Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow Placement Interview Questions

• Q1. How are you feeling?
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• Q2. Where are you from?
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• Q3. What are some of the interesting insights you found during your work at Axis?
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Client has a hotel chain with hotels across America and Europe. It also has 10-12 hotels in India. Growth is stagnated in America and European markets, so the client wants to explore whether to expand in India.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: (Laid down a broad level structure of a typical market entry disguised in a 2*2 matrix.)

I: Can you explore different customers segments and value proposition for each of them?

C: I gave a basic overview of customer segments in each part.

Your client is a dairy product manufacturer. It wants to double revenues in 3 years. How to go about it? Structure it.
Asked few clarifying questions about current operations of the company and used a standard growth strategy framework and explained each of the buckets and ideas in each of it.

Client is the CEO of an automobile manufacturer (assume a company like Hyundai). Government has just announced a lockdown due to COVID-19. What should be his priority for next 30 days?
The interviewer explicitly mentioned he just wants a structure and not ideas.

1. Business continuity:

a. Supply (Split the value chain and highlighted the impacted areas),
b. Demand (Drew a Customer journey).

2. Safety of People:

a. Own Employees,
b. Factory employees,
c. Management/Central office employees,
d. Distributors/Retail Stores.

• Q1. Illustrate (in not more than a minute) as to why you are good at teamwork/ drive/ leadership.
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Our client is a wall paints manufacturer. They have 12% market share (by volume) and want to achieve a 20% market share over next 5 years. They want to grow organically; M&A is not an option. Advise the client.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

(Reiterated the problem statement to ensure it is noted down correctly and started the discussion with a few clarifying questions to scope the problem)

C: Where does the company operate?

I: The company manufactures and has a sales footprint all over India.

C: How old is the company? Is Asian paints a good proxy?

I: Yes, you can assume it to be of similar size.

C: What kind of paints does the company manufacture?

I: The company manufactures different varieties of decorative wall paints for residential use.

C: How does the competitive landscape look like?

I: There are 4 main players including us with the following market shares:

A: 40%
B: 17%
C (us): 12%
D: 7%
Others: 24%

C: What are the channels of distribution?

I: We typically distribute through a network of over 25K multi-brand retailers.

C: What is are USP?

I: Quality of paints.

C: In order to grow its market share, the client can explore the following options:

1. Market penetration through improvements in product, change in price or channels of distribution

2. Expansion into new market (geography/customer segment)

3. New product development

I: This is an exhaustive list. We have the following data about the market size and respective market shares of each player in each category:

Paint segment: Premium
Market size: 20%
Market share: A 40%, B 5%, C(us) 40%, D 5-8%

Paint segment: Mid
Market size: 40%
Market share: A 40%, B 30%, C(us) 10%, D 7%

Paint segment: Economy
Market size: 40%
Market share: A 40%, B 20%, C(us) 0%, D 0%

C: From the data it is evident that top 2 players in the market, A & B are penetrated into the market for economy range of paints, and we are absent in this category.

I: Yes. There is no scope for expanding the product portfolio, but the company can penetrate into the economy segment. We have two options:

1. Plan A: Enter economy segment while retaining market share in existing segments

2. Plan B: Increase market share in premium and mid-range segment

Why don't you run some quick calculations to decipher how much expansion would be necessary?

C: In order to increase market share by going into the economy segment, the company will have to capture 20% of the market.

Alternately, it can increase market share in premium and midrange paints by 50% and 25% respectively.

I: Good. What do you think are the challenges the company will face if it goes ahead with plan A (expansion into economy)?

C: Since A & B have reasonable market share in the economy category, they have a strong hold over the distribution. We can expect the company to experience a challenge in establishing its distribution network in this category.

I: That is a good insight, distribution indeed is a challenge in the paints industry.

• Q1. As you know, McKinsey is increasingly focusing on inclusivity. Can you narrate an incident from your life where you, as a woman, had to deal with multiple stake...read more
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The client is a large two-wheeler manufacturer in India. The growth for the last 3 years has been flat, ~0-1%, while the market has been growing at 5%. How can they grow at a rate faster than the market growth rate?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Just to reiterate the problem statement, our client is a large two-wheeler manufacturer growing at ~0-1%. The client wants to grow at a rate greater than the market growth rate which is 5%. So, I have to devise a growth strategy for the client. Is that correct?

I: Yes, sounds good.

C: I would like to begin with understanding the problem statement further. Could you tell me about any other geographies that the client caters to, what the value chain coverage looks like and the number and location of plants that the client has?

I: The client operates only in India and has 4 plants across the nation. They manufacture as well as sell the two-wheelers.

C: Thank you. Next, I would like to know about the revenue streams. Is the sale of two wheelers the only source of revenue? Are there different types of two-wheelers?

I: Yes, there are 3 types of two wheelers - scooters, motorcycles with less than 125 cc engine and motorcycles with greater than 125 cc engine.

C: Great, could you help me with the market growth rate of these separate segments? I would also like to know the revenue split of the client.

I: Scooter sales are growing at 28%, <125cc motorcycle growth is negligible and >125cc motorcycle growth rate is 10%. For the client, the revenue split is 25%, 70% and 5%, respectively.

C: Interesting! This is definitely an aspect we should look at while devising the growth strategy. Before that, I would like to understand the distribution channels and the level of market fragmentation.

I: The client has a large dealership channel of 1500 dealers and the market is consolidated. The client is the market leader with 3 other players having similar market share.

C: Thank you. There are 3 broad strategies we can consider here. First, I would like to focus on the existing market and offerings, and the possibility of changing the product mix and promotion tactics. Next, we can look at entering new geographies within and outside India. Lastly, we can diversify and introduce new products altogether.

I: Let us start with the first. Can you elaborate what you mean by the product mix?

C: Maximum revenue for the client comes from motorcycles with <125cc engine, for which the market growth is negligible. I would therefore suggest promoting the existing stock of products aggressively and changing the product mix to push the sales of scooters since that segment is growing at the highest rate of 28%.

I: How would you suggest promoting the sales? (Here I focused on the customer touch-point approach to suggest methods for both scooters and piled up stock, and emphasized the importance of dealership experience and incentives.)

C: Good. Let us say we come up with a new scooter for women. Can you suggest ways to leverage digital and analytics to improve the customer experience at a dealership store? I laid down the customer journey to suggest methods to digitize in-store as well as test drive experience and leverage the data collected to enhance products and services.

• Q1. Pitch for 30 seconds as to why you are good at teamwork/drive/leadership.
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Paint manufacturer has 12% market share and wants to achieve 20% market share over next 5 years. M&A is not an option. Help the client.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: What kind of paints does the company manufacture?

I: Paints that go on walls.

C: Is it an established company? Can I imagine something like Asian Paints?

I: Yes, it is an established player. Asian Paints is a good comparable.

C: What are the different products/SKUs that the company offers?

I: There are a lot of variants in the premium, mid, and economy segments.

C: Who are the customers of these products? Are they based in India?

I: Yes, all our customers are based in India. 80% of the supply is to people like you and me and 20% is B2B.

C: What is the competition landscape like?

I: There are a lot of competitors, it is a fragmented market.

C: What is the objective of increasing the market share?

I: The company has hired a new CEO; he is working on growth of the company.

C: Okay, since the company wants to increase the market share to 20% in next 5 years, it should try to grow either organically or inorganically. For organic growth, it may enter new markets or launch new products for the existing ones. For inorganic growth since M&A is out of option, we can look for joint ventures with other players to build a brand in new markets or we can have franchises and retain the control.

I: Let us just focus on organic growth for now. There is not much scope to increase the portfolio of products that the company has. But we have seen that most of the sales come from premium products followed by mid category and we do not have any market share in the economy class products. We have two proposals. First is to increase premium sales as much as possible, focus a lot more on mid and mostly stay away from economy. Second is to enter the economy segment while retaining or increasing shares in the other two segments. Why don’t you run some calculations to see which one would be better?

(Gave numbers for market demand across all segments and market share of the company in each segment. Discussed the numbers with before reaching a solution.)

C: On the basis of these numbers, second option will be better. Since the company will enter a new segment it will be beneficial for the long-term growth as well.

I: But what do you think about the first option? What if the company does not have the necessary resources to delve into economy category paint production? The company’s USP is premium products and as such does not have a customer base for economy class products.

C: We can a take a look at all the aspects right from the customer segmentation, geographical areas, positioning of the product for each of these product categories to see where the efforts need to be directed.

I: What all basic metrics would you cover? Product category is one, pricing is another; what else?

C: Marketing and sales & distribution could be other areas of concern.

I: That is correct. Distribution could be an issue. Try to compare our distribution channel with that of other major players and suggest what changes can be made.

(Gave category-wise distribution for different players and number of shops in which they sell products and asked to decide if we should distribute more products in existing shops or increase the number of shops.)

C: (Based on numbers, provided pros and cons for each option and after discussing concluded that more products should be distributed using existing network.)

• Q1. How are you feeling?
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• Q2. Tell me a little about your work at Marico.
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• Q3. What did you like the most while working there?
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• Q4. What kind of project would you love working on if you get to intern with McKinsey?
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Your client is a financial institution who provides loan services. They plan to extend loan facility for the online market. Consider they plan to tie up with e-commerce platforms like Amazon. How many loans could they expect?
Post reiterating the question statement, clarified the minimum price point that has to be considered for the guesstimate. (3k+)

Checked with the interviewer if focusing on Electronics and Fashion segment would be correct for the guesstimate and then proceeded with this assumption.

Started with daily/monthly visitors on Amazon website & App, followed by an average conversion rate.

Later considered the percentage of people who would buy items from the above mentioned two segments, considered all the available payment options, and then landed on a number for the people who will actually opt for loans provided by our client.

• Q1. Tell me about yourself.
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• Q2. What has been a challenging phase of your life and how did you handle it?
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• Q3. What aspect of dramatics do you like the best?
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What population of India would have suffered during the lockdown because they were involved in the Theatre industry? How can the Government help them (alternate sources of revenue)?
I started with the guesstimate by stating that I will look at the number of people involved in one stage play production. This would include both direct (cast and crew) and indirect (costume and prop rentals). Then I would extrapolate the number by multiplying it with the number of plays showcased in a theatre. Then further multiply this with the number of theatres in a city (dividing this into tier 1 and other cities).

For the cities, I took Delhi as a proxy since I had knowledge about the theatre circuit there. I took some time in solving this, after which he told me to stop since we were short on time. So, I asked if I could quickly tell him about the solutions that I had thought of, which were broadly on the lines of pre-recording the performances and streaming it online. I also spoke about some long-term solutions, of how to attract audiences back to the theatres post the lockdown.

• Q1. How do you feel, what is your take on the session McKinsey organized?
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How can a paints company expand: company operates in 3 segments Mass, Middle, Premium? Should the company expand in mass?
I covered the growth framework wherein I suggested that we could increase current product, expand the market, develop new product, diversify through forward and backward integration.

I did lot of data crunching in the middle.

I finally concluded that company should not expand in mass as it is dominated by niche players, and they have strong distribution channels. It would be difficult to compete with and would hamper the brand image of the company.

How to increase the number of gold medals for India in the Olympics?

Tell me something about yourself.

Why are you interested in Consulting?

How to scale up a restaurant?

What do you know about Consulting and Mckinsey?