots or water bodies 7. Roads and transport (can include land for airport or railways if these are considered important) 8. Buffer (For expected population or industrial growth) I have included a few additional heads above that may be relevant to a usual city (marked in green) but since through my discussion with my interviewer, I only went with what was relevant (marked in black). The interviewer looked happy with the list, so I went about each head one by one. At this stage, he asked me to only explain the approach that I would follow the land needed for each of the heads: On asking a few clarifying questions, I was told that the IT park would be expected to create 7000 jobs to start with. I explained that not every employee is likely to live nearby and some may choose to travel from elsewhere (As it was being built near a prominent city). The interviewer liked this idea and gave me a proportion of people who are likely to live in the residential area nearby. I also estimated that there would be some support staff and other supporting jobs such as that of teachers and doctors etc. that would get created to make this place self-sufficient. I was given a multiplier of 5 per every IT job. I explained an assumption of 1-2 working individuals in a family on average and about 5 people in every household. The interview told me that I could assume 1.5 working individuals per household of 5. Once I estimate the population through the information, I was able to then estimate the number of schools and hospitals needed and also the number of houses required. I was also given the area per house for different income levels and I

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took a weighted average to arrive at an average house’s size. After allowing me to explain a few of the heads, the interviewer seemed satisfied by the approach and asked me to synthesize. Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

When faced with an abstract case, it is very important to be calm and take a few minutes to structure your thoughts. Regular frameworks would not help in such cases but with enough practice, it is possible to start thinking about ways in which you can present your views. As always, there is no right or wrong answer in such cases. It is only the clarity of thought and approach that matters.

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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief:

Akshay Kapoor B.Tech + M.Tech in Chemical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur Senior Field Engineer, Schlumberger Company: McKinsey Number of rounds: 3 Interview Format: Case Interview + PI Interviewer: Partner(don’t remember name) Any specific skills that you believe the Analytical ability and communication skills interviewer was testing you on? Specific PI Questions General Conversation about my work as the interviewer was already aware of what I do. Asked to tell an experience where I showcased either leadership or passion or innovation? Here I narrated an experience where I told of an experience which incorporated all the three characteristics. In 3rd interview was asked how my day has gone so far? ROUND 1 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach:

Growth Strategy A paint company is looking to increase topline from 12% to 20% Asked questions about the firm (mkt. share), competitors, industry, customer segments (premium, mid, economy), and company products (types of paints). Timeline for achieving this growth?(5 years) No fixed framework used. From the scoping it was clear that the firm was only in the premium and mid segments but was not present in the economy. Data was provided that the market consisted of 20% premium, 40% mid and 40% economy customers. The firm’s market share was 40% in premium and 10% in mid segment. Asked to quantify in numbers the possible scenarios through which the objective can be attained. Answered them as Scenario 1: Enter into Economy Segment Mkt. Share: 40% Premium, 15% mid segment, 15% economy segment Scenario 2: Do not Enter Economy Segment Mkt Share: 50% Premium, 25% mid segment Arriving at reasonable estimations for numbers and reaching 20% quickly I believe was key. Post this made a structure of Pros and Cons of each of the scenarios

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and discussed them. The most important Con for expanding into economy segment was expansion of distribution and advertising into network to Tier 3 cities which would be extremely difficult and costly Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

ROUND 2 Case Type: Case Narration:

Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

This was my first interview of the day. There were some nerves in the beginning which were alleviated by the fact that the partner had done the same work pre ISB in Halliburton. This relation helped build a connection which I believe was the most positive aspect of this interview. As both of us were from Oil &Gas industry asked 3-4 post interview questions about Oil & Gas Consulting. Sales Force Effectiveness & Guesstimate Case 1: An insurance firm is having problems of low sales force productivity. Asked to identify possible reasons. Case 2: Estimate the number of flights that take off from Delhi Airport in a day. Case 1 What Insurance does the firm Sell? (Life) How do we measure productivity? (No. of policies sold per agent) Competitors and their mkt. share (Our firm was the third in mkt. share with about 20% share) Case 2 Do we consider both terminals or only 1 terminal? (Only 1) Number of runways? (Only 1)

Recommended Approach:

Case 1 Sales Force Effectiveness was one of the frameworks for which I had not done a prior case, so couldn’t remember much about the framework. Made an initial bucket list of reasons: 1) Skill Level 2) Incentives 3) Quality of our Product 4) Agent selling multiple company insurances After this the interviewer started asking think more. Each time I would take 15-20 seconds and come up with another point. Was asked to think more at least 4 more times and each time came up with some additional point. Not sure if the interviewer was looking for any specific point or the breadth of points I could cover or just the fact whether I could come up with new points each time and not give up. Case 2 If one has practiced guesstimates this comes out to be a standard

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Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

ROUND 3 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach:

guesstimate question. I laid down my approach upfront [Number of Runways * [1 hr / (time taken by one flight on runway)] * Avg. Utilization Rate ] / 2 As I was comfortable with the question in particular I tried to be as granular as possible in my approach. For utilization: Clubbed the 24hrs in a day into buckets of 4hrs each and estimated what the utilization percent would be in those 4 hour buckets. Like 100% in 5 AM to 9AM 80% in 9AM to 1 PM 70% in 1PM to 5PM 90% in 5PM to 9PM 80% in 9PM to 1AM 40% in 1AM to 5AM The division by 2 in the end was important as the question only asked about the number of flights that take off. In the second case I used my strength in mental maths. Being familiar with the case and wanting to make a mark I didn’t round off any of the numbers as is typically recommended and performed the calculations with all the decimals etc. quickly. I could see the interviewer appreciated my speed and correctness of calculations. PS: Not rounding off approach is not recommended if you are not confident about it. In the end correctness always matters more than speed.

Growth Strategy Indian Oil has hired you to advise them on their growth strategy Made a mistake as didn’t ask any and directly jumped to analysis.

Started out with the Products / Revenue Streams for Indian Oil 1) Petrol/Diesel 2) Gas 3) Petrochemicals As in the scoping I hadn’t initially asked for strategy for how many years I was just moving with an assumption that we are looking at a short term strategy of approx. 5 years (Don’t know why I was solving under this assumption). Made an initial suggestion that Current operations seem good as the price of crude oil is also relatively low and is expected to stay that way so just maintain current operations and try and reduce costs if possible. Asked to analyze further from demand side

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Split it into: Fuel for vehicles Aviation Fuel Fuel for large generators etc. Lubricants etc. Petrochemical Industry LPG Once I wrote these down, I realized that a large proportion of revenues would be coming from Fuel for vehicles. With the proliferation of alternate fuel sources Indian Oil would have to foray into other energy sources to have a long term sustainable growth. Interviewer asked me what I did wrong? I accepted that I jumped to conclusion very quickly without analyzing Interviewer also pointed out that I did not ask the timeline for which I was designing the strategy.

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

The interviewer was smiling the entire time and at the end I was given an offer. Before entering the room I was told that I have been doing well and this is the last mile which I need to overcome. The case didn’t go that well what worked in my favor was that I corrected myself once prompted to look at the problem in greater detail. Though whenever I practiced cases with my batch mates and buddies I used to fill about 1-2 pages but in each of the interviews with interviewer in each case I filled maximum half a page only. This was done in an attempt to just write the main points and then keep the case as conversational as possible. A connect with the interviewer and him liking you goes a long way in you getting the offer.

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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief: Company: Number of rounds: Interview Format: Interviewer: Any specific skills that you believe the interviewer was testing you on? ROUND 1 – Interview 1 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach:

Anmol Singh Mann Flipkart, GreedyGame Media McKinsey 3 Guesstimation + Case Interview + PI PQR, Partner Analytical ability and communication skills

PI + Case Demonetization, Pros/Cons, Impact Interviewer was Navtez Bal. Interview kicked off with generic PI questions, about myself and all and how was my day scheduled. Then went straight to the case The initial PI questions really set the tone for the interview so do not ignore your PI part. It gives you the initial confidence and settles the butterflies in your stomach. For the Demonetization case, it was an open-ended case and initially started by what kind of impact it would have. I classified it into 3 buckets – Economic Impact, Operational Impact, and Psychological Impact. Navtez asked me to about each a bit in detail, hence: Eco – Pros – increase liquidity; Cons – lost biz Operational – explained the value chain and mismatch the supply and demand of new notes and how it can be corrected Psychological –Pros – dip in terrorist and hwala activities, improved global perception; Cons – impact on general people in terms of all the hassle Navtez then asked me to quantify the positive impact on GDP because of Demonetization, and the case moved towards a guestimate problem: -started by taking India’s total GDP ~ $4 tn -main point here was that demonetization will result in cash deposits with banks hence increasing liquidity and lowering interest rates -this would lower interest expense for companies -Navtez told me to now find out how much money will be able to recover if the interest rate has been lowered from bad accounts -Navtez told me to assume some $1 tn is stuck in bad loans and NPAs -Increases liquidity and incentive to pay taxes will improve it -further classified it via Small, Med, and Large biz -took %age of loan defaults via each -wat %age will be able to recover because of this

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Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments: ROUND 1 – Interview 2 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Recommended Approach:

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

Navtez guided me to focus on primarily the credit floating in the market and guess the impact using it Make the case more of a discussion, then a Q&A. Take time to structure the problem in your mind and then state it to the interviewer up front. Keep confirming your assumptions with the interviewer. Aim to practice at least 50+ cases diligently PI + Case You are the Sales Head of a Creative Agency who has clients in both India and Abroad. The revenues are doing Oks, but the CEO wants to take it further level. Suggest? My interviewer was Somnath Chatterjee. This interview was more intense unlike the first interview with Navtez which was more like a conversation. Started with PI questions from my resume, and Somnath asked all details about my work in Flipkart, my role in startup (GreedyGame Media) and why do I want to move into Consulting (read McKinsey) now as I was more of a startup guy. I had introspected while making this move into ISB and consulting very well for over a year now and my PI prep came to good use here. Moving to the case – asked scoping questions – exact product, geo, time, customers, competitions, etc. What was the exact goal and what success meant to the client Started by usual Revenue framework – revenue per customer and number of customers. Somnath told me that the price per creative work cannot be increased much. Also, he told that primarily our customers are in Europe. Rest he told me to explore all possible options. I took some time to come up with an initial framework to increase revenues – new customers, existing customers. Under existing customers I told him we will analyze the repeat rates, ticket size, kind of work and geo. Under new clients I told him we can explore in Euro market and Indian market both. He told me to think more on how will I fetch new clients in Europe market – here my experience in startup came to good use as we were involved in similar situation in GreedyGame Media, when we were planning to get sales from European clients. I told him that in B2B sales introductions and foot in the door is every important, so to start off we can have an one-year deal with some sales agency in Europe which can help us sell, based on sweat equity versus some revenue target. He liked the idea and how I linked it to my past experience. After this Somnath also got involved into the case I mapped my entire experience as Sales Head in GreedyGame to this case and luckily for me it worked well Be thorough about who you really are, what you want, why you want it and what kind of work you have done to show that. Apart from your intellectual and academic ability which is judged via your GPA and cases, it’s important that you should be able to sell yourself well and showcase what is the uniqueness you bring to the firm.

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Apart from this PI and Case prep are very important. 50+ cases help you be thorough with frameworks and also give you confidence ROUND 2 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach:

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

Guesstimate Number of buses moving in and out of Jalandhar (my hometown) bus stand per day? Cleared McKinsey Round 1 and Round 2 interview was taken by Peeyush Dalmia. It started by 1-2 PI questions and then straight to case. He told me he wants exact numbers as solution (probably wanted to test my quant abilities as the previous 2 cases had not) After some initial scoping questions (not much possible here), I took some time and mapped it to a case I had done as to how many aircrafts will move in and out of airport within a day. So I told him that I will solve it from supply side. There are around 20 terminals in Jalandhar bus stand and it takes around 30 mins for a bus to park wait and then leave their scheduled terminal. I then divided the fill rate of each terminal by time over the day – 0-6, 6-12, 12-6, 6-12, based on how busy the bus stand will be and assigned a fill rate accordingly. I just told him the approach and he seemed satisfied and told me no need to solve. Piyush told me to wait for 5 mins and later Suyog Kotecha came and welcomed me to the firm. Happy times! I cleared Round 1with McKinsey and was in between interviews of another consulting firm when the result came out. They told me to wait with them and sign the F&F with them, but then I had to stay with them for another hour and miss my scheduled McKinsey interview Round 2. I left them and came to McKinsey interview and they told me that this would lower my chances if I came later now. It was tough call at that time, but McKinsey is where I wanted to go! It is VERY CRITICAL to have your priorities set for Day 1 or else you will be lost after your first rounds

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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief:

Gazal Gupta For 2.5+ years, Business Analyst at Amadeus Software Labs – Global leader in travel technology Company: McKinsey & Co. Number of rounds: 2 Interview Format: Case Interview + PI Interviewer: Round 1: Somnath Chatterjee, Partner Round 2: Sujit Chatterjee, Partner Any specific skills that you believe the Analytical ability and structure interviewer was testing you on? ROUND 1 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach:

Your experience/ DOs and

Abstract type+ Guesstimate What is the percentage change in GDP in the next two quarters in the wake of demonetization? He mentioned that he was interested in a numerical figure. Since the problem statement was pretty direct & crisp, I did not ask any scoping questions. I Started with two broad approaches: 1. Proxy data from previous demonetization scenarios in India (1946, 1978) and demonetization instances in other countries (UK, Malaysia, etc.) but I mentioned that the scenario might be very different to take this as exactly the same. 2. Divided the impact into 3 phases as transactional, transitional and transformational and I told him that I would majorly look at these from an economic and social standpoint. He said let’s focus at only the economic perspective in order to arrive at numerical change in GDP. Looking at only the short term change, then from an economic perspective I said GDP=C+G+I+NX He said let’s focus on Consumption being 0.5*GDP and then let’s estimate the change in GDP due to change in consumption. I broke it down as function of number of people and their consumption, which would be different in urban and rural.. income groups, discretionary and essentials.. We discussed a little more on the approach and then he gave me time to come to a numerical change. I took my time to arrive at the numerical value and walked him through the calculation. I mentioned that the change seemed a little too high to me and offered my qualitative opinion on it. Then he ended it at that saying had we had more time we could look at other factors of GDP (G,I, NX). Overall, I did not get much idea during the interview as to how the

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DONTs/Any comments:

ROUND 2 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach:

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

case was going because it was pretty abstract. Frameworks are important, but a lot of time it goes for a toss, so you need to think from the scratch. But I think the fact that I still tried to put a structure to it and could finally give a numerical value was what mattered. And yes, the case solving process surely became a lot of discussion here as then we were discussing about demonetization and its impact actually. IT Services; Profitability For an IT services firm, sales are growing but margin is going down. Evaluate why? I asked a few scoping questions around what kind of services does it offer, customers, geographies served, decline in margin since when… I laid down my structure, talking about Revenue= Billing rate * #of projects and broke down cost into majorly fixed and variable. I said, since sales were increasing, I wanted to start with the cost side. Discussed all cost heads, and since major cost head was employee cost, delved further into that. Discussed on shore and off shore projects and cost. I realized then that it is important to consider the billing rate and proportion of projects for on shore and off shore. This was the catch as the company was earning higher margin in off shore projects however, recently they were doing more of India based projects. With this, I quickly summarized the case and mentioned one two quick recommendations that came to my mind. Not a difficult case, but I tried to be elaborate while talking mentioning all possible scenarios and things that could impact. I think clarity of thought, structure and comprehensiveness helped here.

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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief: Company: Number of rounds: Interview Format: Interviewer: Any specific skills that you believe the interviewer was testing you on? ROUND 1 Case Type: Case Narration:

Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach:

Saurabh Gupta Operational Excellence, ITC and Alghanim Industries (Kuwait) Mckinsey 2 PI + Case Interview Kunwar Vijayant Singh, Partner Analytical ability and communication skills. Higher focus on PI – my interview experience was enhanced because of a good PI.

Market Entry + Acquisition Case was HBS Type. He opened the deck which he claimed he was also reading for the first time. He started reading the case and asked me to note down the details. It was a tractor and other agricultural manufacturer in US who wanted to expand and was looking to acquire a manufacturer in Canada. His question was what questions I will ask in the first team meeting if Mckinsey was hired by this manufacturer. Basic scoping questions Existing Revenues, any specific revenue target or any other objective, core competence, competition in the target market, competence of the target etc. I drew the market entry framework: - Fundamental Attractiveness (Size, Growth, Competition) - Relative Competitive Advantage (Client + Target: Synergies) - Risks (PEST) I listed down relevant questions under each head and the partner seemed satisfied – he gave me few inputs related to synergies and risks. He then gave me an exhibit and asked me to calculate % year on year increase in a metric he defined, which I did quickly and he seemed very happy.

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

PI was the key because it helped me start on a very good note after which rest of the interview flowed smoothly.

GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief: Company: Number of rounds: Interview Format: Interviewer:

Saurabh Gupta Operational Excellence, ITC and Alghanim Industries (Kuwait) Mckinsey 2 PI + Case Interview Akash Lal, Senior Partner

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Any specific skills that you believe the Depth of Work Experience and Emotional Maturity, Quick thinking interviewer was testing you on? ROUND 2 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach:

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

Marketing: Quick thinking in coming up with possible solutions A Financial Services conglomerate (gave me the full background) wants to do cross selling of its different services to the customers. What are the different ways to do it? He gave me necessary background in advance – client has life insurance, mutual funds, gold loans etc. financial services businesses, but all are separate companies with almost no integration. They want to do cross selling and how can they achieve it? I drew customer process flow while purchasing and availing a financial service and came up with possible integration solutions at different junctures under the heads of people (common salesmen who can sell life insurance for long term and mutual funds for short term – used the concept of human income in portfolio theory), facility (common office), process (recommendations like amazon when a customer purchases one product) and technology (common app, website). The case was quite straightforward and I took some time in realizing that he just wanted me to give solutions without much analysis. He seemed satisfied with my solutions – he added that they also advised the client to have single customer id for all the services provided. He went in depth into my experience specifically in middle east as to how I managed the cultural differences. The authenticity and detailing of my answers worked. Also, I was able to bring out the effort I had put into people management in my answers.

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

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Personal Details Name: Pre ISB experience:

Avinish Mittal 3 years of Consulting/advisory + 1.5 years of entrepreneurial experience

Interview Details Company Name: Role: Offer Accepted: How best to prepare for this role: Pre-Process Description:

Mckinsey JA Yes 1. Revise all core courses. GyaanKosh is very useful. 2. Do a lot of case prep. Around 80 cases is a good number N/A

Round 1: # of Panelists: Type of Interview:

Personality Interview Description:

Shirish Sankhe (Partner) PI + Case 1. Tell me about yourself 2. Why do you want to join consulting? Since I had cofounded a startup before coming to ISB (after having worked in a consulting firm for 3 years), this was a tricky question 3. Why Mckinsey? At this point, I asked Shirish why he stayed with Mckinsey for such a long time. He mentioned his reasons (mostly personal). This broke the ice between us and made the remaining interview very conversational

Case question: Our client is a public sector bank, who has come to us to help them restructure a loan that they gave to a private sector power company

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Scoping questions: 1. What was the loan amount: INR ~20K Cr 2. When was it disbursed: 10 years back 3. Why do they need to restructure it? To answer this question, Shirish gave me the following financials of the company: Revenue: INR 55K Cr EBITDA: INR 1K Cr Based on this info, we inferred that the company would not be able to service the loan (Apart from the WC requirements, it won't even be able to pay the interest that should amount to approximately INR 2K Cr (10% * 20K Cr) Approach: I laid out two possible options for the bank. 1. Write the loan off 2. Restructure the terms of the loan (top up the loan to help the company run and start paying the loan back) However, in order to move forward, we needed to figure out the reasons for the current situation of the company. I asked a question about the company operations and benchmarked it against other players: What is the capacity utilization by the company? Shirish said that its 55%,

very low compared to industry benchmarks. The reason was incapable management as well as fraud by company promoters. Shirish then redirected the discussion towards what two things bank should do restructure the loan. I mentioned the following: 1. Firstly, bank should change the management of the company (by using the covenants that it had put in place) 2. Disburse more money to the company while converting debt to equity to increase ownership and wield more control on the ops of the company Shirish seemed happy with the discussion and he closed the case

Feedback (if any):

Shrish mentioned that it’s a live case that he is working on and this is what they also recommended to the client

Learning (if any):

Try to build a repo with the interviewer as soon as you start the interview. This makes the case easier to crack

Round 2: # of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Puneet Chandok (Partner) PI + Case 1. Tell me about yourself 2. Why do you want to join consulting? 3. I worked with Everest Group for 2 years. Puneet asked me about my role there Case situation: CEO of a BPO services company has approached Mckinsey to help them build a strategy in the wake of increasing use of robotic automation in the industry Scoping questions: 1. What is the impact of automation on the business of the client? BPO service providers uses an FTE-based pricing model. Increaed automation reduces the number of FTEs staffed on a project, thereby reducing the fee that the service providers can charge 2. Any other strategic motives of the client? 15% growth in the topline YoY 3. Size of the company? US$ 2 bn revenue 4. What kind of services does the client provide? Low-end work such as invoice processing done by offshore resources (constituting 40% of the revenue). This kind of work can also be done by robots

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Approach: I laid the following structure down. The client had three options (for MECE purposes): 1. Do nothing 2. Embrace automation and move to a different pricing model 3. Adopt a hybrid structure - use FTE-based pricing for some services and other pricing models for automated services I mentioned that doing nothing is not advisable as the client stands to lose 40% of its business if competitors adopt automation or if BPO buyers take the business inhouse through an automation exercise of their own. Puneet also agreed and said that client should go for option 3 (hybrid model). Puneet also asked me to consider a typical project with 100 FTEs and suggest what the client should do. Going ahead with that suggestion, I created a tree saying that for an 100 FTE project, client

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would now earn money on 60 FTEs. In order to compensate for the revenue loss on the 40 FTEs, the client should do that following: 1. Increase the FTE requirements by upselling more services (do complementary work convincing client to outsource more services) 2. Increase per FTE pricing by doing more sophisticated work (moving away from trasactional work to services that require more expertise) 3. Change pricing model (move to an outcome-based pricing model) Puneet closed the case down at this point

Feedback (if any):

None

Learning (if any):

Don’t lose your cool. If the case seems tricky, scope it very well. Good scoping make solving really easy. Since, I had already worked in the global services space (with Everest Group), I didn't ask many questions

Round 3: # of Panelists: Type of Interview:

Vivek Arora (Associate partner) This was a 5 min chat, got an offer immediately after my two round of interviews

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Personal Details Name: Pre ISB experience:

Sarvesh Gupta Founder - Medspero Health Pvt Ltd. (Health Tech - www.DoctOpinion.com), Business Development-Sales & Marketing - Texas Instruments

Interview Details Company Name: Role: Offer Accepted: How best to prepare for this role: Pre-Process Description:

McKinsey & Co. Junior Associate Yes CFIN1, CFIN2, OPMG, LSCM, CSTR, Case studies practie, General Affairs Buddy Interviews & case rounds

Round 1: # of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

1 Guesstimate & Market Entry Types of questions asked : The interviewer tried to make me feel comfortable. We struck a personal rapport in the beginning itself Any Unexpected questions : Where did you lose the edge in your CGPA? Why? Situational caselets / Q&As

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Issue : What would be the number of tourists visiting Goa every year Approach : Top Down - Demand based guesstimate developed around an assumption on number of hotels in Goa Structure : Narrow down to which kind of tourists -> 3-5 Star Hotels -> Seasonal occupancy -> Stay per guest Recommendation

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Issue : Would you recommend a public bank like SBI to get into Wealth Management for HNIs, what do ou think their challenges will be? Approach : Narrow down the problem to what exactly happens in Wealth Management. Structure : Evaluate the problem using market share (SOM< SOV< SOD) approach. Recommendation : We reached a concensus that the perception of a government bank - does not build upon the reputation of HNIs who are used to exceptional quality services. Handling this would be the biggest challenge for SBI

Feedback (if any): Learning (if any):

I was told after the interview that the interviewer felt that I was nervous - however that was not the case at all. So in hindsight, I would recommend people to be smiling - calm and interested in the problem solving process.

Round 2: # of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description (if Any):

1 PI & Structured (Printed) case Types of questions asked : Background - work experience. Any Unexpected questions : Situational caselets / Q&As Issue : PE firm wants to invest in a garment manufacturer in California. The manufacturer has presence online along with 10 stores. The firm expects 25% return over 3 years. What is the minimum investment that they should make. Current revenues were $60Mn, growing at 10% annually with 20% profit margin Approach : The printed document had all the relevant data for in depth calculations. Seeked out all the details for calculation Structure : Market Entry framework with elements of profitability Recommendation : Based on the data that was provided - it wasnt prudent for the PE firm to invest in the garment manufacturer

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Feedback (if any): Learning (if any):

I initially got a little nervous at the sight of printed case - since we had never practiced anything like that before. Remember - the printed case should be even easier since you stick to a particular train of thought. Just be aware that such cases would be very intensive on calculations and those will be tested on the spot thoroughly - so maintain your cool throughout.

Round 3: 1 Profitability Case

# of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Types of questions asked : Background/experience based questions Any Unexpected questions Situational caselets / Q&As Issue : A water purifier manufacturer has an order placed by the government of Papua New Guinea for 10000 units. The manufacturer shipped the units 3 days earlier than the scheduled date. However the client got back to him informing of a new virus strain which needs to be filtered by the purifier. The current generation of purifiers (which was shipped) is incapable of doing that and manufacturer has another - more expensive product which meets the newer requirement. Can this deal be made profitable for the manufacturer? Approach : Understand the inticancies in depth by asking good scoping questions Structure : Profitability case - along with do something/do nothing frameworks Recommendation : After almost 45 min of discussion we did figure out a way of the situation profitably.

Feedback (if any):

Learning (if any):

We are generally used to 20-30 min cases with one stream of thought. This case had almost 5-6 twists and turns, and the partner kept changing the situation on the go. What worked for me was the fact that I was quick in ideating and keeping the conversational involved with the partner.

Round 4: # of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Case Interview Description (if Any):

1 Guesstimate + Structured approach to current affairs Types of questions asked : Any Unexpected questions Situational caselets / Q&As Issue : Estimate the number of cars parked in ISB currently Approach : Taken into account that since placements are going on - multiple stakeholders would be visiting. Narrowed down to taxis/personal vehicles Structure : Number of companies visiting campus -> number of visitors -> number of cabs -> number of people staying overnight and further narrowing down Recommendation : Issue : What is the impact of demonetisation on GDP Approach : Basic fundamentals of economics and knowledge of current affairs. Demonetisation had happened just a week before the interviews and was a much discussed topic Structure : GDP = C + I + G + NX Recommendation : Short term and long term impacts discussed on C, G

Feedback (if any):

Learning (if any):

The interviewer is essentially checking on structured thinking and current awareness of the important issues. Our class had prepared well in advance on impact of Demonetisation, GST and Trump becoming US president. There is no right/wrong answer - but you should have a logically structured opinion and thats what the interviewer is checking. Also - if you can involve him in an interesting conversation or not will be the key.

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Boston Consulting Group

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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief: Company: Number of rounds: Interview Format: Interviewer: Any specific skills that you believe the interviewer was testing you on? ROUND 1 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Recommended Approach:

Akshaya Mahesh ECE B.Tech NIT Warangal – Software developer Cisco Systems BCG 3 PI + Case Interview Project Leader, Partner Analytical ability

Volume Growth A port is seeing less volume than its competitor in spite of charging lower prices and wants to increase its utilization. Q. What is the bottleneck – demand or supply? Demand Q. Description of the process at the port and revenue streams Ship arrives – Offloading – Storage - Distribution Q. Who are their customers? Power plant – mainly coal is transported The interviewer gave me the following numbers– Avg. capacity of a ship Offloading capacity per day for client and competitor Offloading price/ton for client and competitor Parking fee per ship per day for client and competitor Avg. number of storage days Storage fee per ton per day for client and competitor Using the numbers I calculated the total cost to the customer as higher for the client than the competitor mainly due to lower offloading capacity of the client leading to increased parking spend and greater time spent in storage. This explained the preference for the competitor, However the interviewer then said that the client lowered the prices such that the total cost equals the competitor but the demand did not increase.

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

After a few more questions I realized that the customer continued to prefer the competitor because of the slower turnaround time at the client port and also because the rail route from our port was longer than from the competitor port. If you get bombarded with numbers keep calm and take your time.

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ROUND 2 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Profitability Client is a retail chain which has rapidly expanded but is seeing a decline in revenue growth. I was given numbers regarding the revenue and profitability per store for the past three years. Here the total revenue had not declined but the revenue per store and profitability had reduced. Q. Competitor scenario Chains like Max. They are seeing expected growth in revenue. (Thus I concluded that it was an issue specific to the client)

Recommended Approach:

Q. Drop in profitability seen in some specific stores or across all stores? All Used the profitability framework to reach the point that customers perceive our store to be more expensive. After some discussion realized that even though we were similarly priced for similar items, the collection we had differed from the others Client – More options at a higher price point

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Competitor – More options at a lower price point

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

ROUND 3 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach:

This was the main issue and I was asked to give some recommendations. As much as you practice frameworks, invariably you have to start from a clean slate in a case based interview. Also if you panic/blank out it is better to tell the interviewer instead of messing up the case. They mostly will understand and help you calm down

IT Industry. Unconventional What are the responsibilities of a CIO? What is the quickest way to cut IT costs?

It was mostly a discussion. Quickest way to cut costs is apparently to stop new projects. Then he asked me if I had a list of projects on what basis would I terminate/continue projects. He wanted financial metrics : 1. NPV 2. Payback period 3. Cost to completion

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

And fourth was a binary criteria based on criticality. If you are stuck, think out loud.

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Personal Details Name: Pre ISB experience:

Gaurav Pansari Chartered Accountant, 4 years with Britannia

Interview Details Company Name: Role: Offer Accepted: How best to prepare for this role: Pre-Process Description:

The Boston Consulting Group Senior Associate Yes Case in Point, ISB case book, Buddy cases, All core courses All consulting firms assign you a 'buddy' who guides you and helps you with case prep. Additionally, the BCG team had a networking lunch

Round 1: # of Panelists: Type of Interview:

1 Case

Personality Interview Description:

The interview began with a general introduction and we jumped straight to the case after that. All the interviews were conversational - no stress interviews.

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Case: A mobile phone manufacturer is experiencing declining profits. Approach: Scoping included questions about the industry, competition, customers and any changes in them Recommendation: The case did not have a specific problem (or something I could not identify). We evaluated problems in terms of distributors who were selling phones from multiple manufacturers, incentive structure for the sales team, alternate channels for distribution like online, consolidating SKU's, etc.

Feedback (if any):

N/A

Learning (if any):

Round 2: # of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description (if Any):

1 Case Tell me something about yourself - I happened to mention I am from Kolkata Tell me more about Kolkata Case: Railway ministry has 20 acres of surplus land 5 km from Howrah Railway Station. It wants to monetise the land asap. Approach: Broke solution into existing businesses and new opportunities. Existing included new railway station, warehousing facility, rail yard, etc - none viable or fast enough. Sale of land not possible. Leasing was the ony option. The land could be leased to a shopping mall. Interviewer wanted me to calculate the maximum rent that could be expected. The case then moved to breaking revenue channels for a mall (rentals, parking, advertisement), estimating cost of construction, and drawing up revenue estimates for 10 years. The mall would expect a 45% ROI. The solution would need a discounting of the cash flows at 45% (actual computation of rent amount was not required)

Feedback (if any):

N/A

Learning (if any):

Spent too much time on options from 'current business' when the interviewer was hinting to move on - pay attention to such hints

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Round 3: # of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description (if Any):

1 Case What was your role at your last company? Why consulting? Why BCG? What are 2 skills that set you apart from others? Case: A NBFC is suffering from low sales per salesman. Scoping: General questions about product, competition, customers. The product was primary personal loans. The sales happened through multiple agents. The clients salesmen went to these agent stores to collect any potential applications, and then upload on a system. The average number of such uploads were low for our client. Approach: The problem could be broken down into # of salesmen, # of agents, average leads per agent, lead to application ratio, application to loan ratio. The problem was with the average leads per agent. We realised that the quality of the agents were not upto the mark - While the number of agents was same, the agents in the outskirts of the city were selected who generated lower leads.

Feedback (if any): Learning (if any):

The first 3 interviewers did not ask for specific solutions/ suggestions

Round 4: # of Panelists: Type of Interview:

1 Case

Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Case: A IT services firm is has lower profitability than industry. Scoping: The business had 3 major service lines and multiple geographies - The business verticals were divided into 6 heads (in different combinations). Approach: Traditional framwork did not help. The problem was in terms of low utilisation of manpower. It stemmed from the fact that the company could not cross sell it service lines to existing clients. The reason was different verticals handling the different service lines. Suggestion: Realign verticals based on client industries. Interviewer suggested that the hardware service line would operate better if integrated. Suggested that we could have a common sales team, with incentives for both teams aligned to increasing revenues from clients

Feedback (if any): Learning (if any):

Tips and gyaan 1

Manage the interview day well - each company would take up 3-5 hrs for all rounds put together

2 3

Form case prep groups (one permanent and others can be rotational) with dedicated individuals Above all - be confident!

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Personal Details Name:

GOURAV GARG

Pre ISB experience:

Political Consulting (co-founder)

Interview Details Company Name: Role: Offer Accepted: How best to prepare for this role: Pre-Process Description:

The Boston Consulting Group Senior Associate Yes Case preparation and PI None

Round 1: 1 Case + PI

# of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Question asked: Tell me about yourself. The interviewer took me to the pantry for the interview and started the interview on a lighter note. Issue: An in-warranty mobile phone repairing chain (which as of now repairs phones in warranty period only) is considering to expand in out-of-warranty mobile repairing market. Please recommend the client how he should go about it? basically, How big the market is? Who will be the customers? What can be the price point? Approach: I started the case by asking generic questions to understand the business and then went on to draw market entry structure. It took me around 5-7 minutes to understand the complete business. I had hit the point in scoping questions only and then interviewer asked me to discuss further on that point. Structure: Interviewer told me that the client is located in South India and has franchise of a branded mobile phone service centre (for the purpose of this case consider Samsung). The company (here Samsung) provides the hardwares and pays the client based on volume (remember: customers do not pay anything during warranty period). The client now wants to expand into out of warranty phone repair market to increase the profits. While probing about the profits of the competitors, the interviewer told me that there are two kind of players: local stores and chains like reliance digital and croma and local stores are profitable while chains are not so profitable. On this, I said if I have to repair my phone I would go to reliance digital (the store from where i have bought the phone) if I want original parts otherwise I would go to local store. So, I don't see where this new player will fit. They don't sell phones, so I have no contact with them. On this she said that let us not go in the structure and discuss on this point. She asked me about the biggest risk. I replied by saying that first biggest risk is that business might not simply take off. Also, the local stores earn money by using duplicate parts and our client will not be able to do that. So, second problem is the profits. At this point she explained that this is her live project and her team also thinks the same way. Recommendation: Next she asked what would you recommend client. I said that client has expertise in repairing phones and one market that can be explored is refurbished mobile phone market. My logic behind this recommendation was that chains like Reliance Digital do not sell these phones and as a customer it is very difficult to trust on local stores as they might change the parts. Also, with e-commerce the supply of these phones is not a problem any more. At this interviewer told me that the team is also exploring auxiliary and refurbished market. The interview ended here. I knew all went well.

Feedback (if any): Learning (if any):

Do not ignore the PI part. If you connect well during the PI, interviewer will help you throughout the case. Involve the interviewer as much as possible.

Round 2:

1 Case + PI

# of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Feedback (if any):

Learning (if any):

Types of questions asked: Tell me about yourself. What is a political consulting? He asked me to explain one of the projects from resume. Issue: A global tool manufacturing company, which was mainly into automatic tools had launched the hand tools brand last year in India but the sales are not picking up (client has only 1% market share). The headquarter of the company has issued a warning that if it is not able to become one of the top 3 players within 18 months they would shut down this vertical. Approach: It was a normal growth case. The most important part was to keep the timeline of 18 months in mind. Structure: While asking questions about the company and competitors, interviewer told me that the client is one of the biggest global player in tool manufacturing. Top 3 players in hand tool players in India have 35%, 20% and 10% market share respectively. From which I concluded that we are looking for 10% market share. I started by drawing SOV x SOM x SOD framework and went in details for each part. Interviewer told me that our prices are more as we import the tools while others manufacture the tools locally. Also, consider it to be a commodity which means market is price sensitive. While probing on other parameters, he told me that brand matters a lot and our hand tool brand is new. I thought I had solved the case and made some recommendations to reduce the price and make it a well known brand. At this interviewer told me that I had not listened to the question properly and my analysis made no sense. He seemed disappointed. I thought I had messed up but kept calm and kept smiling. I went back to the question and noticed that I had forgotten 18 months timeline. I said that my recommendations might be difficult to implement withing 18 months and considering that company might have to close the division, we need aggressive action. So I would consider acquisition. I recommended to acquire the biggest player with 35% market share as we are the largest global company and it makes more sense for us to acquire big players (remember this was a local player so even with 35% market share it would be much smaller than the client and hence acquisition should not be a problem). Next question was what to do with the original brand launched by the client. I asked about company's vision and objectives. I was told that company wants to make its own brand known in long term. I said that we will start by putting a small label of our brand and slowly replace the original brand with our brand. He asked me for an example. At this I told that when Surf Excel acquired RIN bar, it was writter "RIN bar (in bold letters) is now Surf Excel (in smaller fonts)" and slowly they replaced Rin with Surf Excel. Now it's only Surf Excel bar. I later came to know that it was a stress interview. It was not easy to make sense out of 18 months timeline. Interviewer told every candidate that they didn't listen to the question correctly which is the biggest mistake one can make during a case. The idea was to keep calm and show that you are open to reconsider your approach. Many candidates got nervous and were not able to make through the round. You never know what is going on in interviewer's mind. Keep yourself calm no matter what happens and show that you are mature enough to handle any crisis in real life without getting nervous.

Round 3: 1 (Partner Round) PI mainly + Small case

# of Panelists: Type of Interview:

Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description

Types of questions asked: - I was ETYL winner and Neeraj Agarwal (MD-BCG) was in interview panel. We had a discussion on my ETYL experience for some time. - I was the founder of a political consulting firm. Interviewer asked me few questions around how I pitched to the clients and what were the problems I faced. - Next question - Why Consulting? Why BCG? - We then had some discussion on his experience at BCG and his work. - He then asked me about my family and how I am guiding my younger brother who is currently a pre-final year student at IIT-B. - He then told me that only 5 min are left and we should do a small case. Issue: A non-banking financial institute, which currently advices its clients on investments, wants to

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(if Any):

start a new business to give loans to SMEs. What are the factors who will consider? Approach: I listed down few factors including - Govt policies, Bad debt ratio of the industry, our capabilities and synergies with existing business.

Feedback (if any): Learning (if any):

Be proud of what you have done and the choices you have made in past.

Tips and gyaan 1 2 3 4

Don't worry if you have only one or two shortlists. I had only one shortlist and it helped me to remain focused. Do not ignore the PI part. If you can connect with the interviewer during PI round, it gets much easier. While applying frameworks, never let go of your general business sense. There was no way I could have solved the first case with a framework. Be confident and don't panic even if you think that you have messed up. Just admit the mistake and let interviewer decide.

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Bain & Company

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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief: Company: Number of rounds: Interview Format: Interviewer: Any specific skills that you believe the interviewer was testing you on? ROUND 1 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Harshini Shanker Non-profit Bain 4 Case Interviews Amit, Gaurav, Samyukta, Megha (Partner) Analytical ability and communication skills

Profitability A premium grocery chain in a metropolitan city shows high revenue growth but low profitability. What is the problem and what should be done about it? About the company: How old is the company? What does the company sell? Premium, imported food items and groceries. How many outlets are there? Is this problem common across outlets? There are only a few outlets and the problem is common across all outlets. What differentiates this company – for example, is it known to sell items that cannot be found elsewhere? Most food items it sells are imported and therefore not easily found, although it is not the only place where they can be found. About customers: Who are the customers? High income segment. (I tried to ask more questions about the customers but the interviewer hinted at me to profile them myself – which I have described in the next section).

Recommended Approach:

About competition: What is the competition? There is not much competition from other exclusively gourmet food retail stores, but there is a small degree of competition from other large domestic hypermarkets that stock small quantities of imported, gourmet food. Is the problem specific to this company or are the competitors also facing such problems? The problem is specific to this company. Since profits are low, we’ll look at revenues and costs, starting with revenues. Revenues are a function of price and quantity. It was mentioned that revenue growth is high. Are the revenues themselves high enough to cover the cost? To find out, we can look at price and quantity.

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I was told that the price is not the problem, and the pricing structure provides enough margin for each product sold. Then I looked at quantity/volume. First, I tried to analyze volume from the perspective of market size and market share, i.e. total volume sold would be a function of the total potential of the market (market size) and the share of the market that the firm holds. But I was told that this would not be the right approach to look at volume in this case and I was asked to try a different approach. Then I probed whether the product mix was the problem – that perhaps the firm was making a lot of revenue on products that had low levels of profitability, and perhaps high margin items were not selling as much, leading to fast growing revenues but low profitability. To assess the products being sold, I profiled the customers, segmented them and looked at what each segment bought. Customers may be segmented based on their frequency of visit and quantum of purchase per visit. Three categories: frequent visitors who did their grocery shopping from the store regularly (high income individuals, especially expats whose staple food was exactly what the store was selling), those who visit somewhat regularly (high income individuals who liked imported food occasionally but did not do their monthly grocery shopping from the store) One time visitors – the odd customer who visits once or twice and doesn’t come back I asked if there’s information on the breakup of customers into these segments. The interviewer pointed out that the customer base was skewed in front of the third category, and there were not enough customers from the first category, which is why profitability was low. The third category of customers did not justify their acquisition cost, and the store needed more from the first category. What is to be done – understand why the first segment was not coming often enough. This could be problems in either the products offered, the prices, the location of the stores or promotion. I made the following assumptions and the interviewer agreed with them Location cannot be a problem as these stores are situated at high end prime locations in these cities Promotion is also not a problem as these stores enjoy high visibility already, and there is not much competition Prices of goods should not be concerned to the first segment of customers as they are affluent and not price sensitive Therefore, there must be an issue with the products offered. There were probably not enough of exactly the products

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these frequent shoppers looked for, or there was a perception that the products (especially perishables like fruits and dairy) were not fresh enough as they’re imported. This was precisely the problem. Solution – emphasize freshness of perishables, and do market research on exactly what these customers prefer to shop for, and make sure those items are available. (We never got around to the cost side of the profit equation.) To summarize: Premium grocery retail store experiencing low profitability but growing revenues. Reason: customer segment is skewed towards one-time customers whose acquisition cost did not justify the profits they brought in. The store needed more of the frequent visiting customers. who were not visiting because either their choice of goods was not accessible or were not perceived to be a high enough quality. Fixing this would attract that segment. Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments: ROUND 2 Case Type: Case Narration:

Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Ask the interviewer every now and then if you’re proceeding in the right direction. Many cases do not lend themselves to the direct application of a framework and frameworks often have to be invented on the spot for specific cases. Market potential A Dubai-based firm has invented a new technology to make floors at half the time and half the cost. An Indian industrialist wants to license this technology and bring it to India. How will you establish whether the market is attractive enough for this technology? About the technology: What are the features of floors made with this technology? The floors are exactly like floors made by any other builder. What sets this technology apart from existing technology? It lowers production time and production cost by half. About the Indian industrialist group: I asked a few questions about their current product offerings, revenue streams etc. but I was told to ignore those things as there would be no interaction between their existing lines of business and this new floor technology business. About customers: Who would be the customers of this technology? Anyone requiring floors (I was asked to figure out the market myself later in the case). About competition:

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Recommended Approach:

Does India already have any similar technology? No Is there threat of emulation by competitors? No, patented technology. I was asked how I will establish whether the idea of introducing this technology in India is feasible. I started that the feasibility depends on external and internal factors External: attractiveness of the market itself in terms of market size and potential market share, expected industry growth rate, macroeconomic stability, barriers to entry, competition, substitutes, bargaining power of suppliers and buyers etc. Internal: firm’s own competitive advantage and the ability to effectively profit given the above external factors I was asked to ignore the internal factors and among the external factors to focus exclusively on market potential. I stated that I’d proceed in two steps – first I would list out the possible markets/customers for this technology. Next I would assess the attractiveness of each possible market/customer segment in terms of the market potential and possible market share. The possible markets/customers are anybody requiring floors. Floors are used in residential construction commercial construction public buildings communal public spaces transportation – metro train floors, ship floors and such The interviewer agreed with my analysis so far. Then I asked if there is any other segment/market I should consider and whether there is any segment/market for which the technology is particularly well suited. I was told that the technology would work for all these segments. Then I proceeded to estimate the potential for this technology in each segment. He asked me what approach I would use. I said that a guesstimate may be a good place to start. But he said he wanted a more grounded approach – something more reliable. He asked for three real approaches I could use to get this data. I was immediately able to come up with the following 2, and the third with a little more thinking: Market research study – speak to customers from each of the above segment and assess their willingness to adopt this new technology International benchmarking – assess the rate of technology

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adoption in other geographies where it was introduced Benchmarking through adoption of similar technologies in India – assess the rate of adoption of similar, related technologies in India Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

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ROUND 3 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Recommended Approach:

Business plan development, market entry Develop a business plan to initiate a radio station. Where? Mumbai What kind of radio station? E.g.: news, entertainment etc.? Language? No plan yet. Is the capital already available or do we have to raise finance? Assume finance is not a problem I realized that the business scope itself has to be designed from scratch, so I stopped scoping and proceeded to the analysis. I laid out the steps I would follow in creating the business plan: Define the business Define and estimate the size of the customer base Define the detailed business model including all stakeholders involved. Determine cost structure and revenue streams Define the marketing mix – product, price, place and promotion. Estimate profitability of this business, considering both market attractiveness and internal competitive advantage. Step 1: Define the business What content will the radio air? Three categories of radio content: a) informative/educational (news, NatGeo type of content, educational content etc.) b) entertainment (the conventional kind playing music and discussing movies and such), and c) something new/radical (for example, exclusive content on spirituality/religion, cooking etc.) I asked if the company had any specific expertise area or preference for any type of content. She said news radio. Step 2: Define and estimate the size of the customer base. Since we were short of time, she asked me to outline the broad approach to estimate market size and not get into specifics. I said I would do a guesstimate, and segment the Mumbai market by radiousage habits. People broadly listen to radio either during commutes (during car or train rides), or at home/office, so we can estimate the number of people in each category, and then estimate the % of them who would listen to news radio. She agreed with my basis of breaking down the customer base, but asked if there is any other possible approach. I said we could also use age as a basis, as customers of different ages have different preferences for radio and for news radio in particular. She asked me to assume at this point that the size of the market is sufficiently large and attractive, and asked me to proceed.

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We did not get around to any of the subsequent steps of the business plan, and she simply asked me to identify challenges that the radio station may face. I could come up with the following: Internal challenges o Lack of experience or expertise in radio business in general and news in particular o Lack of any distinctive competitive edge so far. o It may be difficult to sustain interest of customers for longer than a fixed duration – people can listen to songs/entertainment all day but listening to news all day would be repetitive – this limits the number of minutes/hours of radio consumption per person per day External challenges o High competition – there are already other news radio channels o Substitute products – plenty of other products from where one may consume news, such as podcasts, newspapers, television etc. o People tend to have a limited propensity to listen to news radio – for many, it is only when they cannot visually consume the news on TV that they will resort to radio. For example during commutes. o Customers have extremely low switching costs between news radio and other competitors/substitutes o Advertisers have low switching costs Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

ROUND 4 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

This case lends itself to a framework to start with, but going forward there are a lot of context-specific elements that are not captured by a standard market entry or business plan framework, and the interviewer wants to see if you’ll identify those elements also and include them in your analysis.

Mergers and Acquisitions A Malaysian palm oil company wants to acquire an Indonesian palm oil company. What synergies will arise? About the company: What steps of the palm oil value chain are the two companies involved in? (Between planting trees all the way to extracting and refining oil). Both companies operate plantations where they grow palm trees. Then they harvest the trees and feed the harvest into milling machines. These machines produce crude palm oil, which is their output. They then distribute this output. Are there any other products in their portfolio? No.

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Is there any difference between the product produced by the two companies? There is a difference in the grade (measure of quality) – the Indonesian firm produces a higher grade. Is the difference in grades due to choice of input (particular tree types) or available technology? It is a combination of both, but mostly due to the quality of harvesting and milling process. About the industry/market: Who is the competition? Assume that these two companies together serve 70-80% of the world for palm oil and other competition is irrelevant for now. What about substitutes? Ignore substitutes I presume palm oil is a commodity and therefore the firms cannot control prices? True. The firms have no control over palm oil prices. How stable have prices been lately? Fairly stable. About customers: Who are the customers? Global palm oil refineries and end users of palm oil – a diverse group of people Where are the customers of these two firms located? All around the globe How much is the demand for palm oil and how stable is this demand? Nearly unlimited – the production is far short of the demand. The demand is stable over time. What constitutes success? I presume that because there are no constraints on the revenue side (stable prices, almost unlimited demand), a robust supply side would constitute success - efficient operations, high capacity utilization are indicators of success? True. Are there any other indicators of success? No. Current state of capacity utilization and efficiency of operations? Both have scope for improvement

Recommended Approach:

Should I consider both operating synergies and financing synergies in my analysis? No, ignore financing synergies. To assess operating synergies, I asked questions and drew the entire value chain of operations at an individual plantation. Grow trees Harvest plantation Feed harvest into the milling machines (each plantation has its own milling machine) Extract crude palm oil Transport crude palm oil to nearest ports Ship crude palm oil to various customers overseas. The shipping of palm oil from Malaysian/Indonesian ports, and subsequent distribution are outsourced activities. Sources of synergies: Growing trees – the two plantations are in separate countries. The only possible synergy arises from sharing

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knowledge by the Indonesian firm (which is able to extract higher grade palm oil) on the right technique to grow the trees, if any. Harvest plantation – as above, the two plantations are in separate geographies, therefore the only possible synergy is from knowledge/technique sharing for efficient harvesting to reduce wastage, conduct the process faster with efficient manpower use. Milling machines – with reduced wastage and faster harvesting process, there is greater possibility of higher capacity utilization Shipping crude palm oil overseas – pooling the quantities from Malaysia and Indonesia may provide economies of scale in international transportation and distribution. Now suppose a third firm – a Malaysian firm – wants to enter the merger, making this a three-way merger. What additional synergies can the third firm yield? I asked where is this new firm’s plantations are situated geographically – are they separated from the first firm’s? I was told that the plantations are all adjacent to each other. Therefore, additional sources of synergies Breaking the boundaries between the two plantations and planting trees in a synchronized way – may provide economies of scale in utilizing labor and supervisory power as well as planting machinery Milling machines – pooling the harvest from the two plantations may provide a higher quantum of output to feed into one milling machine, allowing higher capacity utilization of one milling machine. However, this would simultaneously lower the capacity utilization of the other machine, so it’s not obvious whether synergies will emerge from this. o At this point, the interviewer said that let’s assume that all the output from two plantations can be fed into just one plantation’s milling machine. She asked what happens then? I said this would increase the capacity utilization of the first machine, reducing costs. The second machine need not be used, and it may be divested or used for another purpose. Further transportation and distribution synergies. Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

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Personal Details Name:

Nikhil Khurana

Pre ISB experience:

5 years of strategy consulting experience in SDG (Strategic Decisions Group) and KPMG

Interview Details Company Name: Role: Offer Accepted:

How best to prepare for this role: Pre-Process Description:

Bain & Co. Consultant Yes No course came in handy for this particular interview but some courses are helpful in general for case prep - Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Corporate Finance; read newspaper regularly, atleast in the last 1 month before interviews Networking Dinners for shortlisted candidates - Bain uses these dinners to get to know the candidates better and uses it as a surrogate for Personal Interviews

Round 1: # of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

1 Case Study Types of questions asked - The interviewer was from KPMG, so we discussed KPMG for a bit before moving to the case. Situational caselets / Q&As

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Problem Statement - Your client in Navin Jindal. He is the Chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. He has started a new Building Materials business that manufactures cement etc. Navin recently visited Dubai where he met an enterpreneur who has developed a building technology that can make a building floor in half the time and at half the cost. He wants you to advise whether he should buy the technology. Approach Me: I have a few questions regarding the client Is the client located in India? Are the customers also located in India? Interviewer: Yes Me: Does anyone else have this technology in India? Interviewer: No Me: Can you provide some more information about this building technology Interviewer: This building technology uses arcs of steel to provide more strength to the floor, thereby reducing the amount of cement required and hence the time required for construction Structure Me: I plan to use a 3 step process to approach this problem Evaluate Market Potential->Key risks and challenges->Achieving the market potential Evaluate Market Potential - Market Size*Market Share*Price

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Achieving Market Potential - Manufacturing Challenges and capabilities required Me: Do we have any data about the market size? Or do we need to assess the market size? Interviewer: How will you assess the market size? Me: There are 2 important customer segments - Residential and Commercial Interviewer: How will you calculate the Residential market? Me: i think only builders will use this technology because of the scale involved in their projects. I would like to assume that most of the uptake would be in Tier 1 cities in the beginning. We can get data for the number of upcoming projects in the city using real estate websites, builders websites and brochures and real estate agents. Interviewer: Yes. Also, there are databases with such information. Who will be the target segment for this technology in the residential segment - builders or people who build their own houses? Me: Given this technology is new, people building their own houses might not prefer to use it as they will be more risk averse. Builders will be more keen on trying this new technology and will initially try it in one of their projects Interviewer: Lets move on the Commercial segment. Which are the major customers in the commercial segement? Me: Corporate Offices, Hospitals, Schools, Goverment Buildings, Industries Interviewer: How will you calculate the market size? Me: Corporate Offices - Builders which have used this technology for their residential projects will be more inclined to use it their commercial projects. We can get information about the upcoming project on their websites Hospitals - We should target hospital chains. Information about the private hospitals will be available on their websites, annual reports and newspaper articles. Goverment announces its plans for investment in healthcare sector much in advance. Industries - We can leverage Navin Jindal's contacts to get our foot in other industries Similar methodology can be used for schools and goverment buildings Interviewer: How will you calculate the market share? Me: We will look at customer preferences and try to qualitatively analyze how our client's technlogy will fare against the traditional way of building floors. Customers look at price, time required for construction, quality of construction Interviewer: Assume our price is the lowest; time for construction is half; quality wise we are superior What are the 3 ways to evaluate market share? Me: 1) Use sample data of the builders who tried this technology and were satisfied with the results 2) Technology adoption curve in other countries 3) Analogs from other industries Interviewer: What are the key risks and challenges? Me: 1) Technology is new for Indian market 2) Skill required to use this technology during construction 3) Regulatory challenges, if any Feedback (if any):

Learning (if any):

Bain tries to finish every interview in 25-30 minutes. So engage the interviewer and take directions from to him/her to understand which areas of the case you need to focus on. Else you might not be able to finish the case in the given time.

Round 2: 1 Case Study

# of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Types of questions asked Any Unexpected questions Situational caselets / Q&As

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Case Interview Description (if Any):

Problem Statement: Your client is a medical equipment company. It manufactures sutures and some other products used in surgeries. Its growth has slowed down over the past few years. Approach: Me: You mentioned growth has slowed down? Is our growth rate slower than Industry average? Interviewer: Yes (She gave some numbers which I can't recall now) Me: Our objective is to figure out reasons for decline in growth rate and suggest solutions? Interviewer: Yes Me: I have a few questions regarding the client. Is the client based out of India? Interviewer: Yes Me: Is it only serving the Indian market or exporting as well? Interviewer: Both. But exclude exports for this analysis Me: You mentioned client manufactures sutures. What are the other products and what is their revenue split? Interviewer: Sutures account for 70% of the revenues. Ignore rest of the products for this analysis Me: Who are the customers for the company? I can think of hospitals and clinics Interviewer: Yes. The basic segmentation is Government and Private Me: What is their revenue contribution? Interviewer: Private - 70%, Goverment - 30% Me: Who are the major players in the industry? And what are their market shares Interviewer: 4 categories of players Category 1: Player A - 25% Market Share; product price - indexed at 150% of the price of our client's Category 2: Client - 20% Market Share Category 3: Players B & C - 35% combined Market Share; product price - indexed at 75% of our client's Category 4: Player D,E,F - 20% Market Share combined; product price - indexed at 50% of our client's Me: Have any these players entered the market in the past few years? Interviewer: No Me: What were the market shares few years ago? Interviewer: Category 1: Player A - 27% Market Share Category 2: Client - 25% Market Share Category 3: Players B & C - 35% combined Market Share Category 4: Player D,E,F - 13% Market Share combined Prices were the same Me: Since the growth has slowed down, either the growth has slowed down in Government/Private segment or both? Interviewer: Both Me: Revenue is function of Price and Volume. Has the client changed its prices over the years? Interviewer: No Me: I will now explore the volume side in details. Has the client been able to cater to all the demand it gets. Or is there a supply contraint? Interviewer: There is no supply constraint Me: Since industy volumes are growing. I will look at factors affecting our Market Share Market Share is affected by 4 factors - Price, Product, Distribution, Awareness Let's explore the Price aspect first. You mentioned that Category 4 players have gained market share. Since their price is the least, is it fair to assume that we have lost market share because of our high prices. Interviewer: Yes price affects the choice. Yet 80% of the market still buys relatively higher priced suture. Why? Me: I want to understand how our client sells its products to both private and goverment hospitals Interviewer: Goverment floats tenders for hospitals - There are 2 evaluation criteria for

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suppliers: commercial and technical For private hospital, the decision maker has been the doctor historically Me: Lets explore the reasons for the goverment segment In terms of quality, are all 4 categories of players able to fulfill the technical requirements Interviewer: Yes Me: So in this case, price is the only thing that determines who wins the tender Interviewer: Sounds good! Me: For the private hospital segment, you mentioned doctors were the decision makers earlier. Who all are involved in the choosing the suppliers now? Doctors/Procurement teams/Owners of the hospitals? Interviewer: Now both doctor and procurement team are involved. Doctor first approves certain set of products and then procurement team take over the process post that. Then they ask those chosen suppliers to send in their bid. Me: My hypothesis is small hospitals and clinics, especially in smaller citites and towns go for Category 4 suppliers as they offer the lowest prices and meet the bare minimum quality requirements. The high end hospital chains and similar hopitals (eg. Fortis, Max) are very particular about quality of sutures and charge higher prices for healthcare services, and hence would not have switched to Category 4 suppliers. Interviewer: Yes! you are right. So what do you recommend? Recommendation Me:Drew for Ansoff matrix on the side for reference. Client can look at introducing a new line of inexpensive sutures. Do you think that will affect client's branding? Interviewer: It might. We need to ensure that there is minimal cannibalization of expensive sutures category. So we will have to keep the prices very different and ensure the quality is in accordance to the prices. Me: Sure! We can do that. Also we can look at acquiring one of the Category 4 players to enter the low price sutures segment.

Feedback (if any): Learning (if any):

Round 3: 1 Case Study

# of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Types of questions asked Any Unexpected questions Situational caselets / Q&As Issue: Your client is crude palm oil company in Malaysia. It wants to merge with another crude palm oil company in Indonesia. What will be the synergies? Interviewer explained how the crude oil business worked. Companies have estates of palm trees->They harvest the palm tree fruit and send it to the mill>The fruit is crushed and converted to oil in the mill->The oil is transported to the ships at the port->The oil is then shipped to the clients Approach: Me: I have few questions regarding the both the companies. Do they serve domestic market or international markets? Interviewer: Both Me: Are there any other revenue streams except for crude oil? Interviewer: No Me: Who are the customers for the companies in Malaysia and Indonesia? Interviewer: Structure:

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Me: There are 3 reasons for merger - Strategic, Operational and Financial Strategic - 1) The company wants to become the biggest player in the market 2) Secure supply of palm trees - There could be a possibility that company in Malaysia does not have enough hectares of palm tree estate to ramp up production. The company in Indonesia will provide it with security of supply. 3) Competitve Response Interviewer: Competitive Response in not possible because of regulatory reasons Me: Operational includes Changes in 1) Revenues and 2) Costs On the Revenue side - We can either expect increase in prices or increase in volumes or both Interviewer: Price is market regulated, so we can't change the price of palm oil Me: So we can focus on increase in volumes beacuse of sharing of best practices between the companies. On the cost side - We can look at the complete value chain and identify areas to reduce costs Interviewer: Ok Me: Financial - 1) Tax loss carry forward, 2) Increased capacity to take debt upon merger Interviewer: Ok, Lets focus on the cost side in the Operational synergies Me: Drew the value chain Estates of palm trees->Harvest of palm tree fruit-> Inbound Logistics (to Mill) ->Crushing in Mill ->Outbound Logistics (to port) ->Shipping Me: We will identify potential areas of cost reduction at each step of the value chain Estates of palm trees - Sharing of best practices will lead to increased efficiency, and lower costs Harvesting - Sharing of best practices will lead to increased efficiency, and lower costs Interviewer: What are you missing in the 'Estates of palm trees' part? Me: Agri-Inputs; we can get volume discounts on agri-inputs Interviewer: Yes, agri-inputs are very expensive and volume discounts will bring down the unit costs. No need to look at inbound logistics as farms are next to the mill Me: Crushing in Mill - I cant think of any cost reductions in this part apart from improved efficiency as mills are in different countries Interviewer: Ok. Ignore the outbound logictics as well. Me: Shipping - We can get better terms and conditions in pricing and payment terms from the shipping company because of higher volumes. Interviewer: Ok. Now there is one more palm oil company in Malaysia which wants to merge. Now it has become a 3 way merger. Me: Value chain analysis - Estates of palm trees->Harvest of palm tree fruit-> Inbound Logistics (to Mill) ->Crushing in Mill ->Outbound Logistics (to port) ->Shipping Interviewer: Estates for both Malaysian companies are next to each other and so are the mills Me: Estates of palm trees & Harvest - We can expect reduction in labor costs as same person can now manage more hectares of estate Crushing in Mills - Similar cost reductions can expected in mills as well. Some cost reductions can be achieved due to better capacity utilization. Interviewer: Both mills are operating at 50% utilization Me: We can shift the operations to one mill to have 100% utilization and shut down other mill. This will reduce unit production costs. The only thing we should be concerned about is backlash from labor due to shutting down of second mill.

Learning (if any):

1) I should have asked for the cost breakup across the value chain, if available, to prioritize my efforts 2) "What are you missing in the 'Estates of palm trees' part?" - Instead of blurting out AgriInputs, I should have taken some time to figure out the various things that go into this step. Raw materials - Labor - Farming Equipment - Farming Techniques/Processes (Agri-inputs include raw materials and farming equipment) FYI - Interviewer didn't point this out. But I feel this is a better approach.

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A.T. Kearney

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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief:

Pranjal Deshmukh Brand Strategist at Shobiz Experiential Communications Pvt. Ltd. (7 months) Analyst at Ernst &Young LLP, Risk Advisory Services (1 year 1 month) Company: A.T. Kearney Number of rounds: 3 Interview Format: Guesstimation + Case Interview + PI Interviewer: Sushil Pasricha, Senior Manager Any specific skills that you believe the Problem solving abilities, Analytical skills and Effective interviewer was testing you on? Communication. Sushil asked me to introduce myself. This was followed by a discussion on the engagements that I had worked on at EY. He was interested in knowing what thought process went behind achieving cost savings for clients. I was also asked to talk about the individual components of the cumulative cost savings on my resume. He then asked me the approach I adopted on the client site and how I had managed relationships with my clients/challenges faced. He then made a case out of one of my engagements at EY where I had reviewed the area of Corporate Travel and Employee Reimbursement. ROUND 1 Case Type: Case Narration:

Cost Reduction Our client is Maruti Suzuki, and we have been engaged to reduce travel spends for the client. What levers will you pull to bring about this transformation?

Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by The problem at hand was pretty straightforward, so I confirmed the interviewee (no particular order) objective and moved on. (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach: These kinds of cases are asked to test your ability to break down a problem into its key drivers and explore areas of improvement within each. It’s very important to structure the problem and be MECE at every stage. Although this sounds cliché, it should become second nature as interviews approach. I started by stating Total Travel Expense = No. of employees travelling*Avg. travel expense for each employee I broke down the Travel expense into broadly the following heads: Transportation

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o Air o Road o Railways Accommodation Foreign Exchange He then asked me to take him through each of these heads and suggest how we could reduce costs I discussed the key drivers under each. E.g. for Transportation, the employee eligibility of mode of transport needs to be defined in an SOP and implemented in order to optimize costs. The booking schedules (no. of days before travel date when ticket needs to be booked) can be defined in the SOP for common types of travel to save on the increase in travel costs as travel dates approach. The process for booking needs to be streamlined and all bookings, rescheduling and cancellation must be routed through the ERP to ensure adequate refund management and control duplicate bookings. Under Accommodation I discussed the various factors such as keeping a tab on the number and kind of bookings through a well-defined SOP for different bands of employees. I also discussed the need for accommodation can be obviated in some cases where employees can travel to base location on the same day. To control cost of bookings I suggested negotiating deals with hotels across the spectrum and asking for bulk discounts over and above corporate discounts in case of conferences etc. Under Forex I discussed the negotiation of a favorable exchange rate (better than the market) since we are a larger organization and therefore give the vendor scale as well as brand name to leverage on for garnering more business. Sushil then asked me how the Risk Advisory (RAS) practice at EY was different than the Business Advisory (BAS) as he thought most of my engagements were similar to Business advisory. To this I drew out the organization chart of EY and discussed the work various service lines and gave examples of the kind of projects they do.

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

He was happy with this approach. Drawing out charts and issue trees opens up your thought process to the interviewer and reflects your clarity of thought. Also it gives the impression that you are open to further discussion, since you are not hiding or masking any information as you may in a verbal conversation. PI is very critical. It helps you build a rapport with the interviewer. Don’t take it lightly or leave it for the last minute. Frame all your

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answers in Situation-Action-Result format for good impact. For most of us good articulation is natural but if you feel you are not confident note down the points that you would like to cover in each answer and rehearse with a friend. ROUND 2 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach:

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

Guesstimate How many flights take off from Mumbai airport everyday None

Although this problem could be simply done from a Supply side, I approached it from the Demand side. It was a lot more difficult and I realized it as soon as I started with my approach. However I kept calm and categorized the demand well to reach the final number. I did run into a number that was slightly off and I stated that upfront. But Marcos said he appreciated my creativity and the thought process behind sizing from a Demand side. Your creativity can earn you brownie points in the interview. But don’t panic if you hit roadblocks. It is normal. Try to zoom out and move on. Also in guesstimates it is important that you show the interviewer that you have a sense of whether it is a fair number or not. In hindsight, I could have simply done the problem from a supply side to be on the safer side. But again!

ROUND 3 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

What is the minimum cost of new Fibre Optic Network for Vodafone Me: Which area are we looking at? Interviewer: Delhi Me: Why do we need this new Fibre Optic Network? Interviewer: To enhance the current network strength Me: What is the cost per unit? Interviewer: $10/km Me: Do we have any data on what are the different kinds of towers and how much each needs? Interviewer: There are three types of towers; 2G, 3G & LTE There is a central pipeline to which these fibers have to be connected.

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Recommended Approach:

For 2G there are 7000 towers and every 7th tower can be connected to the central pipeline, for 2G there are 5000 towers and every 5th can be connected, for LTE there are 3000 towers and every 3rd can be connected. Based on this data, I calculated the minimum number of connections needed for a successful network. But stated that this number could increase or decrease due to some reasons. Sameer asked me to discuss a little on those. I said that if these towers are in smaller clusters that are far from each other it may not be feasible to connect 7 at a time etc. and hence we may have to connect in smaller clusters thus increasing the cost. On the other hand if these towers can be clubbed and used to connect to central pipeline then the number would decrease. To this Sameer added that we can latch one 2G and one 3G tower on one LTE. Then I recalculated the minimum number of connections required.

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

What was key in this case was the ability to realize that the number of connections can vary depending on the way the layout is and I drew some maps to make this clear. Start preparing for case interviews well in advance. They may seem easy on the face of it, but it requires good amount of practice. Since most candidates can present the frameworks by Day 1 it is important that you develop your own frameworks through practice as it shows your creativity and ability to break down any problem into its key metrics. Get feedback from your buddies and alums as this is really helpful. Don’t sit and read casebooks alone. Make a group or two as there is a lot to learn from your discussions. More importantly don’t forget to enjoy this journey! Good luck

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Accenture

GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief: Company: Number of rounds: Interview Format: Interviewer:

Asif Zafar 4.75 years @ Halliburton + B.Tech. (Petroleum Engineering) Accenture 3 Case + Case + PI Don’t remember + Kiran Kumar (Principal) + Saurabh Bhatnagar (Partner) Any specific skills that you believe the Analytical ability, knowledge about deploying technology, interviewer was testing you on? communication skills, general knowledge ROUND 1 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee:

Revenue growth Our client is a footwear manufacturer and has approached us to help them increase their sales. How will you use technology (digital) to help them? Me: Please tell me a little bit more about the client… Interviewer: They are a legacy Indian footwear manufacturer and primarily target the medium and low income group. They make all kinds of footwear. Me: Can you tell me about the trend in their sales? Interviewer: While their sales haven’t gone down in absolute terms they have been losing market share to smaller players (i.e. they are unable to capture the growth in the Indian market) Me: And why are they focusing on technology solutions? Interviewer: They were a household name in India. However, lately they have been facing a lot of pressure from new companies that sell their footwear on Amazon and Flipkart. These smaller companies come up with more designs and often sell at cheaper rates. Me: So the client is like BATA…an old name, focused on the middle and low income customers, that haven’t used the online channel much? Interviewer: Yes. They are very similar to BATA. I like your analogy. Me: Can I have a few moments to structure my thoughts:

Recommended Approach:

Interviewer: Yes. Take your time… Make sure you understand the problem and ask lots of clarifying questions. I drew a growth framework and said I would be taking

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the interviewer through each leg and will try to come up with tech. based solutions. Me: We can look at 1) Organic Growth (Increase revenue through sales of existing products, new products, entering new geographies) and 2) Inorganic Growth (M&As etc.) Interviewer: Please focus on organic growth. In that I want you to focus on existing products. Me: Ok. So we are looking at increasing revenue through existing products. Can you help me segment the client’s revenue? Interviewer: How would you go about segmenting revenue? Me: I am going to assume that all the revenue comes from footwear sales only. I would use demographic (age based) criterion for segmenting customers. Interviewer: That’s a good approach. I want you to focus on the youth segment (15 – 35 yrs) Me: Increase in revenue can be obtained through increasing price or increasing sales. For the price leg, technology could help the company charge the right price to spur growth. This can be done by through price comparisons, location based pricing, flash sales, web coupons etc. Is that a reasonable answer? Interviewer: Yes, but I really want you to concentrate on the other leg Me: Ok. On the sales side is there any reason to believe that the company has a supply side constraint? i.e. do they have enough capacity to manufacture additional footwear? Interviewer: Yes, they have sufficient capacity Me: So, it appears that the solution lies on the demand side i.e. increase demand through technology. Demand is a factor of Market Size x Awareness x Accessibility x Product Suitability. I don’t think we can do much about increasing market size of the youth segment. So, I’ll focus on the other three aspects. Is that reasonable? Interviewer: Yes, that’s reasonable, go ahead Me: 1) To increase awareness of our products we can do targeted

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advertising by using digital channels such as ad-words, social media advertising, you tube advertisements etc. 2) To increase accessibility, we could look at selling online, both via an exclusive website as well as on third party platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, E-bay etc.. We should also look at selling via an app. on smartphones as a lot of purchasing by the current generation is done via smartphones 3) On the product suitability aspect we really need to come up with designs that sell well with the current generation. As I understand, we are probably making older designs. We should look at making more trendy and new age designs for our younger customers. Interviewer: But that’s introducing a new product. What can we do with existing products? Me: Can I get a few moments to think about this? Interviewer: Sure Me: A key aspect of increasing product suitability is simply to change perceptions. We could look at re-packaging our products, or re-branding them as cool or patriotic products. We could launch a social media campaign or an online community of young people who buy our products. Some of our really-old legacy products (footwear that has gone off shelf) could be repackaged and sold as retroproducts to the younger generation. We can launch a campaign for youngsters who wear our retro products to post selfies on Facebook and share with their friends Interviewer: Good. I wanted to see if you could think about repackaging and rebranding. We will stop the case here. Do you have any questions for me? Me: What is one trait that is common amongst those who are successful at Accenture Strategy?

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

ROUND 2 Case Type:

Interviewer: Focus on delivering value for our customers. All successful people at Accenture keep the customer front and center. Align often with the interviewer. Don’t get perturbed because of the tech. focus of the case. SDEC (Term 4) and TSTC (Term 5) can help increase your knowledge of tech. in business. The interviewer kept asking me “if I understood him” which freaked me out. I started to feel that I wasn’t understanding him at all. I guess that was just a crutch-phrase for him. Unconventional + Cost Reduction (using digital)

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Case Narration: (Case # 1 - Unconventional) Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee

The Delhi Government has decided to increase the price of fuel and wants your help in deciding how they should proceed Me: Can you tell me about the timelines? Is this happening now or is this based on a past scenario? Interviewer: Why do you want to know this? Me: The timelines impact the reaction from the public. If this is happening now, when the global crude oil price has fallen drastically, the public in general is going to view this very negatively. The logic behind such a move will be questioned. Interviewer: Good assessment. This is happening now. Me: A price hike when global prices are falling is going to make this a tough sell. Can you tell me about the quantum of the hike being proposed? Interviewer: They want to increase the price from ₹ 50 to ₹ 75 a liter Me: That’s a 50% increase! Do they want to do that in one go or stagger the same? What kind of timelines are we looking at for them to affect the change? Interviewer: Did you speak with someone outside who had their interview with me? Me: No sir. Interviewer: That’s an excellent question. They have a year to affect the change and are open to staggering the price hike over the one year period. Me: Fuel price hikes are very political in nature. The AAP government is in power in Delhi and will want to analyze the price hike through a political lens. Is AAP looking to contest any elections in the near future, perhaps in a different state? Interviewer: No, assume there are no elections on the horizon. I want you to focus on the potential impact of this price hike on the people in Delhi. I also want you to recommend what the Government should do to deal with the reaction/protests. Me: Ok sir. Can I get a few moments to structure my thoughts?

Recommended Approach:

Interviewer: Take your time and feel free to eat candy (there was some candy kept on the table) or drink water if you like. I drew a framework on the paper and split the people of Delhi by

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dividing them based on income i.e. poor, middle class & rich. Me: Sir, I plan to split Delhi’s population into three segments based on their income i.e. poor, middle class and rich. I am doing this because the impact of the price hike, the nature of protest, and likely mitigation measures will be different for each of these segments. Does that sound like a reasonable approach? Interviewer: I like how you are proceeding. Go ahead… Me: 1) The poor are the most vulnerable segment and the protests from them could get serious soon. They will feel the pinch the most because of increase in transportation costs as well as the rise in price of essential goods. Fuel price hikes tend to have a cascading effect on price of essential items such as food and other daily use items. We can limit the impact by assuring them that the public transportation prices won’t increase and by ensuring that the cost of essential commodities remains the same. 2) The medium income group also constitutes a large segment and they will be effected by hike in price of daily use goods as well as increase in their transportation costs (cars and bikes). The government can look at decreasing taxes for the middle class to offset a part of the effect of the price hike. 3) The rich are a relatively smaller segment and are unlikely to protest much. They have enough disposable income to absorb the price hike. However, the Government should sell the price hike to them as a means of reducing pollution in Delhi and thus ensuring better air quality and a healthier environment. The Government should spin the price hike into a Pigouvian tax that helps the future generation. Does that sound like a reasonable analysis? Interviewer: Excellent analysis and structure. We are done with the case now. Tell me why you want to join Accenture? With your grades, I am sure you have a shortlist from McK and BCG so you will probably end up joining them… Me: I don’t have a shortlist from McK or BCG. I want to join Accenture because I am passionate about Technology and Accenture is that rare firm that works at the intersection of Strategy and Technology. Interviewer: Ok. What do you understand by the word digital? Me: Digital to me means converting something that is in a physical

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form into electronic data or numbers (bits) that can be both stored and transmitted from one place to another easily. Case Narration: (Case # 2 - Cost Reduction) Recommended Approach:

Interviewer: That is a good definition. I have another case for you. How can technology and specifically going digital help a company decrease its costs? Me: I plan to analyze this problem by going through the value chain of the company and then trying to find out various ways of reducing costs by going digital for each stage of the value chain. Interviewer: That’s a reasonable approach. Let’s see what you have… I drew the value chain on an A4 paper Me: Most companies have support functions such as Admin, HR, R&D, Procurement and primary activities such as Inbound Logistics, Manufacturing, Outbound Logistics, Sales and Marketing, Services etc. We can look at how digital can help at each stage. Interviewer: I want you to focus on all activities from Procurement to Services. Forget about R&D, HR, Admin etc. for now Me: Ok. At the procurement stage going digital will help us better analyze our deals by running analytics and getting insights into the kind of deals we are making. We could look at cost reduction measures, lead times for our deals etc. I’ll combine the inbound and outbound logistics together. Digital helps us track our fleet better, optimize routes thus helping us save costs. We can use automation and IoT (internet of things) to optimize our manufacturing processes and equipment. Similarly, for the marketing, sales and services function digital can help us do targeted advertising, or create 3D models of our offerings to help sell better to our customers. Interviewer: Now you have gone into selling more which is not cost reduction. But the other things you mentioned are fine. Let’s focus on the manufacturing aspect. Can you think of more ways to save costs? Do you know how GE is deploying technology to save costs in their manufacturing plants? Me: No sir. I am afraid I don’t. But I admit, as a technophile I should have done my research. I can draw on some insights from my past job on how technology can help with manufacturing. Interviewer: All-right. Tell me… Me: I used to design drill bit solutions in India on my laptop on a software that was based on a Siemen’s platform called NX. Just making the models on a software instead of creating a physical

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prototype helps save costs for manufacturing. Next, I’d mail that model to Houston who would then convert that design into code for the 5-axis mill mold machine that eventually printed it onto a graphite mold. This is like 3D printing that helps saves costs and increases manufacturing accuracy. Interviewer: That’s a satisfactory answer. Can you think of more ways to save costs by going digital in the procurement stage? Think PR/PO process? Have you heard of PR/PO? Me: By PR/PO do you mean Purchase Requisition and Purchase Order? Interviewer: Yes. Can you think of cost savings by digitizing PR/PO? Me: Can I get a few moments to think about this? Interviewer: Take ½ a minute. Me: By going digital in the PR/PO process we would be saving paper and time and ensuring accuracy. We would also be reducing our working capital by ensuring that invoices are raised on time and they are right the first time. Additionally, we would also be able to track of our inventory better as inventory visibility would increase and our inventory turns would increase too.

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

ROUND 3 Case Type: Questions:

Interviewer: I was looking for an answer along the lines of ebidding/e-procurement helping the company decrease costs. But your answer is fine. Pease wait outside. I will be recommending you for the next round. Be prepared to back up any assertions you make. The interviewer immediately double checked my claim of liking technology by throwing a tech. heavy case at me. This interviewer was exceptionally kind to me as he kept encouraging me at regular intervals. If you do your research on Accenture/ attend the PPT you will be better prepared to answer questions around “digital” which is something they bought up during their PPT as-well.

PI conducted by Partner This was more of a general conversation. The Partner was the head of the ‘Energy Vertical’ at Accenture and an ISB alum. Interviewer: Tell me about the work you did at Halliburton? Me: I used to design drill bit solutions for our customers in India, South Asia, Vietnam and Australia. However, since we were a small department I also handled sales, competency development,

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tendering etc. I also helped with coring and hole enlargement services. Interviewer: So, your job was to sell drill bits? Me: No sir, I was involved in tech. sales but my primary role was designing drill bits. Interviewer: What has been your favorite subject at ISB so far? Me: Competitive Strategy Interviewer: Tell me one case you really liked and why? Me: The South-West airline case. The way things fit together amazed me. I didn’t know that these linkages could be classified as 1st degree, 2nd degree and 3rd degree. I was surprised to find out the real reason for not serving food was to make sure the flights depart on time and hence save costs. This was an eye opener. Interviewer: The south-west airline case is a classic. Many a times the people who make these operational decisions don’t even know how each small move is aligned with the larger strategy. It’s only ex-post, when academicians analyze the case that they classify the linkages as 1st degree/2nd degree etc. Tell me another case. The South West case is too common. Me: I’ll pick a recent case that was taught to us in the CDMA (Corporate Development, Mergers and Analysis) class. The case is about Arauco a pulp and wood manufacturing company based out of Latin America. We learnt about how transaction cost economics plays a big role in setting up facilities. Arauco decided to acquire or not acquire certain wood mills based on the proximity of these mills to both its plants and those of its competitors. If there were no competitors nearby it would let the wood mills operate independently as it knew that these mills would incur significant costs if they decided to transport their products long distances and hence would stick with Arauco. Interviewer: Other than strategy what else did you like? Me: Micro-Economics. Interviewer: Why did you like it? Me: I gained a lot of insights and learned fancy terminology from that subject. I didn’t know about Agency conflict. I hadn’t understood the Nash Equilibrium even though I had seen the movie. I leant about Prisoner’s Dilemma which explained why people

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behave the way they do. Interviewer: Ok. What about DMOP? Did you like it? Me: Yes. It was a fun class. We learnt how to quantify decisions. Interviewer: Which subject did you get a B in? Me: I got an A- in Micro Economics Interviewer: Do you have any questions for me? Me: 2 questions. Firstly, what was your favorite subject at ISB? Interviewer: Strategy. It seems that this is favorite among many students. 3 of the 5 people I have interviewed so far have named strategy as their favorite subject too. Me: Secondly, please tell me more about Accenture Strategy’s acquisition of Schlumberger Business Consulting (SBC)?

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

Interviewer: Upstream O&G knowledge is difficult to come-by. We were strong in all other aspects of the Energy domain except for Upstream. We wanted to strengthen our Energy vertical further and SBC fit in very well. My knowledge is limited as the integration hasn’t been fully completed yet. For all practical purposes SBC operate’s as an independent entity for now. I didn’t feel like I was being interviewed at all. It was a very friendly conversation. I didn’t expect to be asked my favorite subject, followed by my favorite case and why I liked it. One could prepare in advance for such a question and have a better answer ready.

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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief: Company: Number of rounds: Interview Format: Interviewer: Any specific skills that you believe the interviewer was testing you on? ROUND 1 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach:

Kavita Narayanan Worked across roles in the automotive industry Accenture 3 Case interview + Case interview + PI Sr. managers & Partner Analytical ability and communication skills

Case interview The client is a manufacturer of large electronic panels and is facing reduced profitability The case was given to me because I mentioned that my expertise was in operations cost. Though I created a standard profitability matrix, I was told to concentrate straight away on costs I segregated cost in terms of the P&L statement. I put down the COGS elements first, then the operating profit elements and then the net profit elements. I was told that my cost breakdown was correct and comprehensive. I then delved deeper into the COGS element but was told to look at the operating profit elements. I then asked if the SG&A expense seen any change and was told that it has been increasing. I then asked about the staffing and was told that the company is overstaffed and was asked to explore solutions I mentioned that the main parameter for this cost is productivity and the two levers for productivity are work content reduction or staff reduction. Reduction of staff was something any company would want to look at as a last resort so that leads us to changing the work content. We could either increase work done by existing staff or explore relocating staff into other businesses if possible. The interviewer agreed with my options but mentioned digitization of work as one way to improve productivity To summarize:

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

Gave a quick 30 sec summary of the case It helped to write down the complete framework and not just the first level so that the interviewer understands your thought process. Even though the interviewer mentioned it’s a cost case, it’s better to confirm while going down every lever of the framework. Since the interviewer asked me my area of expertise, I chose an area I was comfortable in solving cases

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ROUND 2 Case Type: Case Narration:

Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Case Interview. Revenue loss case The client is a manufacturer of luxury faucets. Demonetization has hit and his customers are moving to competitors who accept digital payments. I was asked to solve this problem and also asked to prepare a 5 year product strategy for the company I clarified at the outset if it was a drop in profitability or revenues. I was told it is revenues. This was a very straight and small case. I then asked about the products and businesses of the client and was told that luxury faucets was the company’s only business. I asked about the distribution system and was told that the company sells through exclusive stores. I then enquired about market shares and was told that the client was no. 2 in the market. I gave the following solution for the first part of the problem To stem losses immediately, the client may want to move toward electronic payments and increasing credit terms For the product strategy, I was asked to lay down factors which should be considered. I laid down the following framework: 1. Use a PESTLE analysis to understand external environment 2. Analyze revenues vs contribution of existing products 3. Analyze strengths & weaknesses of the company Use all 3 to formulate a product strategy

Recommended Approach:

The case was not an actual case in the true sense since it was a direct question regarding payment method. The interviewer was more interested in my framework rather than the actual solution

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

As much as you practice frameworks, invariably you have to start from a clean slate in a case based interview. It is necessary to not lose your calm if an unconventional case like this is given to you. Case prep develops a structured thinking approach for you which come in very handy in cases like these.

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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief: Company: Number of rounds: Interview Format: Interviewer: Any specific skills that you believe the interviewer was testing you on? ROUND 1 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) Recommended Approach:

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

ROUND 2 Case Type: Case Narration:

Hridhay Rajkumar Analytics Consulting Accenture 3 Case Interview + PI Senior manager, Partner Depth of analysis in the cases

Case interview + PI Reduce the indirect costs of a pharmaceutical company Asked basic questions about the company in terms of where the company is located, competition, whether it was selling both overthe-counter and prescribed drugs. This was unlike any case I had done before. I had to be extremely careful with my analysis since this was a live case that the senior manager was currently handling. I started off with telling the interviewer that I would like to understand the entire value chain and then reduce indirect costs at each step. The trick here was to identify the indirect costs. I had to substantiate why I was considering a certain aspect as an indirect cost. The interviewer dug deep into each point and made sure that my points had sound logic behind them. The value chain mainly consisted of R&D, Manufacturing and distribution. I identified indirect costs at each stage and suggested methods to reduce them. He made sure that each suggestion was logical and grilled me extensively on certain points. After he was satisfied with points under a particular stage, I moved to the next. Finally I arrived at costs like marketing. By then he was convinced and he asked me to stop. I was then asked questions about why Accenture and why consulting. The interviewer seemed to be satisfied with my answers. Keep the interviewer engaged and ask the interviewer if he/she would like you to dig deeper into anything. Be ready to back every suggestion you make. Most importantly – HAVE FUN !!! . You’ll have multiple interviews lined up on that day. If you don’t enjoy the interviews, it will take a toll on you. Case interview Your client is an Indian Automotive major. They want to make most of the GST bill that has been recently passed and consolidate their warehouses. They want to know how they should go about doing this.

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Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Recommended Approach:

The 1st thing that I asked was what kind of vehicles did the client manufacture. The interviewer was happy that I asked this since in general people had assumed it to be a car manufacturer. He answered that they manufactured commercial vehicles – heavy duty trucks. I also asked about whether this manufacture was present in other countries. To this he said that it was present only in India. I also asked whether the company owned its current warehouses to which he said that they were all rented out. I started out by understanding the current end to end distribution model. The interviewer told me that there were currently 5 warehouses in 5 regions of the country. There were 4 manufacturing plants (1 each in the North, South, East & West). Trucks were taken in trailers from the manufacturing plants to the warehouses. Then from the warehouses to dealers in trailers. The next question I asked was if we owned the transportation fleet or if it was outsourced. To this he replied that it was a 3PL provider. With this information I started thinking of potential cost savings from centralizing inventory. I said that I would like to look into cost savings at each stage of the value chain, but he asked me to take a few minutes and give him the top few points that I could think of. One of the biggest advantages of centralizing is demand aggregation. The interviewer was happy that I put this point across. The next point I mentioned was of reduction in inventory costs in terms of safety stock of inventory. We had a brief discussion regarding safety stock and then moved forward. I also mentioned the obvious reduction in rental costs from the reduction of number of warehouses. Although it was quite obvious, I felt it was important to state it out there. Then I said that there could also be potential reduction in transportation costs. He was very interested in this point and asked me to explain. Before I could start, I asked him as to how many trucks a trailer could carry. He said that I had forgotten to ask about how many different kinds of trucks the company makes. I apologized and accepted that it was an important question. He said that for the sake of this case I could ignore the number of types of trucks and told me that a trailer could carry 3 trucks. By now he was curious to know about how I could reduce transportation costs. I started explaining about how the number of trips of the trailers could be reduced and the number of trailers coming back empty would reduce with a more centralized warehouse. He accepted this, but asked me to analyze this in more detail. I immediately asked him if the capacity of the trailers could be increased to hold more trucks. He said that this wasn’t possible. I then told him that if that was the case, then it the company would have to be cognizant of the fact that transportation costs would actually increase. He was very pleased with this and then ended this part here. Then we just had a discussion of potential distribution models that

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Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

ROUND 3 Case Type: Interviewer Case Approach: Interview:

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

we could implement with the centralization. After he was satisfied with my suggestions, he ended the case. Based on the context, a scheme that is meant to reduce costs can actually cause the costs to increase. Be ready to justify the points you make and most importantly keep your cool. The interviewer will try to put you in a tough spot just to test whether you can think on your feet. If you keep calm, you should be fine. Again – HAVE FUN !!! . Trust yourself and enjoy the process.

General discussion Partner This was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. The partner wanted to go on a smoke break and asked me if it would be okay to have the interview at the smoking zone. I agreed and we proceeded to the smoking zone. He asked me to tell him about myself. Just when I started to explain about myself, he cut me off and said that he had read all the reviews written by the previous interviewers and was only interested in something different. I told him that I was a huge Manchester United fan to which he gave me a hi-five and said that he was also a big fan. We had a discussion around that. Then he asked me about my past work experience. I gave him a brief into where I worked and what I did. It seemed like he had made up his mind about me from the feedback from the previous 2 interviewers. He asked me if I wanted to work with him. I said I would love to. He again gave me a hi-five and said that the job was mine. I thought he was joking and gave a very sheepish smile. He asked me as to why I looked so bewildered. I said I didn’t believe him. He said that he’d ask the HR manager to get me signed up as soon as we went back. Each one of us is going to tackle this day differently. For me, what worked was that I was completely okay with not landing a job on day 1. Hence I was devoid of any pressure as such and made good friends with the interviewers.

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The Parthenon Group

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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief: Company: Number of rounds: Interview Format: Interviewer: Any specific skills that you believe the interviewer was testing you on? ROUND 1 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach:

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

ROUND 2 Case Type: Case Narration:

Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Kunal Jain Process Engineer- Dr. Reddys Laboratories Ltd. The Parthenon Group 3 Case Interview + PI Principal, Partner Fit for the team, communication and analytical skills

Personal Interview Interviewer: Varun Jain, Case Team Leader The objective of the interview was to analyze how well I would fit and gel with their team I had met Varun on the day of the dinner held a few weeks before Day 1. We had a nice interaction that night and our conversation during interview continued from where we left that day. Straightaway he told me that there will not be any case and we can simply have a conversation. Both of us being Marwadi, vegetarian and foodies had a lot of commonalities and we discussed about all of them. The interaction lasted for about half an hour post which he told me to wait in the same room for my next interview. I felt I had performed well in my buddy cases and showed good analytical skills which probably prompted the firm to keep a PI instead of a case round to begin with. Even though the dinner seemed non-evaluative, you never know what might come in handy, so always keep your best foot forward in all your interactions. Business Case Interviewer: Rehan Kukur, Principal The interviewer explained the scenario where a PE firm had come to our client and wants to know whether they should invest in a prekindergarten school chain operating in India or not The first interview was a PI so I was quite sure this was going to be a case interview. After a few minutes of introduction, he explained me the scenario. During scoping, I clarified the basic objective of our PE firm and why do they want to take this investment. Then I moved onto the school chain and tried to analyze whether the kind of business they are into is sustainable or not and whether they have any long term competitive edge to earn long term profits.

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The interviewer mentioned that the school is for 2-4 year old kids before their kindergarten school starts majorly targeting working families who want someone to take care of their kids. I was told that most of their schools are in good localities where middle class and upper middle class families live. The case did not have much information and I was asked to give my own judgement. At this point, I said that due to more and more nuclear families coming in, and with more and more women also going to work, such families will prefer sending their kids to school as there will be no one to take care of the child at home. I also pointed out that in a lot of societies; families see buses of such schools coming in and their neighbor kids going to school. Such peer pressure will also help in developing a trend for such schools.

Recommended Approach:

At the end, I concluded that the trend of such schools will continue for now and hence it is a stable business and therefore our PE firm can invest in this chain. 1. Important to scope the question well 2. I had clarified that the school was for 2-4 year old kids before kindergarten starts. This helped in identifying the right target segment for the chain 3. Be ready for a case where there is not much numbers involved and requires you to build upon your own judgement. 4. Be creative in such scenarios as the interviewer is always looking for some out of the box thoughts.

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments: ROUND 3 Case Type: Case Narration:

Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Business Case Presentation Interviewer: Ashwin Assomull, Partner A 16 Page Slide deck about a chemical fertilizer firm having a product mix of 4 products was provided. 45 minutes were given to prepare recommendations for the firm and then I had to give a presentation on a white board to the partner First 45 minutes of the interview, I was given a room all to myself with a white board and a 16 pager slide deck. 1. It was about a chemical fertilizer firm, first few pages were about the kind of businesses they are into, various products and their performance 2. Then, they had provided with revenue, cost and similar numbers for each of the product and a comparative analysis with other products in the market 3. Certain trends w.r.t. years and in different customer segments were also provided

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4. Then they had mentioned about the various issues faced by the firm and the options that the firm is exploring to take at this scenario Second part of the interview was when I had to come to a judgement and prepare a presentation on a white board to give to the partner 1. Before I asked the partner to enter the room, I had filled the white board with all the issues, numbers and the approach that I will be recommending 2. After a 2 minute small conversation, we started off with the presentation 3. I first explained the current scenario of our client, and the various issues faced 4. Then I talked about the various possible options that can be considered and then I moved onto my recommendation 5. At this point, the interviewer started cross-questioning and asked me to do some rough calculations to validate my recommendations 6. At the end, he gave me certain inputs as to what else could have been included Recommended Approach:

1. Keep track of time and skim through the data as there will be a lot of information to process in limited time 2. Be confident with your recommendations as there will be a lot of cross questioning on the strategy 3. While presenting, the interviewer is trying to simulate a real life scenario where you are in front of the client, so keep the session interactive and take hints

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

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Deloitte USI (S&O)

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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief:

Bhagyesh Vora Worked as a Consultant with EY in the Advisory space for 3.5 years prior to joining ISB Company: Deloitte – Strategy & Operations Number of rounds: 3 Interview Format: PI + Case Interview + PI Interviewer: Director, 2 Senior Managers, Partner Any specific skills that you believe the Analytical ability, Flair, Clarity of resume, Presentation skills and interviewer was testing you on? Communication skills ROUND 1 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

PI I was expecting a Guesstimate in this round as this was the communication by Deloitte. However, my interviewer was more inclined towards a PI 1. Tell me something about yourself? Who are you outside your CV ? 2. Why did you join EY? 3. Why do you want to join Deloitte? 4. What motivates you? 5. What have you enjoyed at ISB ?

Recommended Approach:

The interview was about 7-10 minutes and the interviewer was a stern looking director. He kicked off the interview by introducing himself (mentioned that he was in the Indian Army prior to completing his MBA from Cornell University). Be enthusiastic in your responses and show your frank interest in Deloitte. They are not looking for people who are ONLY good with analytical skills but also want someone who can have a meaningful conversation. Also, even though I wasn’t asked a Guesstimate, I was asked to justify a few numbers in my CV and explain the impact of those numbers

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

Be thorough with your Resume, they picked on points which I was not expecting questions on. Look and talk confidently and make sure you show your interest in the firm by asking well thought of questions at the end of the interview.

ROUND 2 Case Type: Case Narration:

Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by

Market Entry Our Client is a leading Pharmaceutical Device Manufacturer who wishes to enter the Asian Markets. The client makes one particular kind of dialysis kits which is currently produced by only one other player in Asia. How will you plan the Market Entry for our client ? I started the case with asking about the objective of the market entry.

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interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

The reply to this was that the client was diversification as well as profitability.

Recommended Approach:

Basis initial questions, I was handed a series of graphs describing the 3 types of dialysis kits that we manufacturer and I was given about 5 mins to analyze this data.

The first objective of the case was to analyze the factors that you would take into account while planning to enter a new market. Hence, I started with questions around the Porters Framework to understand the different entities that could have an impact on our entry into the market. This included questions around the competitive landscape, availability of substitutes, regulatory barriers and the growth rate of this type of goods.

The graphs and tables required rigorous amount of quantitative analysis. There were graphs around price elasticity and a comparative analysis of costs of each product versus our competitor. My first analysis was to identify the product which would have maximum margins so as to make a profitable entry into the market. Another observation was that 1 of the 3 products had zero elasticity versus competitors pricing and this helped. After this, I performed a series of calculations to calculate the profit margin for each product. After this, I calculated the market size and based on our profitability calculated, I asked the interview whether the market was sufficient to meet the profitability objective. To this the interview was impressed that I remembered the fundamental objective of the case and asked me as to how will I go about the Market Entry ? (Different Modes of Entry) After stating the 3 different modes, I discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each mode. The interviewer was not very impressed with the generic strategies and instead asked me how could I improve the sales of our products to meet the numbers mentioned in my market sizing. The interviewer asked me to look back and identify my target segment and asked me who was my primary customer. The primary customer in this case was hospitals who would buy our products basis recommendations from doctors. Another way to persuade Hospitals to purchase our products would be by getting insurance firms to cover the costs associated with our products. At this point, the interviewer asked me to sum up the cases by recommending to them how to increase our likeability amongst Doctors and Insurance firms.

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Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

ROUND 3 Case Type: Interviewer: Case Approach: Interview Questions

Recommended Approach:

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

The Case was very straight forward and basic in terms of end-result. Do practice a lot of graph based and calculation based cases for Deloitte interviews since the calculations can be tricky and can affect your chances if you are not good with numbers. Also, this round also has a PI and in my case the PI went on for about as much time as the case went on till. Try and score maximum points in the PI because if they like your personality and aura, it might improve your chances even if you freeze during the case. PI Partner The interview questions were same as Round 1 1. Tell me something about yourself? Who are you outside your CV ? 2. Why did you join EY? 3. Why do you want to join Deloitte? 4. What motivates you? 5. What have you enjoyed at ISB ? The partner round is just to evaluate your fit with the firm. If you have made it to this round, they are impressed with you, however the Partner round is just to make sure that you can be presentable in front of the client. Thoroughly practice your behavioral questions (Why Consulting, Why Deloitte, Leadership Abilities, Conflict Management etc..) thoroughly so as to make an impression. Make sure all your answers are genuine and not generic. NA

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Personal Details Name: Pre ISB experience:

Anmol Mundhra Worked with EY in People Advisory Services. Shifted to a not-for-profit, in charge of project management etc.

Interview Details Company Name: Role: Offer Accepted: How best to prepare for this role: Pre-Process Description:

Deloitte Consultant Yes Have FADM and CFIN concepts clear, might come handy. In my case though, the course content was not relevant NA

Round 1: # of Panelists: Type of Interview:

1 PI + Guesstimate

Personality Interview Description:

Initial questions focussed on my profile. The basics - why consulting, why Deloitte, the career path I had chosen and why. My background dealt with financial inclusion in the NPO. So she asked me about demonitization. I mentioned that it could have been done better. So I was asked 3 things which could have been done better.

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Guesstimate: Number of people in chandigarh willing to pay for premium dietician service (relevant to my CV) Scope - Check if customers are paying for high-end services or the entire market for nutrition services. Mentioned my assumption that the population was the entire trinity area Structure : Assumed a population, benchmarking it against Delhi. First split it by gender, and then assumed income levels and solved accordingly. Did quick calculations and arrived at a number

Feedback (if any):

Did not get any feedback as such. This was one of the easier guesstimates asked as compared to other candidates.

Learning (if any):

Structure could be more comprehensive. Brevity during the PI ALWAYS helps.

Round 2: # of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description (if Any):

1 Case None. Directly was given the case. The interviewer started a timer for good effect. A widget manufacturer looking to enter new market. Needed to evaluate best entry strategy. Did the initial scoping as per Casebook. Asked about the company, customer, competition and industry. No special info given about any of them. Initially laid out the framework for new market entry. The interviewer was more interested in the

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mode of entry. So talked about the 3 modes - greenfield, acquisition, JV. Was asked about merits and demerits of each. Was then asked to quantitatively analyze the 3 options. The interviewer wanted me to ask for all the data I would need to do the analysis. Had to be extremely detailed about the data I would need for the analysis e.g. I asked about the numbers for volumes. He gave me for 1 year. Had to specifically ask if there was data for subsequent years as well. After getting the numbers, did the analysis (simple calculation) and presented recommendation.

Feedback (if any):

Learning (if any):

After getting all revenue data, the interviewer kept insisting on any cost data I might be missing. Did the value chain but could not pinpoint what data. Had missed advertising costs in the figures.

Could have structured my recommendation better. The interviewer had conducted the case by directly asking me the factors affecting market entry after giving the problem statement, and not giving time to scope. I first told him that I needed to know more about the situation before getting into this. I think that helped in preventing arbit answers for his questions.

Round 3: # of Panelists: Type of Interview:

Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description (if Any):

2 PI A lot of focus on my previous work ex, had to describe the story comprehensively. Also spent some time on why I wanted to get into consulting. As the interview was winding up, the interviewer said he did not feel I would stick around in the company for long. Had to convince otherwise.

NA

Feedback (if any): Learning (if any):

NA

Tips and gyaan 1 2

The general temptation is to only focus on case prep, but PI is very important. Can prove to be a differentiating factor.

3

Sense of humor is very important. Nervousness during the interview can be damaging Specifically for Deloitte, do practice guesstimates beforehand and do not leave it for the end. A large chunk of shortlists are eliminated after the first round

4

Deloitte cases focus on how well you can think with numbers and are generally basic. You do not need to practice many abstract cases, make sure you have your basic framework right.

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Personal Details Name:

Kanika Sharma

Pre ISB experience:

Analytics - 1.5 year, Social entrepreneurship - 1 year

Interview Details Company Name: Role: Offer Accepted: How best to prepare for this role: Pre-Process Description:

Deloitte Consultant, SnO Yes Core Term micro economics, marketing, FADM The company had a video resume along with regular resume. There was no other preprocess. Video resume asked PI questions which we recorded an answer to. Questions were given by software on the spot.

Round 1: 1 Guesstimate Mini case

# of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Generic questions about background, insurance (the sector I come from etc.)

Philips has developed a new bulb which has a life of 5 years compared to (say) 1 year of a normal bulb. Is this a profitable product Opportunity. Soltion: Asked about price structure. Price - $2-$3. From a regular consumer, we earned $5 in 5 years. Now we earn $2. Not profitable. Interviewer asked me to think of alternate markets for the product. Be frank. Think out loud.

Feedback (if any): Learning (if any):

Round 2: 1 Case Interview

# of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Feedback (if any):

Generic discussion about background, education sector, interests, travel, family background etc.

Data based case about market entry. A US firm entering the Indian market with a dialysis product - 2 competitors. Practice cases with data and graphs for Deloitte

Learning (if any):

Round 3: 2 Behavioral

# of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Why consulting? Why Deloitte? Why should we choose you etc.

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Feedback (if any): Learning (if any):

Be genuine. Read about the company and its values. Any hindsight realization or something to share for others

190

Ernst & Young – Performance Improvement

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Personal Details Name:

Prashanth Vijayaraghavan

Pre ISB experience:

Consulting

Interview Details Company Name: Role: Offer Accepted: How best to prepare for this role: Pre-Process Description:

EY Performance Improvement Consulting Consultant Yes Stats, DMOP, CSTR, OPMG,LSCM Resume Shortlist

Round 1: 1 Case Based

# of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Types of questions asked Any Unexpected questions Situational caselets / Q&As

Feedback (if any):

Issue: A $40B technology OEM wants to expand businesses in India. Current value of businesses in India is $30M and is concentrated in the networks space (routers, switches and other equipment) Approch Under the problem. Identify factors that govern revenue and use them in the framework. Use market size to measure company's footprint in the segments. Structure Used the profibtability framework from the revenue side to understand the cause. the cause was that prices for network components were 25% higher than the market, while that for computers is 50% higher. Identified casuses using the value chain framework. Recommendation Shift manufacturing to a low cost country Was appreciated for my structuring. Was asked to remain loose and interact more with the interviewer during case solving.

Learning (if any):

Stay loose. Interact well.

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Round 2: # of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

1 Partner Round Types of questions asked Take me thorugh your resume. Blockbuster project. Differentiation point based on time spent at ISB. Any Unexpected questions Situational caselets / Q&As

Case Interview Description (if Any):

NA

Feedback (if any): Learning (if any):

Any hindsight realization or something to share for others

Round 3: # of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

1 HR Types of questions asked Why consulting, Why EY. General porfile

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Any Unexpected questions Situational caselets / Q&As

Case Interview Description (if Any):

NA

Feedback (if any): Learning (if any):

Any hindsight realization or something to share for others

193

Personal Details Name:

Rishi Rahul

Pre ISB experience:

GAIL (India) Limited

Interview Details Company Name: Role: Offer Accepted: How best to prepare for this role: Pre-Process Description:

EY Consultant - Performance Improvement Yes Have a sound knowlwedge of concepts from core term courses No Pre- Process

Round 1: 1 Case Based

# of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Basic PI just to make you comfortable. It was more of a conversation

It was an IT industry case. Company's growth strategy was to be formulated for a period of 3 years. The interviewer seemed pleased with the approach. I was a bit nervous initially. But as

Feedback (if any):

Learning (if any):

the interview progressed it became more of a conversation between a client and a consultant. Keep the interview as more of a conversation. Take informed pasuses and not random ones.

Round 2: Partner Round Case based + Guesstimate

# of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Basic PI: What keeps you busy at ISB besides studies. We also discussed about ISL as I was one of the Co-owners. Guesstimate : Estimate the number of tennis balls in circulation in Delhi. Case: Profitability Case. A Japanese restaurant's profits were declining. It was a premium retaurant based in Delhi. Identify the problem and give recommendations.

Feedback (if any):

The partner was happy with my approach and detailed analysis I did. I was asked to proceed for the final round that was HR round.

Learning (if any):

Keep the interview as more of a conversation. Take informed pasuse and not random ones.

Round 3: 1 HR Round

# of Panelists: Type of Interview:

194

Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Feedback (if any): Learning (if any):

About Myself, Achievement I am proud of, about Leadership Responsibilties,

No Case

The interviewer was happy. I was offered the job offer right after the interview. Be honest and genuine.

Tips and gyaan 1 2 3 4 5

Go through case books (ISB + Case in Point) Do no force a framework into a case. Be creative. Come up with your own frameworks Practice as many cases as possible. (50+ minimum) Have a good command on concepts learned in core terms.

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KPMG India Pvt Ltd.

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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief: Company: Number of rounds: Interview Format: Interviewer: Any specific skills that you believe the interviewer was testing you on? ROUND 1 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach: Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments: ROUND 2 Case Type: Case Narration:

Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach: Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

Mugdha Dhavalikar Associate Engineer at Qualcomm (<2 years work experience) KPMG 2 GD + PI 1 Manager, 1 Partner

Group Discussion (20 minutes) Should FDI in India’s defense sector be encouraged?

A good understanding of the topic is essential; the interviewers seemed more interested in candidates who stayed on topic, even if these candidates didn’t speak much. Personal Interview (1 hour) Some examples of questions asked: 1) What is it that defines you? 2) What does a job mean to you? 3) What did you achieve in your previous job? 4) If you were doing so well, why did you leave? 5) Why consulting? .

PI questions are often the deal breakers in interviews. While it is very important to practice cases, please don’t forget to put in an adequate amount of work into polishing your PI skills.

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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief: Company: Number of rounds: Interview Format: Interviewer: Any specific skills that you believe the interviewer was testing you on? ROUND 1 Case Type: Case Narration:

Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach: Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments: ROUND 2 Case Type: Case Narration:

Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Recommended Approach:

Shyam Chandra Risk Analytics - HSBC KPMG, Digital Strategy – Management Consulting 4 PI + Case Interview + HR Round + Partner Round Associate Director, Partner, HR Manager Analytical ability and communication skills

Personal Interview Questions about my previous work experience and how the banking industry in India is currently performing and challenges it is facing. Discussion was focused on new innovations in Banking industry and how credit can be extended to underserved population. How will I use data analytics to solve this problem? Why KPMG and consulting after Risk management? (Input, if any)

Be very thorough about the projects you have completed in previous organization. Read about the role they are offering – Even though I had an idea about the role, I was not completely aware about the role at the time of interview. This is an elimination round. Case interview A hypothetical firm named “Insurance corporation of India” is the biggest player in insurance industry with assets as high as 1 billion and 10000 full time employees. Recently they have observed that the insurance revenues are not growing and profit per employee is reducing. Because of its strong asset base, they are evaluating various options for entry into other industries and found credit cards industry to be interesting. They have approached KPMG for an advice 1. Is the industry growing and what is economic situation in the country is like? 2. What is target growth rate for the firm? 3. How many credit card players are currently in market? 4. Is the firm open for any collaboration with existing players? 5. Investment horizon the firm? Short term, long term? 6. Expanding to new countries? This is a typical market entry case for an insurance client. I started by analyzing the credit card industry first and found out that it is a fragmented industry with lot of small players. State owned banks have penetrated into the market and they give strong competition to new entrants. I then looked

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Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

ROUND 3 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach: Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments: ROUND 3 Case Type: Case Narration:

Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach: Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

into the entry options for the firm into the market. I listed down the capabilities of the firm and analyzed each entry option against the capabilities. After the analyses I proposed getting into a joint venture with a small player in the market and use its network of agents to penetrate the market. – this is an elimination round and 50% of candidates were eliminated. As much as you practice frameworks, invariably you have to start from a clean slate in a case based interview. It was a stress interview with lot of cross questioning and extensive Case prep develops a structured thinking approach for which helped in cracking the case.

HR Round Understanding the fit into the organization Questions about why do you want to join KPMG, challenges faced in previous firm, how to resolve conflicts etc.

This is not an elimination round.

Partner Round – Telephonic Short questions about how do you optimize supply chain of a manufacturing firm using IOT and how do you develop a marketing strategy for a retail chain in India. How can the performance of banks in India be improved by reducing losses from bad loans?

I felt that questions were random based on previous experience. Be prepared for questions on latest trends and developments in digital innovations. This is an elimination round.

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PwC India Pvt Ltd.

200

Personal Details Name: Pre ISB experience:

Aditya Date 2 years 8 months; 3DPLM Software Solutions(IT Products); Test Engineer; Mechanical Engineer

Interview Details Company Name: Role: Offer Accepted: How best to prepare for this role: Pre-Process Description:

PwC Pvt Ltd Consultant (Technology Consulting) yes A mixture of PM case prep and business case prep. Resources: Case in point, How to crack PM Interview, Decode and Conquer No pre-process

Round 1: 1 Case + PI

# of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Tell me about yourself, Why PwC, Long term/short term goals, walk me through your resume

Issue: Pizza restaurant chain, website not being used; client wants to build the "best" app Approach: Clarify "best". Problems faced, cost benefit analysis, recommendation Structure: CIRCLES (Decode and Conquer) method pretty useful Recommendation: Loyalty program, incentivizing to shift delivery patterns, better UI for app

Feedback (if any): Learning (if any):

Any hindsight realization or something to share for others

Round 2: 1 (Telephonic) PI

# of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Tell me about yourself, Why PwC, why should we hire you, why tech consulting, contribution in your past work ex, relevance of past work ex to tech consulting

NA

Feedback (if any): Learning (if any):

Any hindsight realization or something to share for others

Tips and gyaan 1 2 3

Be thorough with your resume and JD Read up about the company as much as possible Be clear as to why you want a certain a role and your fit for the role

201

Personal Details Name:

Tarun Mansukhani

Pre ISB experience:

Risk Consulting

Interview Details Company Name: Role: Offer Accepted:

PwC Management Consulting Yes

How best to prepare for this role:

Pre-Process Description:

GD: Topic - the labour scenario of the future Tips - Don’t be worried about introducing the discussion or summarizing it. Behave well in the group and make logical points rather than saying just for the heck of it. They are mostly checking communications skills and your ability to grasp from the group as in the end they ask you to summarize the discussion on a piece of paper, which they take.

Round 1: 1 Case Based and CV Based

# of Panelists: Type of Interview: 1. Asked me to introduce myself

2. Asked questions around my CV - this took a while as I came from a consulting background Personality Interview Description:

3. Case asked was not one of the traditional cases - was more to understand my thinking style (adjusted to my prior risk consulting experience) 4. Asked questions around the group discussion held the previous day

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Case - your client is setting up a manufacturing plant, what all can go wrong

Feedback (if any):

Don’t stress much about the case question - it is just to check how much time you take to be at speed with the new topic introduced

Learning (if any):

Cases are easier than the ones that are used for practice by the consulting aspirants. Yes, once you have done the tougher ones, you are relatively more comfortable - doing tougher cases helps you critically analyze each problem in a structured manner.

Round 2: 1 Partner Round - VC

# of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Personality interview: 1. introduction

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2. biggest challenge - went deep into the project that I said was the most challenging for me asked what is the recommendation / approach that I would have changed if I were to go back to the assignment now (basically after ISB what is that you would have done differently) - key learning from the project 3. Key learnings at ISB 4. How do you manage time (because I was into consulting and said that I am an outgoing person and love to spend time outside the house with family and friends) 5. Thoughts on demonitization - what is the one thing that I think went wrong and that I would have changed 6. Achievement - what is it that you have done outside your work profile

Case Interview Description (if Any):

Feedback (if any):

NA

Very easy going interview - nothing technical (unless you make it technical by mentioning technical expertise) - they want to understand if you know what you used to do prior to ISB 1. Be yourself - if you are not, they are smart enough to catch it. Some interviews ended in 5 minutes, as compared to a 50-minute interview for me - they can catch it in as few as 5 minutes 2. This was the interview during which I was the most relaxed - "coincidently" this was the interview that I cracked too ;) 3. All interviews are conducted to know you better and if you could handle the work that they do

Learning (if any):

4. Try to understand the business in which the company operates in and think of what problems they could face and mould your answers to tackle the problem - an example from my case, when asked how I balanced my work life, I answered based on prior experience (the point to understand here is that they see employees cribbing about work life balance, which is why it is important for them to know how you would handle it) 5. Being lively always helps - a consultant who is lively can deal with clients better because more than half of the times the clients are tough and they need people who can get along well with the clients (another problem that is answered, but through your behaviour)

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Tips and gyaan 1

Be yourself - be calm

2 3

Try to put yourself in the employer's shoes and understand their problems and tackle them with your answers or behaviour Know what you have done in the past - prep well by talking to ex-colleagues

4

They want to see if you are an achiever and if you would be able to replicate it in their organisation as well

5

Case studies not only help you to answer case questions, but also inculcates a structured way of thinking for other types of questions (personality or CV based)

204

PwC DIAC

205

Personal Details Name: Pre ISB experience:

Mohit Arora Worked for 2 years With Axtria- Pharmaceutical Sales and Marketing Analytics

Interview Details Company Name: Role: Offer Accepted: How best to prepare for this role: Pre-Process Description:

PwC DIAC (Diamond Consulting) Experienced Associate Yes Be thorough with your resume. Apart from that- cases, guesstimates, puzzles and brainteasers were asked. Checked my comfort level with Stats as well No Pre Process except Resume Shortlisting.

Round 1: # of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description (if Any):

1 Resume Based- Detailed discussion on past projects No Unexpected PI Questions

Focused on my past projects- In detail. Then he asked a few more questions, broadly focusing on 3 things>> How could we use the models used in pharmaceutical sales ad marketing analytics in retail industry? >> What are the additional factors one needs to account for while reusing the models in some other domain? >> How can we forecast when a retail store will face an understocking problem? What data will be needed and how will you plan to build the model?

Feedback (if any):

Learning (if any):

There were many points in which he interviewer had a different point of view from mine. He said, I was thinking of it from this point of view, but let's move on. I replied, before we move on, can we discuss your approach in detail, will help me learn more. We discussed both our approaches and concluded that his and my ideas combinedly will produce best results. Show the interviewers your interest in learning and geting the best outcome instead of just answering and getting done with it.

Round 2: # of Panelists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Case Interview Description (if Any):

2 Technical+ PI General PI, focused on what I knew about the role A lot of small caselets, puzzles, guesstimates, brainteasers. >>Guesstimate the number of cockroaches in both the campuses Was asked to begin with Mohali Campus, since placements were being held over there, and extrapolate to Hyderabad.

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Started with the places where one can find cockroaches and classified into high frequency and low frequency places High Freq-> Kitchen and Washrooms Low Freq-> rooms and Gardens Was told to focus on category 1 Then went on to calculate number of kitchens, washrooms, then based on some assumptions, number of cockroach sightings and then number of cockroaches in each. Scaled up the number for the low freq category. Scaled down the number for overlap of cockroaches in sightings at different places. Was asked what are the factors that need to be taken into account for extrapolating it to Hyd Campus Answered-> Size of campus, Geographical factors and climatic factors leading to different Cockroach Density etc >>Assume there 1000 people. In order to calculate what is the probablity of 2 people having same number of hair, what will you need, mean or variance? (Assume normal distribution and relax the assumption of continuous distribution) >> You have 8 identical looking balls (plastic), one of them has different weight (could be higher or lower). You have a weighing scale which can compare weights (2 sided weighing scale). Whats the minimum number of times you need to weigh to tell which ball has different weight.

Feedback (if any):

Learning (if any):

We were laughing, enjoying and having fun all thrughout the interview. The interviewer wanted to make it fun, (He kept on joking on his hairfall problem when he gave me the hair puzzle) and I kept on complimenting the joke, by telling him that solving puzzles might not help with that problem though. Make the process a conversation.

Tips and gyaan 1 2 3 4 5

Enjoy the process. Don't take stress. When you are enjoying the process and the interview, your interviewers enjoy it too. Make the interview a conversation. Focus on learning and discussing with the interviewer instead of just answering. Get clarity on the role from the buddy assigned Help others, in any way possible.

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Roland Berger

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Personal Details

Name: Pre ISB experience:

Sibin Koshy Varghese 3 years 8 months / Asst Manager - R&D , Power Train Systems | Bajaj Auto Ltd , Interview Details

Company Name:

Roland Berger

Role:

Consultant

Offer Accepted: Yes How best to prepare for this role:

CSTR / OPMG+ LCSM / ISB Case Book / Case Discussion

Pre-Process Description: No Pre Process

Round 1: # of Panelists:

1

Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Case Based + Some behavioral They asked behavioral questions - Tell me about yourself / Tell me about a major achievement you have / An instance where your suggestion was not welcomed and how did you proceed Issue -- An Engine Manufacturer was facing a 25% drop in On Time Delivery Approach - Tried to understand what on time delivery and the various

Case Interview Description (if Any):

factors that might affect it Structure - Drew a value chain and then for each link - considered possible factors and was asked to suggest possible counter measures for each. Afterwards was asked to focus on engine design link Recommendation - Collaborated to develop a quicker design process on the basis of Process Analysis

Feedback (if any):

They liked the overall structure I constructed

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Learning (if any): No Round 2: # of Panelists:

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Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Behavioral + Some framework Asked about how the Day 1 was going / How I spend my free time / How I would work in a situation where objectives was not well defined / How do I deal with ambiguity / A general problem solving approach Client: A Indian State Govt || Issue: How to get more Chinese tourists Approach : Understood what all are key drivers | Used VRIO to

Case Interview Description understand exclusivity ( Comparative Advantage) | For targeted ones (if Any): developed campaigns Structure : No well-defined structure / Was element based Recommendation : Open about considering all drivers Feedback (if any): Learning (if any): Being Calm was vital Tips and gyaan When answering take some time but deliver answers in a strucured 1 manner 2 Keep them involved while solving the case 3 They are testing how you think so tell them what is your logic In Questions - Ask them about queries that reflect your interest in joining them e.g. asking questions that are not already mentioned on 4 company website, etc Show them interesting experiences you had by steering conversation 5 effectively

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Dalberg

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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief:

Kaushal Narayan IIT Madras, 1 year with BCG in Management Consulting and 3.5 years with Bosch in Business Strategy Company: Dalberg Development Advisors Number of rounds: 4 Interview Format: Standard case interviews but in the development area. Mostly from the projects on their website Interviewer: Associates and partners Any specific skills that you believe the Analytical ability, communication skills, interest in the development interviewer was testing you on? space, etc ROUND 1 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach:

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments: ROUND 2 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Recommended Approach:

Valuation of a product What is the value of “Smart Maps” showing real time traffic changes on maps? Try to understand what exactly are “smart maps”. See whether the interviewer is looking for the value of smart maps to any particular stakeholder like the government or for everyone. Don’t remember the details – but I started with broad branches of social, economic, government, etc. After a lot of drilling down, the interviewer wanted me to focus on the value for an average city office goer. This boiled down to calculating time saved because of low traffic and ascribing a monetary value to it. Demanded some Guesstimate work. Try to cover as many angles and effects as possible. Show calculations clearly. Speak your mind and think aloud. Disguised guesstimate (telephonic interview) The Government before rolling out a massive “solar lantern distribution” program wants to calculate the potential benefits and compare with the budget available I like to scope the questions in terms of vocabulary, space and time Vocabulary: What is the exact program? How many lanterns? What is the criteria of choosing villages? Space – how many states is the program valid for? Pan-India or regional? Time: How long is the program planned for? After some scoping, the case boiled down to estimating the monetary value of using solar lamp instead of the standard kerosene lamps for the average household. Some time was spent on understanding the solar lamp and the specifications (time of charge / discharge, etc. – once it was clear that numbers would be involved)

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Like any case, it is important to point out as many nuances as possible. What about places which are completely electrified? What about places with electricity shortage only during the day? The interviewer asked me to take only those places with kerosene usage at night when power cut happened. What about places which don’t receive much sunlight? How does rural India source Kerosene? How long does the Kerosene lamp last? Amount per liter of kerosene replaced had to be finally calculated. Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

The idea is to differentiate oneself by bringing in as many nuances and angles as possible. Be comfortable with numbers and explain them carefully especially in case of a telephonic interview. Asking questions when things are not clear is critical. Think aloud. Most importantly going back to the original question at the end of guesstimate is critical. You have to go beyond the numbers and give a business judgement. Here for example – what do you think of the overall value of the program? How can you judge? Can you compare it with other programs? Can you ask the interviewer some questions to compare?

ROUND 3 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

Open ended case with Partner (telephonic) A conglomerate wants to do something in the education space. How will you help? A few scoping questions on space and time. These were mainly aimed at understanding the exact goal of the conglomerate. Was it profit oriented? What was the exact metric? What are the timelines involved? The result goal: Increase the % literacy from x% to y% in 10 years. Reduce drop-outs before 10th standard in 10 years from x% to y%

Recommended Approach:

Structure is very important in such open ended cases. Among other structures I remember proposing a matrix of pre-primary, secondary and higher secondary education on one axis and the cycle of a student in terms of enrollment, education and testing on the other axis. The problem could be in any of the 9 boxes. The partner pointed out 2 boxes as problems – one involving enrollments (or drop-outs) and one involving testing. The remainder of

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the case revolved around solving the problems assuming multiple roles – testing expert, teacher training, tying-up with an NGO to reduce dropouts, etc. Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

ROUND 4 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics):

The scoping, structure and the final synthesis were the most important part of the case. This case was more practical and less theoretical. Questions from the partner revolved around how I would behave with a client? What exact questions I would ask them in the first visit and so on.

Creative case. Telephonic interview with the Partner You have to evacuate Mumbai in case of an emergency. What would be the best way? What is your plan? This case threw me off. I took quite some time to structure my thoughts. However as the case progressed it went into unstructured territory and I had to just think in parallel while solving the case. As usual, scoping involved some questions on timelines, distances in Mumbai, available options, etc. What is the metric to evaluate options? The interviewer mentioned time as the main metric. So the case boiled down to what is the quickest way to evacuate Mumbai in emergency cases (within 5 hours)? Or from the candidate’s perspective – What are all the ways – and which is the quickest?

Recommended Approach:

In hindsight, the ideal way would have been to detail out a way to evaluate available options and then go through the options one by one. One should generally not start with detailing the first without giving the clarity of how you would proceed. I sort of stumbled on to the end in this case. I started with talking about redefining the problem as maximizing the volume rate. Or number of people per unit time. How do you fit people as close as possible? However can you evacuate a vast set of people as fast as possible? In other words, should we move one by one with a very high rate or should you move a large amount of people at slower rates. The product of number and rate needs to be maximized. There are a vast set of options density wise – via a ship, air-lifting, using buses, cars, two wheelers, bicycles, walking, etc. For each option the product of rate and density needs to be checked. The Partner wanted me to talk qualitatively – so I steered off numbers at this stage. Trying to cover as many angles as possible – I talked about how people in the interior of the city vs people who are near the coast can be evacuated

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separately. After some discussion, I was asked to calculate between using cars vs walking. There were some calculations around using the population to calculate density of movement while walking. Turned out that because the density of movement in case of walking is very large, it more than compensates for lower rate compared to using cars. Also cars require roads and walking can be done across different landscapes or using smaller roads. The Partner in fact talked a bit about why walking is better.

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

Don’t be afraid to think through and talk throughout the case. It is a discussion, not a monologue.

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Mu Sigma

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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Pre-ISB profile in brief: Company: Number of rounds: Interview Format: Interviewer: Any specific skills that you believe the interviewer was testing you on? ROUND 1 Case Type: Case Narration: Case Approach: Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach:

Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments: ROUND 2 Scoping Questions to be asked by interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach:

Abhinav Mani ZS Associates Mu Sigma 3 Guesstimation + Case Interview + PI (HR) Recruiting Team, HR head Analytical ability, prior work experience and communication skills

Guesstimation Suppose OLA is implementing surge pricing for the first time, what should be the parameters of implementing the same? Confirm that the interviewer is only interested in the various criteria and not in the algorithm Explain the conditions in which surge pricing can be applied – Meeting demand supply discrepancy Location of pickup and drop Time of day Special occasion Special requests Traffic on the road If you can add new creative way in which surge pricing can be used that is currently absent then that is a bonus Keep confirming your assumptions with the interviewer. How long should be my horizon of plan? IS there any resource constraint in my assumption? The horizon should be immediate, preparing for 2020 Olympics There is no resource constraint Since the timeline is short, it is important to grab the low hanging fruits first. Propose to allocate funds for more international experience for sports where India reaches close but not in the medals tally, more specifically towards there training Setup talent scouting camps in regions where a particular sport is more popular. The idea is a much more targeted scouting to ensure better candidate selection and no quota based selection Spent resources to educate coaches on the on what constitutes as doping and what medicines are allowed and create an incentive plan them to motivate them to perform better and tests to know there uptake of the latest drugs. With all the latest in technology and analytics, better monitor the

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Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:

health and on field performance of the athletes and with predictive analytics manage their training regime as well (an opportunity for Mu Sigma here!!) A slightly long term approach would be to setup an education system that allows athletes in college/university level to have a GPA system similar to the US (think NCAA). This will bridge the gap between junior and senior level sports disconnect in India. Have university level tournaments in the IPL format and get all major universities to participate irrespective of government or private backing Be prepared to think outside the box and always have a structure

ROUND 3 Case Type: Case Narration:

HR Round This round is more towards seeing your company fit. They will ask questions on why Mu Sigma, how do you see yourself contributing, how do you think the firm should enter the pharma industry (as I was from ZS Associates), how will you distinguish between your previous firm and us, what makes us different from other firms (they are insistent that the candidate understands the difference to gauge interest), give us a situation where you met with disagreement, give us a situation where you went above and beyond for your client and other situational questions Case Approach: Read the JD carefully and prepare your answers accordingly Scoping Questions to be asked by NA interviewee (no particular order) (answers by interviewer to be provided in italics): Recommended Approach: Thoroughly prepare your personal and situational round questions Your experience/ DOs and Be prepared to counter questioned or undermined. The key is to stay DONTs/Any comments: calm and composed.

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Cognizant interview tips

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The section below details out the company structure and typical hiring process at Cognizant as told to Co17 by the alums Company structure: The work at Cognizant is structured into Verticals (Banking, Insurance, Retail) and Horizontals (Testing, Data warehousing and so on ) . Cognizant Business Consulting is one such practice which helps support the Verticals with respect to their domain expertise. Based on your past experience you would be tagged to one of these sub verticals for example if you were in healthcare before you will most likely be interviewed for the CBC-Healthcare vertical. Type of work: The typical work done by a CBC consultant could be any combination of the below: IT Business Analysis/Product Management (Talk to clients, understand requirements and write them out for development teams) User Acceptance Testing (Ensure that IT products are delivered correctly) Business Development (Work on proposals with account management teams to get new business for Cognizant) Project management Consulting (There is a vertical in Cognizant called CBC-Strategy and Transformation which takes care of this. This is also done to some extent by the CBC-Vertical teams) Job specific: Formal learning opportunities & leadership development programs in CBC - Cognizant has its own MOOC platform, tie ups with other tech MOOCs, lots of webinars on very specific topics, some managers even sponsor short certification courses. Most learning opportunities are focused on IT Tech Areas in which CBC trying to grow - IT Technology is more or less a universal aspect of business today. Most major companies in any industry need IT in some form or the other, more so in the face of rapid advancements in analytics, machine learning, IoT and cloud tech, to the extent that many traditional firms see IT as a strategic resource (see GE and Ford). Accordingly, Cognizant aims to capture this growing and evolving market, spread out across industries from pharma to automobile to banking. Travel opportunities - Not much travel, though you should be open to relocation (for 3 months or more) outside India AFTER 1 - 1.5 years. Growth potential - Quite decent. Mostly based on merit - performance in projects, managerial capabilities, and willingness to relocate... Break of the CTC for Senior consultant: Break-up - irrelevant (will be more than ours Co16). They have a very simple break up of CTC into fixed + variable + retention bonus, which they will explain at the end of the interview process. Last year, no negotiation - it was fixed for a particular band, but I guess no harm in trying. Interview process:

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How many rounds till the final offer? Usually, it is 3 rounds of tech + 1 round HR interview, but may increase/decrease based on how impressed your initial interview panels are with your interview/fit for the role. Most often, the interview panel has not seen your resume before you enter the interview and therefore, you should be well prepared to explain your resume in a brief, interesting manner. Also, be thorough with your resume, ready with details of a particular point written. Last year, there were 3 rounds - 1) elimination round, 2) a detailed technical interview, and 3) HR round. Is the video interview an elimination round? This is a new addition this year. If we look at the trend, consulting companies tend to shortlist some people based on such video interviews and call them for one-on-one interactions. But be prepared for the personal interview nevertheless. It’s all about your past work ex, so preparing for Cognizant interview means you are prepared for many others as well. Will the cases be guesstimate? Not exclusively, they will be based on some concept related to industry. The first round had guesstimate questions for quite a few people last year. Please note that Cognizant recruits based on your industry background, so they really want to see that you have spent enough time in a particular industry and know at least some of the unique aspects and current news of an industry. IT/software knowledge is not required, may be of minimal benefit; they are looking for consultants, not programmers. Some basic tech awareness is also required - what is IoT, what happens in analytics - rudimentary stuff For e.g., “I was from a railway sales background, so I got a Transportation related interview panel, who asked me about high speed rail, the PM's bullet train vision and some challenges unique to the rail sector (global and national). One chap asked if I knew what IoT was.” – alum, Co16 And will they be only industry specific (based on our pre-ISB workex) or can be tech also? It depends on the interviewer. Some people are asked questions that are primarily based on pre-ISB experience. It is better that the candidates brush up their tech knowledge since Cognizant recruits b-school graduates to offer "digital" consulting to the clients. Thus, knowledge about technology can prove beneficial, and it will be better if candidates can hold some conversation (at least some basic level of talk) around concepts such as IoT, Machine learning, etc. What is the interview process and types of questions for healthcare specific vertical. Are doctors considered for such roles? Cognizant will recruit anyone with relevant knowledge of the industry. I personally don't know of doctors who were recruited for the Life Sciences vertical, but one of my friends with a pharma background (she was into clinical trials) got recruited.

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Dr. Kunal Chitnis was hired by Cognizant last year. He would be in a better position to handle such queries. You should be able to get his contact from the alum portal. Having said that, other than being ill prepared for the interview, the only other reason for rejection in our year was over-qualification ( Yes, you read that right :) ). My study group mate was a double MS + PhD in Immunology and was leading the strategy at Dr. Reddy's. Co15 alum’s experience: Resume and Profile understanding Mini Cases/Scenario based questions HR The mini cases are usually around what domain you were working in previously. So I would advise you to brush up your knowledge on that. In addition to that you could probably skim through case in point with regard to the case types and also go through tech related cases (Deloitte ones are good ) in previous year casebooks.

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PLAN B : WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

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What is a Plan B? If you are reading this then it’s clear that you are interested in Consulting and probably have it as your Plan A. However you should also realize that Consulting is a closely contested career option (Both at ISB and outside). Hence, although we do hope that you get your dream consulting job you should also simultaneously have a Plan B option ready which you can pursue in case Plan A doesn’t work out. So what could be Plan B: A role in an Industry that you have been working prior to ISB A strategic or General Management role which still can appease the problem solver within you Any other domain that is of interest to you A job that could potentially provide you a safe landing spot post ISB and help you explore other avenues of interest Why is it important? A lot of students who aspire for Consulting usually suffer from what is commonly known as ‘Tunnel Vision’. Hence, they only focus on landing a Consulting Job but are not clear what to do if that doesn’t happen. Given the fast paced placements at ISB, it is very easy to quickly lose steam and be left behind in the race in absence of a clear direction. So, it is of utmost importance to be prepared for other options and also put in adequate preparation in that front thus ensuring that you can switch gears instantly if the need be How to interpret the testimonials? We have tried to collate the testimonials from couple of students to help you understand the rationale behind their Plan B selection. Note: this is an individual choice and would vary from person to person. Hence, make sure to not get influenced too much by the same and create a plan that best suits your interest and strengths. Also, the testimonials are a personal take on the situations faced and so should not be misinterpreted. At the end of the day the goal here is to kickstart your thinking before it’s too late. Hope this exercise helps you make the most out of the opportunities available at ISB.

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Testimonial 1 : Premanand Hegde Brief overview of PreISB Work-Ex

Plan A post joining ISB

Reasons for switching to Plan B

Final company chosen and how it fits with future Goal

Prior to ISB, I had 4.5 years of experience in Consulting and Analytics working with ZS Associates that specializes in offering sales and marketing solution to clients in the Pharmaceutical Space. I had experience working with multiple analytical and database tools and had developed good excel and powerpoint skills. I had the opportunity to travel to the US offices multiple times for client engagements and also helped setup 1 of the 6 expertise centers at ZS. I completed my undergrad from the College of Engineering, Pune (COEP) in 2011 with a degree in Information Technology. Coming from a Consulting/Analytics background, bagging one of the top Consulting roles was my Plan A. Traditionally folks from ZS had fared well in the past and I felt no reason why it shouldn’t be the case this year as well. I had been active in organizing events back at ZS and so decided to continue with that interest by applying for the post of Events coordinator for the Consulting Club at ISB. Being a part of the Consulting Club core gave me ample opportunities to talk to multiple Alums as well as company heads and get a better understanding of the Consulting landscape as well as overall culture of various Consulting giants. As is true for most consulting aspirants, I too joined the GPA race and tried to be in the elusive Merit List but soon realized that it’s easier said than done. Although I did end up with a pretty decent GPA by the end of Term 3 (Not enough to make it to the Merit List though), I still felt anxious since I knew that it could be a critical factor. I couldn’t manage a shortlist from McK, BCG, Bain or Accenture (However, I later realized GPA wasn’t the issue). I did manage a shortlist from ATK for their PAS practice which was my lone Consulting shortlist (which I wasn’t able to convert either). In Retrospect, I think that there were multiple factors that could have affected my chances: Slightly high work experience, an analytics driven profile, my experience only with one industry and lastly my own lack of conviction towards consulting as a long term career choice. Thus I decide to start concentrating on my other choices which was too search for a strategy or a general management role within the Pharma industry. Although I was vying for a strategy role in the Pharma space, unfortunately there weren’t many such roles that came across. At that time I was focused on only applying to Pharma or Analytics firms. I had only 2 shortlists for Day 2. Interestingly a few companies opened up Walk-ins and one such roles was by Zenoti (Which is the company that I am joining). The role sounded interesting and that combined with a great work culture prompted me to apply for the role. I eventually managed to convert the same and personally feel that it will be a good fit for my future career aspiration since it would allow me to learn a great deal with respect to SAAS (Software as a Service) which is an interest area that I developed while at ISB.

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Tips/ Recommendations

Try to be clear on why you want to get into Consulting and whether or not you are prepared for what the role entails Do not shy away from looking at other non-consulting roles which might be aligned to your interest area. Be on the lookout for small boutique consulting firms that come to ISB and could offer an opportunity to make an entry into the Consulting space. Don’t lose hope if things don’t fall in line at ISB. There is always an opportunity to try laterally post ISB. Lastly, keep calm and try to get the most out of your ISB experience rather than worrying too much about the job that you would bag here.

Testimonial 2: Varun Sugandhi Brief overview of PreISB Work-Ex

Plan A post joining ISB

Reasons for switching to Plan B

Before ISB, I had a 7.5 years’ diverse experience across industries and functions. It included a 4.5years’ stint with Deloitte in Research & Strategy where I was leading two teams and contributed as a member of ‘US-India Management Advisory Council’; around 2 years with an US based boutique consulting firm (WD Partners) in their Operations Consulting wing where I got opportunity work out of the Miami office and travel across the US to advise retail and restaurant chains; and briefly as an Engineer focusing on Operations Productivity with Mahindra’s Automotive business. In terms of education, I did my B.E. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pune and M.S. Industrial & Systems Engineering from the University of Florida. I had really enjoyed my stint in the Management Consulting, but I could not continue it due to a change in my company’s fortune driven by the economic downturn of 2008-09. Later, while I learned a great deal about strategy, collaboration and client relationships, I felt slightly constrained in terms of not being in touch with industry. So, getting into a Top Consulting firm was my plan A and I thought my previous stint, Deloitte brand, MS degree, and my network in the consulting space should help in this pursuit.

But in the first term itself I realized that due to my high work experience, it’s kind of late (companies won’t shortlist me, required extensive travel won’t work out with my priority to spend time with family, and I don’t want to start at the consultant level again). So, despite being in the Consulting Club core team as an Alumni Relations Coordinator, I didn’t even apply to most of the top consulting firms. My fall back option was working in Strategy/ general management role for a manufacturing firm. This also happened to be the career goal mentioned in my ISB SOP. I felt that my understanding of manufacturing operations, research and strategy would help me. Glad to say that I was proven right as research skills and consulting background were considered as desirable traits.

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Final company chosen and how it fits with future Goal

The pursuit of general management role seemed illusive as the roles are few and highly sought after. That meant I had nothing worthwhile on day 1 and had to fight on Day 2, 3 and 4. I had shortlist from Dr. Reddy’s (Program Management role: didn’t get selected after 2 rounds of interviews), D’Dor (Growth Change Manager: couldn’t give justice due to multiple shortlist). Finally, got selected for Havells as a Product Planning Manager which will give me an opportunity to work on product portfolio planning and marketing strategy.

Tips/ Recommendations

Consulting career is not for everyone and see if your work life balance requirements and end career goals aligns with it (if it’s just a stepping stone for you and you are directly getting entry to your ideal role, think why you shouldn’t take it?) Have a plan B ready and be willing to change gears as new information comes as the terms progress Live Case study preparations (market entry/growth/product launch/profitability strategy), will help you for most of the roles, so do it Waiting for right fit after day1 onwards requires patience and self-belief but can be fruitful given that you know when and where (function, industry, location, compensation, and career level) to compromise Testimonial 3 : Nahush Purohit Brief overview of PreISB Work-Ex

By qualification, I am a Chartered Accountant.

Plan A post joining ISB

Well, to be frank, a top tier consulting career for Chartered Accountants is not easy. Nevertheless, getting good grades can give you an edge in a few firms, if not all. I knew this and hence, had worked tirelessly behind my grades. By placement time, I was in the top 5% and had a shortlist from BCG (not easy, because BCG had shortlisted only 3 CAs), exactly in line with my expectations. I could not however, get a shortlist from McKinsey/Bain/Accenture. I did not try for Big4 consulting firms.

I joined Ernst & Young’s Pune office in the Assurance practice line immediately post qualification. I worked on several statutory audit and tax audit engagements across India, USA, Europe and Singapore. I was also closely involved with the Learning & Development team at EY and was a training champion.

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Reasons for switching to Plan B

Final company chosen and how it fits with future Goal

Although I had come to ISB with a clear aim of getting into the MBB firms, that did not fructify. My plan B was very clear: I wanted to get into a quality startup where I would really enjoy my work. I wanted to dissociate from finance at least in the short term. With that intention, I had applied to Rivigo (surface logistics). Also, the grades did pay off because Rivigo’s shortlisting was strictly based on grades. Reasons for going to Rivigo: An amazing startup where Warburg has invested. Also, this is one of the few startups in the country to be extended bank debt facilities. Enterprising team. My interview was conducted by ex-McK guys and the arduous case prep sessions did eventually pay off Rotational program: An opportunity to learn operations, business development and planning & control so that I can truly have a wellrounded experience. As stated above, I chose Rivigo. Today, I am much more confused about my future goal than before I came to ISB and frankly, I prefer it this way. Rivigo enables me to be able to transcend across various opportunities at the same time: it helps me pivot among PE/VC funds, other startups and also, starting my own venture. I do not know how these opportunities would play out over my career but am sure that over the next few years, I will be involved in all these spaces. So, Rivigo helps me get that experience and fits in the overall scheme of things.

Tips/ Recommendations

As you have heard from everyone by now, know why you really want to get into consulting. As you have heard from non-consultants, “consulting is not the end of the world” Have a Plan B Ready – don’t fret if Plan A doesn’t work. You will eventually reach your goal if you keep working hard at it. If you can’t make it to MBB from the campus, taking a Big4 consulting job is not a bad idea as people do make lateral shifts eventually. Don’t settle for anything less than what you deserve

Testimonial 4 : Sahil Kaul Brief overview of PreISB Work-Ex

Prior to ISB, I had just over 2.5 years of experience in Analytics Consulting working with Deloitte. Deloitte works across the board offering solutions and services to multiple industries and almost the entire Fortune 500 list of companies. I worked on both the Audit side as well as the Advisory side of projects for the clients. The clientele was predominantly U.S. with the odd project coming our way from a different geography. I worked on various analytics and visualization tools as a part of my work. I also had a good hands-on experience of Excel and PowerPoint. I completed my engineering from JNTU College of Engineering, Hyderabad in the

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Electronics and Communication stream.

Plan A post joining ISB

Reasons for switching to Plan B

Final company chosen and how it fits with future Goal

Coming from a similar working environment and background, Consulting was the first choice that naturally came to mind. The nature of the work was exciting. Being a workaholic, I didn’t find the hours to bother me although I was a touch apprehensive about going back to the same lifestyle of extremely long hours again. I’d been very interested in organizing events and leading people and hence, I took a lot of positions formal and informal. I led an event at ISB – ISB Envision. I was a co-founder of 2 clubs and a part of multiple other clubs. I was also a part of the consulting club and benefitted from all the sessions that were conducted. I was academically oriented all my life and knew I could manage a grade if I applied myself. At the same time, I wanted this year to be more than just academics. I was never a part of the GPA bandwagon. I put in decent effort while trying to manage other activities. My GPA after 2 terms was very good but this went down in Term 3 due to a couple of courses. It was decent but not good enough for top consulting (Or so I assumed). I did not manage a shortlist from the top consulting. And apart from those, I only applied to Deloitte Strategy and Operation (Was not able to convert). I later realized that GPA was not the only criterion (Although it’s always better to have a 3.7 than a 2.7). It is extremely important to showcase yourself in the best light. I felt that I underplayed things on my Resume a bit and my work experience was too focused on just Analytics. This came up in the interviews on Day 1. I reworked on my Resume post this and was able to get most of the shortlists that I wanted for subsequent jobs. It was a lesson in the subtle art of projecting yourself to a prospective employer. Although, Consulting was the natural first choice, I wanted a Leadership role as my 2nd choice. That one month of time between Day 1 and Day 2 helped me clear a lot of thoughts in my head and I finally realized that a leadership role would suit me more for the lifestyle I wanted to live and Consulting/a strategy role probably would be something that I could look at somewhere down the road. I applied for Philips and it was a very good rotational leadership role with a focus on internal Consulting and Analytics. I think as an employer, Philips does a great job and is a good place to work. The role helps me leverage on my prior work experience as well as my prior industry experience of Healthcare. It’s a common ground between Strategy and Analytics which probably worked out the best for me.

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Tips/ Recommendations

Utmost clarity of what you want out of the placement process. If you feed randomness into the process, the results are going to be random as well. Work on your resume diligently and start as early as possible. It pays to have had multiple reviews before you submit your first resume to a company. Know your stuff – be it work experience, extra-curricular activities, hobbies, anything. Go at least a few levels deep. Superficial doesn’t cut it in the real world. Don’t apply to every job known to mankind. It’s very easy to give into peer pressure and apply to everything. Be judicious with your counters and play to your strengths when it comes to placements. Finally, Be confident! It is not stressed enough of how much it pays to have that confidence going for you. Realize that if you made it this far, you’re special in some way or the other. So, go out there and make history!

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APPENDIX Personal Interview Question Bank

Personal Background Tell me about yourself. What would you like me to know about you that is not on your resume? What are the three most important events of your life? What were you doing during this gap of time I see here on your resume? Where did you grow up? What are your three major accomplishments? What was an experience in your life that you would want to go back and change?

Self Description b) How would your friends describe you? c) Give me three words to describe yourself.

Goals What new goals have you established for yourself recently? What are your five to ten year career goals? What are your career and educational goals? What are the attributes of an ideal job for you? If you could do “it” all over again, what would you do differently? What are you looking for? How long a commitment do you plan to give me? What is your ideal job? What other types of positions are you considering? What kind of boss would you prefer? Why are you pursuing this field? What would you like your lasting impression to be? Do you have a final statement? What are your career options right now? How could you have improved your career path? What salary are you expecting? In addition to salary, what benefits would most interest you?

Values 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

What does “success” mean to you? What does “failure” mean to you? Which is more important to you: money or the type of job? Who do you admire? Why? What do you get passionate about? Who is your hero, and why? The greatest answer is if you can use a family member or friend; try to stay away from celebrities.

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Previous Bosses •

Did you get an offer from the firm you worked for this summer?

•

Do you have other offers? Why would/wouldn’t you take our offer over one of the others?

• • • • .

What can you tell me about your past bosses? How do you think a former supervisor would describe your work? What did you enjoy most about your last employment? Least? How did you find your summer jobs? Describe the job or the activity, which has had the greatest impact on your career goals.

Management / Leadership Style 1. What is your management philosophy? 2. Define leadership 3. Tell me about a time when you successfully resolved a conflict. 4.

Give me an example of a leadership role you have held when not everything went as planned.

5. What qualities should a successful manager possess? Do you have these attributes (of a good manager)? 6. What two attributes are most important in your job? 7. Give an example of a situation in which you provided a solution to an employer. 8. Give an example of a time in which you worked under deadline pressure. 9. Name a point in your life where you turned a negative into a positive. 10. Tell me about a decision you have made that you later regretted. 11. How do you feel about working overtime? 12. Give me an example of how you manage multiple projects. 13. What would you say to a boss that has a sub-par idea?

Strengths / Weaknesses and Skills Are you creative? Give me an example. What have you done that you consider creative? What are your strongest abilities? What is your biggest weakness? Never say that being a perfectionist is your biggest weakness. Some applicants think that this makes you look better, but it seems that you not secure. Why should we hire you? Give me an example of something that you have done that shows initiative. What makes you stand out among your fellow students? What makes you different from the other candidates for this position? What can you do for us that someone else cannot do? What was the most important thing you learned from your previous experience/internship? How do your skills relate to our needs? What can you offer us? What have you disliked in your past jobs? How long before you can make a contribution? In the past year, what have you been dissatisfied about in your performance? What major problem have you encountered and how did you deal with it? Have you ever had any failures? What did you learn from them? How do you feel about working in a structured environment? Are you able to work on several assignments at once? In what kind of work environment do you do your best work? What kinds of tasks and responsibilities motivate you the most? What has been your greatest challenge?

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Interpersonal Skills

7. 8. 9. 10.

How competitive are you? How do you work under pressure? Give me an example of a time when you successfully worked within a team. What types of people seem to rub you the wrong way? Define cooperation. What kinds of people do you enjoy working with? What kinds of people frustrate you? Have you ever managed a conflict? How? Have you ever spoken before a group of people? How large? With what kind of people do you like to work?

Education 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

Why did you decide to get an MBA? Why this Institute? What made you decide to major in____? What have you learned at this B school that will help you on this job? Do you hold any leadership positions? What electives have you taken? Which did you enjoy the most? What college classes did you like the least? Why? Why didn’t you attend (another school)? How do you balance the different priorities MBA student life presents? Did your grades accurately reflect your ability? Why/Why not? Describe the course that has had the greatest impact on your thinking.

Extra Curricular 1. What extra-curricular school activities are you involved in? While it is a good idea to show that you are well rounded, it is a good idea to stress those activities, which show team involvement and leadership. 2. What have you learned from your activities? 3. Were your extracurricular activities worth the time you put into them? 4. How did you become involved in your extracurricular activities? 5. What do you enjoy doing outside of work-in your free time? 6. What is your favorite book/movie/song/painting-or author/actor/singer/artist? 7.

Which magazines/newspapers do you read regularly? Which books have you read recently?

8. Have you ever done volunteer activities?

Job / Company / Industry • • • • • • • • • •

Why are you interested in ______? / Why do you want to work for us? What makes you want to be a _____? What makes you think you would be successful in _____? What do you think this job requires? Given that you have no background in this field why are you interested in it? What do you predict is going to happen in this industry in the next 5 years? How would you go about evaluating a business? What do you know about our company? Do you know who are competitors are? What interests you most about this position? What parts of the job do you think you would find

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• • • • • •

the least satisfying? You have five minutes to describe the most relevant and specific items in your background, which show you are uniquely qualified for this position. What would you add to our firm? What particular expertise do you have that would lend itself well to this position? Demonstrate/illustrate skills that you can transfer from past experience. What concerns you about our company? What do you believe are the key issues and problems in our industry today?

Location • • • •

Why do you want to relocate to______? Are you willing to relocate every two years or so? How do you feel about travel? Are you familiar with how taxing travel can be?

Functions General • • • • • • • • • • •

Tell me a joke. What if I told you that you’d work very hard, but recognition of your contributions would be nil? What stocks do you recommend? Why? Should I buy stock in Netscape? Where are interest rates going in the next 3 months? How many new highs did the Dow reach last year? If you could make a major policy change this B school, what would it be? If you had six months ahead with no obligations and no financial constraints, what would you do? If you could invite anyone you would like to a dinner party (famous or historical figures, dead or alive), which ten people would you invite? If you could trade places with someone for a week, who would it be? Sell me the desk. Rate me as an interviewer.

Consulting 1. Why consulting? Why this firm? 2. What does a consultant do? What are the three most important qualities of a successful consultant? How is our practice different from other consulting firms? 3. How do you rank in relation to your peers? 4. Imagine we are reviewing your performance at our firm after working with us for six months. What do you think our evaluation would be? 5. Highlight your top achievements/accomplishments? 6. What has been your biggest setback? 7. With whom are you interviewing? How have you fared? 8. What is the most important thing that you have learned in the past year? 9. Give me an example of a situation in which you had a problem, how you identified the problem, the methods you used to solve the problem and discuss the resolution. If given an offer, how will you decide whether or not to accept it?

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Marketing 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

Why ISB? Why not IIM? What is marketing? Define the difference between marketing and advertising. What does it take to be successful in marketing? What are the attributes of a successful marketing campaign? How do you motivate others, particularly those over whom you have no direct authority? How have you developed your interpersonal skills? Give me a specific example of a time you solved a problem creatively? What is the most important thing that you’ve learned about managing people from your previous work experience? Rank order characteristics important for brand management. Scenario: Create a plan to market Brand X in Bangalore. What did you dislike about your former employer? Give me a 30 second commercial about yourself. Pick a good and bad ad campaign and discuss them. Give an example of a well/managed product. Pick a product and position it. Give me an example of a leadership role you have had. Give me another one, give me another one, give me another one............

Corporate Finance (Investment Banking) • • •

Why investment banking? Why this bank? Why corporate finance as opposed to sales and trading? What are your outside activities? Why would you be willing to give them up for such a demanding job? What role do you play in group situations?

• • • • •

How smart are you? How do we know how smart you are? Sell us on your quantitative skills. If we made you an offer today, would you take it? What did the Dow, S&P or NASDAQ close at yesterday? What stocks do you follow and why?

•

What would you do if offered drugs as part of the deal? (or other ethically focused questions.)

Sales And Trading 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

What other firms have you talked to? What makes you think you can sell? Would you like to do sales or trading? Why? Tell me what you think a trader (or salesperson) does. Why selling debt vs. selling equity? Why not corporate finance? What do you think having an MBA does for you in this field? What particular markets or instruments are you interested in? Describe an instance where you persuaded someone to do something they initially didn’t want to do. What about your personality will make you a good trader? How will you motivate yourself to make the calls you hate to make? What are your grades? (yes, they know about the grade referendum.) Tell me a joke.

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Strategic Planning & Corporate Finance 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

What do you hope to gain by working for our firm? Where do you see yourself five years from now? How do you see your career progressing in our firm? What do you know about our industry? Our ____ division is thinking of introducing a (such and such) new product. How would you go about determining if this is a good idea? 6. How does M&A activity in banking affect our industry? 7. We are having trouble managing our (division.) What do you think the key performance metrics might be and how might you go about improving them? 8. How would you go about valuing our (division) for a potential sale, spin-off, liquidation?

Questions to Ask Company 1. 2. 3. 4.

What are your company’s strengths and how do you capitalize on them? What are your companies weaknesses and how are you dealing with them? How have you strategically responded to the competition? Where will the major sources of your business be in the next 5 years?

6. 7. 8. 9.

Do you have plans for expansion? What are your growth projections for the next year? Have you cut your staff in the last three years? What is the largest single problem facing your staff/department right now?

5.

What challenges are facing this company? Do you think your company is reacting to them?

Industry 1. What changes do you anticipate in the industry? 2. What risks will your company face due to industry changes? 3. What legislation is pending that will affect your firm?

Career Opportunities / Path / Training 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

What are the best opportunities at your firm for new hires? How is worker performance measured and reviewed? Do you have a mentor program? How about formal training programs? Why do people leave? Why have you stayed with the company? Describe my initial assignments? If you hire me, what are the three most pressing issues you need resolved? What kinds of assignments might I expect during the first six months on the job? Are salary adjustments geared to the cost of living or job performance? In what ways is a career with your company better than one with your competitors? Please describe the duties of the job for me. Does your company encourage further education? How often are performance reviews given?

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14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.

What is the usual promotional time frame? Has there been much turnover in this job area? Is there a lot of team/project work? Where does this position fit into the organizational structure? Do you fill positions from the outside or promote from within first? What skills are especially important for someone in this position? What qualities are you looking for in the candidate who fills this position? Will I have the opportunity to work on special projects? What is the next course of action? When should I expect to hear from you, or should I contact you?

Culture 1. What is your company’s management style? 2. How do you feel about creativity and individuality? 3. What do you like best about your job/company? What characteristics do the achievers in this c

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Gallup Personal Interview questions This section is an example of a behavioral/personal interview that was asked by Gallup. It will give you a flavor of how PI are structured ISB Campus Recruitment for Learning and Development Consultant role What are your short term and long term professional goals? 2. Are you comfortable dealing with cynical clients? 3. Are you a leader or a follower (explain with an example)? 4. What kind of compensation would you prefer giving employees and why? 5. A manager should give more time to a poor performer or a good performer and why? 6. Are you good on phone (with telephonic conversations)? 7. Do you find it difficult or easy to make difficult telephonic conversations? 8. What have you done significant if any so far in your life and why do you think so? 9. Are you satisfied if your performance is above average? 10. How do you measure your success? 11. What would you prefer – multiple projects (of small value) or single project (of large value)? 12. How should employees be rewarded (compensation plan)? 13. Would you like pursuing a client again? 14. For business development, what would you prefer – single handedly going after a $1 billion worth client or working in friendly team for $1 million worth client? 15. How would you explain a difficult concept in an easy manner? 16. Give an example where you have increased profit(s) for your client? 17. How do you keep yourself updated? 18. How motivated are you towards learning and why? 19. How many hours do you work in a week? 20. Do you think about work when you are not working? 21. Can you take tough calls or decisions (explain with an example)? 22. Is it “always” necessary to agree with a client? 23. What quality (according to you) is necessary to deal with a customer? 24. What behaviour (towards you) do you expect from your manager? 25. Have you ever supported a cause (of other individual) to fulfill your cause? 26. How would you define the pace of your life – fast or slow? 27. Are you a top achiever? Does your team see you as a top achiever? 28. Are you a “services” person? Why or why not?

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SOP for Standard Activities – Hyderabad campus (Note: These are just directional, feel free to improvise as necessary) Scheduling Meetings

1) Look out for an email mentioning ‘Integrated Calendar’ by SEAL (It was sent by Anitha Pothini for our class). Add this calendar since it will be updated with all events, workshops, sessions, etc. that would be organized. Also Clubs might decide to create their own events calendar for coordination as well. 2) Whenever scheduling any meeting make sure to check the “Integrated Calendar” to avoid any conflicts. Also have a word with other clubs to figure out if they are planning any session at a similar time. 3) If your meeting has a specific room or AV requirement, make sure to check for the availability of the same before scheduling the meeting 4) Once confirmed, send out the meeting invite to all the participants with meeting agenda and also make sure to send timely reminders (1 day prior and 1 hour before the event)

Booking Rooms

1) Figure out the total expected participants for the meeting: - If < 50 participants, probably a mini LT would work (AC2 MLT, AC4 MLT or AC6 MLT) - 50 to 100 participants can fit in an LT (AC2, AC4, AC6 or AC8) - > 100 participants would require Max LT (AC3 or AC7) - For VC, AC6 LT needs to be booked. 2) For booking mini LT or LT, drop a mail to [email protected] to request for the reservation. Follow up on a timely basis and if required call the Front-desk to check the status. 3) For booking Max LT, drop a mail to [email protected] to request for reservation (Max LT is used for executive programmes and so has a separate approval process) 4) To be on the safe side, try to reserve the rooms at least a week in advance (Room availability can be really tricky especially in the first couple of terms)

AV Setup

1) If there is a requirement for AV (Projector or VC) for the meeting, drop a note to [email protected] once the meeting has been scheduled and room has been reserved. 2) Get in touch with the AV Manager in case of last minute assistance: Manoj (AV Manger) – 98661 60163 Sudhakar (AV Admin) – 77023 48324

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Hi-Tea/ Dinner Setup

1) In case any event requires catering services, get in touch with the Fnb Manager at [email protected]. He would share the price quotation for the catering service. Alternatively, you can directly go visit the manager at Goel’s and have a discussion regarding the menu and pricing (There is some scope for negotiation in case volumes are high) Note: The payment for Hi-Tea usually need to be made either before the event or latest immediately post the event and so plan for the finances accordingly. If the event is company sponsored then usually the payment is made directly by a representative from the company (Mostly an Alum), for other instances someone from the Club needs to make the payment and later claim the expenses out of the Club budget (Make sure to get approval from Finance Team beforehand)

Resume Review/Mock Interview Scheduling

1) As you approach closer to Placements, you will need to start scheduling Resume Review and Mock Interview sessions. Plan for the dates for these interventions well in advance to make sure that rooms and Alums are available for the same 2) Usually you will get help from Alums from the Top Consulting firms (McK, BCG etc) for these interventions. Alternatively you can also reach out to interested Alums from previous batch to help with the same. 3) These sessions are 1:1 and so significant effort is required for the scheduling and coordination of these interventions. Ensure to have a team of volunteers ready for the same and to avoid overburden. Note: These interventions are over and above those that SEAL would be organizing for the entire class.

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