Booz & Company Interview Questions and Tips

The interviewer started “tell me about yourself” while he was reading through the resume.
Case Details:
Then the interviewer asked about a particular bullet point in resume. The question given as case study was based on this.
For the next 15-20 minutes, we spoke about the measures taken to improve the performance. We went into exhaustive discussions
about the steps taken and what else could have been done. We discussed about product mix, the performance of other stores in the
region, agricultural potential of the area, means to attract customers etc.
For the next question, I asked about the tax rate and he said the tax rate is zero. I gave the answer.
He then asked me if I wanted to ask something about the job. I asked him about his career progression. I also asked that Booz being relatively new entrant in India, how it was planning to expand.
The detailed discussion on resume point went well. I was also pretty relaxed during the interview which helped.
While giving answer for the WACC question, I simply gave an answer and did not illustrate the logic of it. I could have taken him through the logic.

Typically we prepare a 3-4 minute pitch for each resume point. In my case the discussion on a single point went for about 20 minutes. So it’s important to know your resume very well and talk about it convincingly.

: Tell me something about yourself (went on for about 4 minutes as he did not stop me and expected more)
: What are the qualities required to be a successful consultant
: Why do you think you would make a good consultant
: What other career choices are you looking at. Which other firms are you interviewing with.
: What are your long term career goals. How would you achieve them.
: While discussing my experience in KPMG audit, the discussion veered towards corporate governance. So he asked me to tell
what went wrong with Enron – the question stumped me because I had not expected it and had last read about Enron more than 5
years back. I gave him a rough sketch about how Enron managed to cook its books.
The personal interview lasted for about 15-20 minutes. Generally there were follow up questions to what I answered. Then we started with a case.
Case question: An oil marketing company wants to launch a fuel card where the customer can pay through the card and settle the bills at the end of the month. Users would also get loyalty points. How would you advise the company on whether they should undertake the project.
Case Details:
I started with broadly stating that the considerations would be strategic, financial to see if the project is viable and then operational to see if it can be implemented. To see whether we would have any strategic advantage over competition with fuel card launch, I explored the potential customers.
S(me): Has any competitor launched fuel cards or any similar program of their own?
P(interviewer): No. Ours is the first company considering its launch.
S: To see whether customers would value fuel cards, let’s categorize the customers. One set who would value it would be transport service operators. Other set would be retail customers who would appreciate the convenience offered by fuel cards and loyalty points. The points would also help in creating a customer lock-in.
P: That covers practically everybody. Why would transport service operators value fuel card ?
S: It would mean drivers would not need to carry cash with them on trips and hence greatly reduce operational hassles. There will be decrease in leakage/theft as the drivers would be paying directly by cards. Operators would have transaction ease in paying at the end of month and also greater control over the fuel usage. Interviewer seemed happy with the reasons. I said that there seemed to be a market for fuel cards and by implementing it, we would be able to increase our sales by eating into our competitor’s pie. We proceeded to check the financial viability. To check the financial feasibility I outlined the following scheme: Incremental contribution due to fuel cards Implementation and operating costs for the same Hit in margin if we do not implement and some competitor implements the same
I checked with interviewer if he was ok with the overall approach and he said fine.
S: To compute the incremental contribution, we need the current sales level and the margin level
P: Current sales are 100 mn lts. Margin is 10 cents per ltr
S: We would need the competitive scenario, number of stores and incremental sales expected at each store to estimate incremental margin
P: Assume there is an overall 30% increase in sales volume
I thus calculated the incremental contribution. We then proceeded to calculate the cost of implementation and operation.
S: Operating costs would depend on the model of operation. We can either tie up with a bank and they can take over all the back-end like and operate it like credit card operations. Else we can have our own set-up and generate bills for the customers. In our own set-up, there will be higher set-up costs and interest foregone for credit period. In tie-up with bank, we would have credit card charges as normally levied by the banks which are generally around 1.5% and maybe some additional operating costs. Other than that, we would have incremental costs at the pump level like a telephone line for card usage. Interviewer gave me a fixed cost per month which was same for both scheme and included depreciation etc. This certainly made life easy 
S: What are the loyalty points costing us?
P: 3 cents per ltr
S: When we launch fuel cards, the card sale would also poach into our cash sale. Hence though the overall incremental sale is 30%, what is card sale as a % of total sale?
P: cash and card sales are 50% each.
I then worked out the numbers to determine that launching fuel cards was leading to financial loss on a standalone basis. I then asked whether we should proceed to compute the potential loss in revenue in case we do not launch fuel cards but a competitor launches it. The interviewer asked me to summarize the case there. I said that fuel cards seem to have a good market but is leading to a loss on standalone basis. To take a decision, we need to see potential loss if we do not launch and a competitor launches the same. Also, we could look into reducing loyalty points as it’s a major cost head. We are delivering real value to customer and current scheme may not be required.
Prep for personal questions helped me in the first half. Case went well in a structured manner.
To conclude, what I think went wrong with the interview was the Enron question surprised me and I did not give a very good answer. But I guess there can always be surprise questions. Having a fair idea in the field of prior experience would help.

We did not discuss any case during the interview. However, we spoke on length about my work experience and learnings. I had worked in rural retail business and rural marketing business in ITC before joining ISB. So we went into a lengthy discussion about rural India and its potential. He asked whether the buzz surrounding rural India was justified. I gave my opinion. He then asked what were the hurdles in rural India and what were the factors determining success. I gave examples from my experience and listed down the hurdles and success factors. We discussed them in details and he came up with a sort of matrix to evaluate the potential for rural success based on factors discussed. I also highlighted the importance of right product which can make a big difference and gave some examples in this regard. I also listed down the key drivers for business in retailing business in rural
India.
After some more questions, the interview ended.
What I think went right in the interview is that I was able to talk about my experience of rural India in both retailing and marketing businesses in detail with numbers and examples which made the discussion more lively and believable.

Again knowing about your work experience thoroughly helps.

Resume making is an art, as everybody puts it. It is true to a certain extent. Drafting resume requires a lot of time. It took me 20 days to come up with the final resume. I started by preparing a rough draft and corrected it with time. I got it reviewed from many people so as to avoid any grammatical errors and also to check if the flow of sentences is good. It was a daunting task but in the end it turned out well since I made it to the shortlist of several companies.

You should start with listing down all your achievements (even if they're small). Having done that, try to club different points into one category and divide your resume in sections. This will make reader's job easy to create an impression of you. Ensure that there are no grammatical errors. Also, try to articulate sentences in a way which is easily understandable.
Once your resume is ready, get it reviewed from peers and seniors.

It was a typical market entry case. The interviewer only wanted to check the structure and hence didn't go into details. After asking relevant preliminary questions, I approached this case by understanding two things, one, if there is any opportunity (profitability) within this business and second, if my friend has the required capabilities to enter into this market. The interviewer asked me questions at various parts of the case. I couldn't reach to the recommendation part because of shortage in time.

Practice sufficient number of market entry cases since these are commonly asked. In the case interview, always try to understand the interviewer's motive behind giving the problem statement. It can be very well understood after 5-10 minutes into the case. Once you know that, it becomes very easy to cast a good impression through solving the case in his desired direction. Also, it is reasonable to ask for interviewer's help whenever needed.

Case details:
This wasn't a simple case as it looks. I tried 2 different approaches but the interviewer wasn't looking convinced. So I tried another approach of dividing the profitability region wise after taking hints from the interviewer. I then went ahead and asked for profitability in different regions where XYZ was operating. It turned out that one country didn't have profitability at par with other countries so I focused on improving profits for that particular country. The problem was somewhere in cost which interviewer helped me find out. Based on it, I gave my recommendations.

Try to remain calm when you might not pick the right approach at first for case solving. Listen to your interviewer clearly since he might drop hints for laying down initial structure.

This interview was a typical HR interview taken by a Partner with majority of time spent on my introduction. I am fond of reading political news and this became a subject of interest for the interviewer. My opinions were asked regarding Bihar elections, Modi Govt and new policies. This interview went smoothly but lasted quite long before I was made an offer.

This type of interview is majorly meant for two things, one is to see whether you are a good fit or not and second is to see whether you have a recall value (something that is unique to you). You should analyze yourself damn well before going into the interview room. From your strengths to weaknesses, everything should be supported by some examples or relevant arguments.

With doing 30-35 cases, the required skills for solving cases can be developed. Make sure cases are as diverse as possible.