Co2017 Isb Case Book 3n4x2c

. 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.


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):


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):


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. 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.


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 s 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 es 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):


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 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 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.


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.


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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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 ed from an old Royal Enfield video that this hand pin-striping is an extremely high skilled job and it was ed 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)


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.


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 s 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.


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

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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. istration (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 staff and other ing 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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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 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 ion 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 (, 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 and mid segments but was not present in the economy. Data was provided that the market consisted of 20% , 40% mid and 40% economy customers. The firm’s market share was 40% in 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% , 15% mid segment, 15% economy segment Scenario 2: Do not Enter Economy Segment Mkt Share: 50% , 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:



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)


Case 1 Sales Force Effectiveness was one of the frameworks for which I had not done a prior case, so couldn’t 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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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 deg the strategy.


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 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 s -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):



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:


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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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:



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.


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:


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.


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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 ists: Type of Interview:

Personality Interview Description:

Shirish Sankhe (Partner) PI + Case 1. Tell me about yourself 2. Why do you want to 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 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

(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 ists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:

Puneet Chandok (Partner) PI + Case 1. Tell me about yourself 2. Why do you want to 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


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

(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


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

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


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


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


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


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

(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.



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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I initially got a little nervous at the sight of printed case - since we had never practiced anything like that before. - 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 ists: Type of Interview: Personality Interview Description:


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.

(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.




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 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

(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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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.


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)


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



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 mes 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


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

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Gaurav Pansari Chartered ant, 4 years with Britannia


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


1 Case


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: 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 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.

(if any):

N/A

Learning (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, ment), 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)

(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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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 on a system. The average number of such s 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.


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


1 Case



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 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


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)


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

Round 1: 1 Case + PI



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 (: 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 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.


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



(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 ( 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 ists: Type of Interview:


Case Interview Description

Types of questions asked: - I was ETYL winner and Neeraj Agarwal (MD-BCG) was in interview . 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.


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 it the mistake and let interviewer decide.

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Bain & Company

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

Profitability A 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? , 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).


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: 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:


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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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 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 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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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 rs have low switching costs Your experience/ DOs and DONTs/Any comments:


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 s 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


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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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


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


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 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 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 s 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 (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


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

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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 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 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.


Round 3: 1 Case Study



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 and conditions in pricing and payment 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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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.


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:


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!


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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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.


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 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 + 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 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:


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 ments 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?


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?


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 Accenture? With your grades, I am sure you have a shortlist from McK and BCG so you will probably end up ing them… Me: I don’t have a shortlist from McK or BCG. I want to Accenture because I am ionate 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 functions such as , 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, 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 it, 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.


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 deg 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)?


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 s 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 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:


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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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 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


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


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:



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 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 ed and consolidate their warehouses. They want to know how they should go about doing this.

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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 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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ROUND 3 Case Type: Interviewer Case Approach: Interview:


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 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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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.


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:


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


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Deloitte USI (S&O)

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Bhagyesh Vora Worked as a Consultant with EY in the Advisory space for 3.5 years prior to ing 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 EY? 3. Why do you want to Deloitte? 4. What motivates you? 5. What have you enjoyed at ISB ?


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


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.


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.


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



The Case was very straight forward and basic in 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 EY? 3. Why do you want to 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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Anmol Mundhra Worked with EY in People Advisory Services. Shifted to a not-for-profit, in charge of project management etc.


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


1 PI + Guesstimate


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.


Guesstimate: Number of people in chandigarh willing to pay for 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

(if any):

Did not get any 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.



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.

(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.




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


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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Kanika Sharma

Pre ISB experience:

Analytics - 1.5 year, Social entrepreneurship - 1 year


Deloitte Consultant, SnO Yes Core Term micro economics, marketing, F 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



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.


Round 2: 1 Case Interview



(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


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

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

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Ernst & Young – Performance Improvement

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Prashanth Vijayaraghavan

Pre ISB experience:

Consulting


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

Round 1: 1 Case Based


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

(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.



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


NA


Any hindsight realization or something to share for others


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

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Any Unexpected questions Situational caselets / Q&As


NA



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Rishi Rahul

Pre ISB experience:

GAIL (India) Limited


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

Round 1: 1 Case Based



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

(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



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 retaurant based in Delhi. Identify the problem and give recommendations.

(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 ists: Type of Interview:

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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 .

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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:



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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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 t 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 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.

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


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



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



Round 2: 1 (Telephonic) PI



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



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

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

(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


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


(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)

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PwC DIAC

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


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.



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 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?

(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.



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 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.

(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 ists:

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


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

(if any):

They liked the overall structure I constructed

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

1

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 (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 ing 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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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):


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 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 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?


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%


Structure is very important in such open ended cases. Among other structures I proposing a matrix of pre-primary, secondary and higher secondary education on one axis and the cycle of a student in 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:


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?


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.


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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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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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


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 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) Acceptance Testing (Ensure that IT products are delivered correctly) Business Development (Work on proposals with 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 s are with your interview/fit for the role. Most often, the interview 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 , 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 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 ing 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 ed 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 ing). 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 ing ISB


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 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 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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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.


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 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 ant.

Plan A post ing ISB

Well, to be frank, a top tier consulting career for Chartered ants 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 ed 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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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.


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 ing ISB



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 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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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 ire? Why? What do you get ionate 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 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 ed 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 )

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 ) – 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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