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

• Q1. Introduce yourself.
  View Answers (1)
• Q2. Why do you want to do consulting?
  View Answers (1)
• Q3. What does a consultant need to do so that a client can really see their value?
  View Answers (1)
• Q4. What are you good at? (Data crunching, presenting, or talking to client) What are the sectors you like to track?
  View Answers (1)
• Q5. How do you approach projects under a deadline?
  Add Answer
• Q6. When do you perform the best (under pressure or in a well-planned assignment)?
  Add Answer
• Q7. How would you deal with situations when you are in a completely new environment/region and have to accomplish a task?
  Add Answer

[Some questions from Round 1 were asked again followed by a case:]


Foreign auto manufacturer made an entry in the mid-level segment (5-7 lacs) cars with Maruti Suzuki Swift as the main competitor. Swift sells 50k cars a month but the client is only selling 4k cars a month. The client has very deep pockets and has 2 years to take the sales from 4k cars per month to 10k cars per month. The client sells their car at 10lac in India, while Swift is 5-7 lacs. The customers like the client’s car but due to the price, they buy Swift. How would you try and help the client achieve their goal?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Looking at the case facts, the customers like our client's car but they are not willing to pay such a high price for a car. We could try to use our client's deep pockets to undercut prices, but it may not be a sustainable approach. I think that our client's costs may be too high which is pushing the price up. If we can manage to lower our costs, we may be able to lower prices. I would like to ask about our client's supply chain and business model. Do they import any parts? Where is the manufacturing/assembling units located? Where does our client sell cars in India?

I: Okay, we import our parts from Europe and assemble those parts in India. Our plant is located on the outskirts of Bombay. We sell our cars pan India.

C: We could try to reduce some of these costs. In terms of importing, can we try and change our import source to a cheaper country, maybe China?

I: That would lead to quality issues. Our factory is located on the outskirts of Bombay, near the Bombay Pune belt.

C: Yes, the costs in that region might be high. We can also look to shift our manufacturing locations where labor and rent are cheaper.

I: Alright fair enough. Can you think of some promotion strategies (ATL/BTL) that our client may use?

C: We could also try to target a different market segment or promote our car as a premium and prestigious model highlighting its quality and safety to differentiate from Swift.

I: Okay. Are there any sectors that you like to track?

C: Answered with a sector (Follow up question on that sector).

Guesstimate: Estimate the number of footballs required for a tournament at IIML?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

I: Since you like football, can you estimate the number of footballs you would need for a tournament at IIML? You can only order once, and you have 15-20 minutes to decide. I want you to give me a number.

C: I would like to ask some questions before I jump into the calculations. How many teams are participating and what is the tournament format? How many pitches are available for a match (since we may be able to reuse some footballs if matches are held sequentially)? What is the number of balls used per match?

I: The tournament has a group stage, followed by the semifinals and finals. There are two groups with five teams per group. Each team plays one match with the other in their own group. The top two teams advance. Two fresh balls are used per match.

C: Alright, that means there are 23 total matches and 46 balls required. We would also need to order extra balls in case a ball is lost or becomes unusable.

I: How would you decide the number of extra balls?

C: We could set a limit to the minutes in play every ball can be used for before replacement.

I: You have 5 minutes remaining and you need to quickly give a number.

C: We could take a rough estimate of the average number of balls that are lost in matches.

I: How would you get that number; it will be difficult to calculate. Is there someone you can ask?

C: We can ask someone who has done this kind of tournament before and adjust the number of balls required.

I: Good. Now tell me how do you separate a needle from a haystack?

C: We can use a magnet.

I: What else?

C: We can put the haystack in water and the needle would sink.

I: Okay, what else? Think about the chemical properties of the two.

C: If we do not need the haystack later, we can burn it.

Walk me through your CV.
Gave my intro with a focus on describing some of the CV sections.

Cement prices fell during lockdown but have rebounded. We are building a pricing model for rupees/tonne for the manufacturer. What are the factors you would consider for that model? Think from a general industry independent perspective (what would affect the price charged by someone).
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: I would evaluate the demand for cement and the supply of the raw materials required for producing cement.

I: Forget cement. I and my competitor sell a pen. Our product is exactly the same with the same cost per pen. I charge Rs10 from my customer while the competitor charges Rs. 8 and the cost per pen is Rs. 5. My competitor enjoys a much larger market share than me. Should I reduce my price to Rs8? Think from a considerably basic financial perspective. What are the questions that you would ask me?

C: What is the increase in quantity sold if we drop the price by 2 rupees? It may not make sense to drop the price if an increase in quantity sold is not sufficient to sustain revenues.

I: Think from your finance courses at MBA. There is an equation you can use.

C: Is our pen more premium than the competitors?

I: No, they are in the same segment. Think from a layman's perspective. Tell me what does a company need to do business?

C: Capital?

I: Yes, now you are on the right track. Can you ask me the right question now?

C: What are the debt and equity levels of the firm?

I: You should ask about return on capital, should you not?

C: Yes, ROCE should be more than returns on alternate investments for the manufacturer or it may not make sense to be in this business.

• Q1. Introduce yourself.
  Add Answer
• Q2. Run me through your CV.
  Add Answer
• Q3. I was enquired about the P&G Emerging leaders Program, and asked if I have an offer from P&G. I was then asked which firm I will choose.
  Add Answer

P&G's leading detergent's market share is falling. They need your help.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: Reiterated the problem statement to understand if I am being asked to identify the problem or come up with ideas to solve it.

(Although identifying the genesis of the problem is of utmost importance to solve it, knowing the interviewer’s expectations is very important as final interviews were scheduled for only 12-15 minutes.)

I would want to start with some preliminary questions to scope out the problem. For how long the problem has existed and what is the quantum of decline.

We have been facing this issue since the past 1 year and have witnessed a 25% decline.

C: Are we talking about covid or pre-covid times?

I: Covid times.

C: Is the decline concentrated to a particular geography or any particular product or the entire detergent line.

I: No, evenly spread across.

C: Enquired about the competitive landscape, more details about the detergent (premium category or regular), and our consumers.

I: Detergent market in India is highly competitive, with premium brand from P&G and HUL regular brand from Ghadi and Nirma and competition from local brands as well. We deal in premium category.

C: So, I would like to view the problem from 2 sides, demand and supply. For demand side, I will analyze the journey of a typical detergent consumer, and for supply side, I would analyze the value chain.

For demand side, I will step into the shoes of a consumer and map his/her entire journey. Starting with if the consumer needs our product in the same quantity as he/she used to in pre covid times. During covid washing load was substantially lesser.

Following this, is the consumer even aware of all are offerings, for which I would want to analyze the marketing budget and efficiency by analyzing outreach and different mediums used.

Post which, I will analyze if the consumer has accessibility for the product. Here I would analyze both online and offline channels. For offline channels, I would also analyze factors such as product placement, ease of product identification, retailer's push and commissions etc.

After this, I would analyze if the consumer had the purchasing power to buy the product, as covid caused a substantial decline in discretionary disposable income.

Then I would analyze the experience of a consumer using the detergent. Here, I would also see if P&G or the competitors have made any significant change to the product and packaging.

I: You seem to be well-versed with the sector. Just list down the supply side factors quickly.

C: For supply side, I would analyze the value chain, starting from raw material procurement (which could be a major issue due to covid), payment terms with suppliers, inbound logistics (since crossing borders across states was an issue), production related issues especially related to labor and covid norms as stipulated by the government.

• Q1. Tell me about yourself.
  Add Answer
• Q2. Why Kearney?
  Add Answer
• Q3. Give me 2 reasons why you wouldn't want to venture into consultancy. How will you overcome these?
  Add Answer
• Q4. You come from a joint family. Do you think you will be able to cope with the life of a consultant?
  Add Answer
• Q5. Walk me through your CV.
  View Answers (1)

• Q1. Tell me something about yourself.
  Add Answer
• Q2. Asked about learnings from High School and Undergraduate College. How is it different from B-school?
  Add Answer
• Q3. Why consulting and specifically why Kearney?
  Add Answer
• Q4. Asked about my learnings from Term I of B-school and if the rigorous schedule actually helps?
  Add Answer
• Q5. Why did not you not join Hong Kong University even after getting 50% scholarship?
  Add Answer
• Q6. What is one thing that excites you most about Consulting?
  Add Answer
• Q7. Walk me through your CV.
  Add Answer
• Q8. Asked some questions from Internship and Scholarships.
  Add Answer

Your client is a Spice Manufacturer and Seller. They have been facing stagnant revenues from past 3 years and looking to expand their business. Help them out through all possible ways.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: (Asked some clarifying questions to know about the problem and understand the objective of the company) To understand the client in a better way, could you tell me where is the client located and since how many years they have been in business?

I: The client is located in the northern part of India; they have been in business for past 15 years.

C: Have they experienced any decline in price of their products?

I: No, they have not seen a decrease in price, it’s just they are having constant sales from past 3 years.

C: What is their product line, different modes of distribution? Who are their customers?

I: They sell home-made variety of spices. They manufacture spices and sell it directly to retail outlets, outlets in Mall (like Big Bazaar, Spencer's). Can you think of any other channel?

C: Do they have some online presence? Do they export spices to other countries?

I: No, they are not currently online. They are well established in Northern India.

C: Do we have some information about the other players in the market? What market share do we hold?

I: There are 3-4 big players in the market, we have a market share of almost 8%.

C: Can we say that we are focused on increasing the current market share through increasing our existing revenue or exploring other options?

I: Yes, you can say that.

C: What is the average price of our products? Is it competitive with the other players?

I: It is very similar to other players, and we cannot look for ways to decrease the prices as that option has already been explored.

C: Now that I have got fair bit of idea about the client, I would like to look for ways to increase their revenues. I would majorly focus on exploring the current market of the company as well as if can taper into new markets as well.

I: Sounds like a good approach, lets proceed.

C: There could be two ways to increase our market share in the existing.

Firstly, through exploring more distribution channels and bringing more retail stores on board to strengthen our presence.

Secondly, we can introduce some other SKUs of current product line or launch some new spices/ flavors from other parts of country to the market.

I: Sounds good. Can you also explore some other ways to increase sales?

C: Definitely. As I mentioned we can also explore to look for ways to taper into newer markets outside north India. Also, we can directly launch some new products into new markets but that can be a risky option as we would be more confident about our old products which has previously worked in Northern market.

I: Okay. Can you tell me what other channels we can explore for increasing our market share?

C: We can collaborate with restaurants, other product manufacturers where spices are required in bulk quantity. We can also get listed on online platforms to increase our visibility.

For newer products we can look to launch a different segment which focuses on bringing spices from different regions of the country like Northeastern Dalle spice and other popular flavors.

I: I think you have covered all the aspects where we can look at it. Can you quickly summarize the case for me?

C: Sure. (Summarized- covered both sides of market)

Your client is into Construction business. They have currently experienced increase in their expenses, help them figure out where is the issue and give recommendations.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: (Asked some clarifying questions to know about the problem and understand the objective of the company) What all construction businesses is the client involved in like constructing buildings, roads etc. and since when they have been in business?

I: The client is majorly involved in constructing buildings.

C: Who are the competitors and where do we stand in the industry? Have they also been experiencing the same problem?

I: There are 3 other big players in the industry, and we have 10% share in the industry. They are not experiencing any increase in their costs.

C: I would like to understand more about the client’s business, how do they sell flats which they build?

Do they sell it directly to people or they have some contracts with other parties?

I: They majorly work on contractual basis and other third parties sell it finally to people. What are you looking to figure out with this information?

C: I am trying to figure out which could be the major cost driver for the client. Keeping in mind this is a company specific problem I think the major costs would be labor cost and commissions for getting the contracts.

I: Yes, labor costs could be looked at further. What do you think could be the problem with the client?

C: There could be three components to it. First it could be that our labors are demanding more wages now but generally wages are set on industry standards. Second could be that more we are hiring more labors for our work. Third could be that the training costs which is incurred in training new labors is higher for our company.

I: Okay. We are hiring more but our revenues are also increasing in proportion, but our training costs are higher and that’s where the problem is. What do you think can be done?

C: We can look to create efficient batches for training so that whenever training of labor takes place, it is for a larger set of people. If we are spending more on training it's clear that we are not hiring experienced and trained labor, do we have some information on why are we not doing that?

I: That’s a good observation. We have tried hiring experienced civil engineers, but we are not able to match their pay-scale, or they are choosing other career fields. That is why we are hiring inexperienced labor or engineers and training them for the work.

I: Keeping time constraints in mind, you can suggest some recommendations on how to solve the issue at hand.

C: We can look at collaborating with some colleges for regular hiring from them. We can look to outsource training facilities for our labor. We can also look for launching some courses in colleges to incentivize them to join the company by highlighting the perks as well.

I: Okay. Don’t you think we can also look to open up a college specifically for Civil Engineers so that we can have trained quality engineers in our company?

C: Certainly, we can also explore that situation. Although I just thought that the amount required to set up a college will be comparatively higher than other options.

• Q1. Describe your work experience, in terms of your role and day to day activities.
  Add Answer
• Q2. Any plans of continuing in marketing and what type of marketing - digital, brand etc
  View Answers (1)
• Q3. Favorite Google product & why?
  Add Answer
• Q4. Any improvements to be made to the product?
  View Answers (1)
• Q5. Favorite advertisement in 2019 & what you liked about it.
  Add Answer

Tell me something about yourself.

Why marketing?

Favorite Google product

How to improve the product?

Which segment does it target and which one does it leave out?

Should we target the left out segments?

Work experience based questions.

Government has come with a new rule that no payments app is allowed more than 33% market share and Gpay is currently at 40+.

How do you increase the user base (target previously untargeted segments) and at the same time adhere to government norms without compromising on existing customer base?

• Q1. Tell me something about yourself.
  Add Answer
• Q2. Questions related to work experience.
  Add Answer
• Q3. What are the roles of a CEO and if you were the Google CEO what would be keeping you up at night with regards to the current business environment?
  Add Answer
• Q4. Strengths & weaknesses.
  Add Answer
• Q5. If your current classmates had to describe you, what characteristic would they most emphasize on?
  Add Answer
• Q6. What did you like & hate the most about your previous work experience?
  Add Answer
• Q7. Any questions for us?"
  Add Answer
• Q8. Guesstimate on market size for YouTube subscription model.
  View Answers (1)

• Q1. Please introduce yourself.
  Add Answer
• Q2. Can you please explain me your job profile at Mercedes-Benz?
  Add Answer
• Q3. Why IIM Lucknow after having worked in Mercedes-Benz?
  Add Answer
• Q4. Why Accenture Strategy?
  Add Answer
• Q5. If you had an option to work for world's most innovative auto OEM, which would that be?
  Add Answer
• Q6. What are the upcoming trends in auto industry - globally and in India?
  View Answers (1)
• Q7. 3 use-cases of AI in auto industry.
  View Answers (1)
• Q8. Discussion on currently prevalent themes in automotive industry - Connected, Autonomous, Shared, Electric mobility.
  Add Answer
• Q9. Use-cases of AI in R&D in automotive industry.
  View Answers (1)
• Q10. General advice to CEO to improve their auto R&D capability.
  Add Answer

An automotive OEM wants to enter Indian Market. What are the factors it should consider while deciding its location strategy?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: What is the objective of the client for entering Indian market?

I: Capturing the new potential market.

C: What stages of supply chain does it want to enter in Indian market?

I: All stages. (manufacturing to selling)

C: Does the client have a sister concern in India or is willing to collaborate with existing players?

I: No for both.

C: I will consider the following factors while considering location strategy:

- Macroeconomic (Favorable Govt. policy for certain locations, tax exemptions, credit incentives, cluster development areas identified for auto industry),

- Industry (Existing auto OEMs location distribution,
supplier’s distribution, Human Resource availability),

- Company level decision factors (Geographical market in focus, vehicle segment in focus, distribution strategy, favorable terms with local governments).

I: That is exhaustive. Can you tell me more about the factors you will consider for distribution strategy in particular?

C: I will look for location (company locations, geographical suitability), Available transportation modes, taxation regime for transportation from location A to location.

• Q1. Estimate the annual number of travelers visiting to Delhi Airport. (domestic + international)
  View Answers (1)

• Q1. Tell me about yourself in brief.
  Add Answer
• Q2. Why 76% in B. Tech? Maybe because you participated in too many activities? What was your rank in B.Tech.?
  Add Answer
• Q3. How has the entire process been like virtually? Anything new that you have done in the virtual setup? How is the placement process going on in the virtual mode ...read more
  Add Answer
• Q4. What did you do in Qualcomm?
  View Answers (1)
• Q5. Any embarrassing workplace moment?
  Add Answer
• Q6. Give me a brief and crisp intro of where are you from, your graduation and where have you worked?
  Add Answer

Think on how many charging stations would be required in city of Indore by 2025.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

I : You must think on how many charging stations would be required in Indore city by 2025? We will do this in 8 to 10 minutes.

C: Ok, I would like to ask you if you want me to go with electric 2 wheelers or four wheelers.

I: It is your call.

C: Ok, I would like to go with 4-wheeler. What would be the charging time per vehicle?

I: You can check it from google. You have all the resources; you can google the entire question if you want to.

C: Ok, the population of the city of Indore would be around 20 lakhs. I am taking a breakup of 65% as urban population and 35% as rural population. Should I give you a number or the approach?

I: Just give me the flow, we can calculate the number.

C: Cool, I have taken the population of the city of Indore as 20 lakhs, 65% urban population and 35% population as rural population.

I: Yeah ok, that gives us 13 lakh urban population and 7 lakh rural population.

C: Yes, now out of the 13-lakh people living in urban areas, I am considering that people using cars would be 65% and in rural area the percentage would be 25% which gives us several people using cars in urban and rural areas which is approximately 8.5 lakh and 1.7 lakh, respectively.

I: Okay, go ahead.

C: Now I would like to consider the urban population first. I am considering that people who own a car will use it for travelling long distances or some medium distance travel or daily commute to offices and schools. I am taking 15% people will use it for long distances like business taxis, Ola outstation etc. This section of people will not prefer switching to electric vehicles because they will not like increasing their journey time.

I: Okay, you have next 2 minutes to complete this.

C: Sure, so the medium distance travelers will be around 50% of whom I am considering 60% would switch because government is also promoting it through different schemes. People who use it for short distances which comprises of 10% population, mostly all would switch.

Similarly, in rural, I am taking that people do not use cars for travelling short distances. So, 35% people will use it for medium distance travel and 65% for long distance because people need to usually go to cities far for various purposes and this section will not prefer switching.

I: How are you planning to calculate the number of charging stations required?

C: We have got number of electric vehicles and I will take people who travel to short distances will not need charging stations and only very less people say 10% might need in case of emergency. For people travelling medium distances say 100 km, I will take how many kilometers my car can run in one charge cycle, and then calculate on an average how many charging cycles would be required and taking charging time as 15 minutes, people would not like to wait more than 15 min, I will take every charging station can handle 2 people at a time one who will be using it and other one who can wait. Thus, we can get charging station number. We can factor in time of the day and rush hours too.

What is the revenue of Delhi metro? Since you are from Faridabad, you must have travelled a lot by metro.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: I have thought of revenue streams which are rent from shops, smart cards sale, tokens. So, would you want me to consider revenue from everything?

I: Okay, first tell me what more sources of revenue could be? Think of customer journey.

C: Yes, there can be parking fees, then I may purchase from shops for which we have already taken rents.

I: Have you seen the stations names are changed sometimes?

C: Yes, organizations pay for getting their names on the metro stations.

I: And what about advertising spaces inside metros?

C: Sometimes the entire metro train is used for advertising as well.

I: Let us focus on revenue from riders only.

C: Sure, so there are 2 ways we can purchase tickets. 1. Smart card 2. Tokens. For considering revenues, we need to focus on 3 factors, Time of the day or week, station from which you are travelling and number of coaches in a train.

I: How are these factors going to affect your revenue?

C: Time of the day - we will have more people traveling during morning and evening hours and thus number of people travelling will be more. In fact, on Sundays, frequency of metro is also less. Stations from which you are boarding- 1) it basically affects the density usually on certain lines like on purple line population density travelling is more. 2) Also, we can look into the average number of stations people travel on each line like if people from board from Faridabad (purple line) then people usually go up to Delhi or Gurgaon. 3) Number of coaches, we have one ladies’ coach, and it has low density.

I: You can leave this; we can assume all coaches are same.

C: Number of coaches would affect how many people travel like certain lines have all eight coaches, or sometimes 6 coaches.

I: Can we take this as population density only?

C: Umm, no.

I: Do you think that it matters that if there are six coaches, less people would board it?

C: No, usually most people board the next metro that comes be it 6 coach or 8 coach.

I: So, we can say density is all we need. Go ahead, how should we calculate the revenue?

C: We need to find average number of stations; people would travel on each line.

I: Yes, how would you do that?

C: I think we can use intersecting stations like Rajeev Chowk, we have three intersecting lines, so, 60% to 70% people on those lines would tend to travel to that station, this might help us calculate average number of stations.

I: What more? OK, what all places do people go to using metro?

C: Shopping complexes, schools, colleges, offices.

I: So, can you think on these lines?

C: We can think of most visited places and we can calculate average number of stations travelled by people.

I: Now think about token system, how do we calculate revenue from there?

C: We can check for tokens sold?

I: How would you do that without data?

C: We can use the queue length that we have in front of the ticket counter. We can check number of ticket booths we have and multiply it with queue length and we already have the average number of stations people travel.

Suppose you are in class 8 and play basketball. You have to decide what to choose as your career, go for engineering or basketball. How would you decide?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Okay, I must decide what should I chose as my career option. And currently I am in 8th standard. I would like to use uncertainties. Uncertainties would be whether I would be doing good academically in future and how am I going to perform in Basketball in future. I will also look into how good I am, currently, in both fields.

I: What would be your objective while choosing both fields?

C: It will be higher income, societal status, and self-satisfaction. Points like self-satisfaction cannot be measured. So, I would look majorly into income because it can be measured.

I: Okay, how would look into it?

C: I will check in which college can I get into and what will be the average package of the college.

I: How would you decide which college. Say you got into XYZ college it will have highest package as 10 lap and lowest some number how would you decide?

C: According to my current performance, I can estimate my future rank. Accordingly, I can decide which field I will get and what would be the average package of that field.

I: Great. And how would you do that for sports?

C: I can check for the various career options if I can be a national player or a coach and check for the average salary I will get.

I: What more can you think of?

C: We can have other factors like parental consent and opinions, if I have siblings, what kind of impression I want to leave for them.

• Q1. Could you briefly introduce yourself?
  Add Answer
• Q2. You have a great wall of paintings behind you, tell me about your interest in art.
  Add Answer
• Q3. Since how long have you been playing basketball? Do you play other sports too?
  Add Answer
• Q4. Tell me about your internship that you did with KPMG India.
  Add Answer
• Q5. Tell me about your interests.
  Add Answer

You are working with the government of India and need to increase the revenue generated from sports in India. How will you do it?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Sure, should I focus on one sport to increase the revenue or should I focus on all sports which have the potential to increase revenues?

I: Your choice.

C: Great. I would like to divide the sports into two categories: Individual sports like badminton, tennis and team sports like basketball, cricket. Then we can look at both the categories and focus on whichever suits us better.

I: Sounds good.

C: I would like to focus on team sports first as cricket and hockey are doing really well in India, so I would explore other such sports. I would like to take up basketball first as I know more about it as compared to others.

I: Yes, you can start with basketball.

C: Since basketball is not a common game in India, I will divide it into the rural and urban segment and think about ways to increase awareness and hence the participation. In rural areas, people do not play this sport due to improper infrastructure and hence as the government of India we could build courts in some parts to increase participation. We could also play sports mandatory as a subject in school. Coming to the urban segment, I would divide the people in two groups: sports and non-sports, then I will look at ways to increase participation in both.

I: Focus on people who play other sports, how will you increase participation from them?

C: For the people who play other sports, it is mostly because they have been taught the same since a very young age. Basketball being uncommon can be made known to people by improving the facilities available in India. Being a player myself, the facilities here are bad and hence there is less scope to do well in this sport. We could also have more events for basketball to improve competition, not just with Indian players but can bring in International players for exposure. Games like NBA should be promoted, similar to FIFA or a cricket world cup.

I: Sounds good. If you were to conduct a basketball event, what all revenue streams would you have?

C: The different revenue streams that I can think of are: Tickets, Food and Drinks, Parking, Media Rights, Advertisements, any other event conducted on the ground when there is no game going on.

Your client is a leading Asian Automaker in the Luxury segment. Should they enter India and if they do, how?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Can I assume our car company to be like other Luxury players in the market like BMW, Mercedes, etc.?

I: Yes, our company is similar.

C: Do we have a time or a budget crunch?

I: Nothing of that sort.

C: Where are we currently operating, why India, why now?

I: America, vast market and felt like expanding now.

C: I would like to divide this case in 4 parts: Explore the India market, explore the luxury car industry (market sizing as well), look at how we will enter (modes of entry), potential risks involved.

I: You can ignore the first bucket and start from the second.

C: Sure. (Looked at all of Porter's forces one by one and did a qualitative level market sizing)

I: How would you make people switch to our car?

C: I would divide it in two parts: First would-be people who do not own a luxury car and the second would be people with a luxury car who can switch to our segment. To bring about a differentiation, I would firstly look at the car features, the pricing, coverage, and reach, lastly at advertising.

I: Why would people want to use a luxury car?

C: Two reasons: Status/Prestige and Credibility.

I: Good, now where all will you advertise?

C: For advertisements we have three channels: Banners and Ads, Social Media, Collaboration with offices, hotels, celebrities, etc. We could also rely on word of mouth to gain credibility.

• Q1. Introduce yourself.
  Add Answer
• Q2. How has your day been so far?
  Add Answer
• Q3. Why consulting?
  Add Answer
• Q4. Explain the business impact of the project you have done as a part of Deloitte.
  Add Answer

How can we increase the profits for Zomato (Indian multinational restaurant aggregator and food delivery company)?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

I: How can we increase the profits for Zomato?

C: (Asked a few preliminary questions for better clarity) What is the target that we are trying to achieve and what is the timeline that we have in mind?

I: We want to increase the profits by 10% in the next 2-3 years.

C: As per my understanding, in order to increase profits, we would either have to increase our revenues or decrease our costs or adopt measures that are a combination of these two. Is there any particular aspect that I should focus on?

I: Let us focus on increasing revenues for now.

C: The multiple revenue streams for Zomato which we can consider are - restaurant fees paid by restaurants which have tied up with Zomato, advertisements and promotions, delivery fees and revenue through Zomato gold.

I: Fair enough, how would you go about increasing revenues.

C: We can look at all these revenue sources sequentially and adopt measures under each one.

1. There exist a few restaurants which have not tied up with Zomato yet, so it is possible to offer them incentives/roll out schemes to increase the number of restaurants listed on our platform.

2. We can increase the number of advertisements displayed on the app. We can also conduct some interactive and participative events online which shall increase our reach and attract new customers.

3. Zomato gold/pro is one of the major sources of revenue.

However, a large chunk of customers has not subscribed to it and share it with existing subscribers because of the price. We can reduce the subscription fees and introduce subscription plans for a shorter duration instead of one year to work around this issue. This shall lead to increase in the gold subscriptions.

I: I really liked your structuring. Can you also suggest some new avenues which Zomato can tap into increase revenues?

C: Zomato can also start taking bulk orders, not immediate delivery but for a later prescheduled delivery. This option can be used by people who are planning to have any gatherings in future with the convenience of doorstep delivery. Also, Zomato can tie up with home-operated bakeries/tiffin services/ food outlets to increase its offerings.

• Q1. Tell me about yourself.
  Add Answer
• Q2. Tell me about your family.
  Add Answer
• Q3. How are you liking Lucknow?
  Add Answer
• Q4. Tell me something about Amritsar.
  Add Answer
• Q5. You have already worked in consulting, so what brings you back?
  Add Answer

Assume that I am the MD of the bank for which you worked in your last organization. The targeted post merger synergies were not achieved. Kindly prepare a two-minute pitch to explain what could have possibly gone wrong and how can we improve.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

I: You can take 5 mins to prepare a 2-minute pitch and can also use internet if you need.

C: (Did not explore internet and tried to structure my thoughts in my mind. Took 2 minutes to structure and start with the approach).

The merger of two public sector banks has been successful to some extent. However, in order for it to be called a completely successful merger we shall have to focus on the deviations from targeted synergies and take relevant remedial actions.

The different categories of synergies which we wanted to achieve include Technological, Cost, Human, Operational.

It is possible that we have not been able to achieve these synergies for the following reasons:

1. Technological systems have not yet been fully merged and as a consequence customer data has not completely migrated from one system to another.

2. The cost synergies were not achieved because of duplication of processes. It might take time to completely shift to the processes of one of these banks.

3. Human synergies might not have been achieved because of the cultural shift that people are facing because the banks have been operating in different geographic areas.

4. The operational synergies might not have been achieved because the application portfolio demands some refinement as currently there are multiple applications offering the same products.

Hence, there is a need to rationalize them.

We can correct all these hurdles and accordingly target achieving the relevant synergy goals that we had set initially. We can target migrating the system in completion at the earliest and we can conduct bonding activities between the employees so that the work environment lightens up. We can also rationalize the application base.

• Q1. Why MBA after MBBS?
  Add Answer
• Q2. Which subject do you find most difficult here? (Plus, some follow-up questions)
  Add Answer
• Q3. Which is your favorite subject? (Plus, some follow-up questions)
  Add Answer
• Q4. What is the difference between marketing at hospital chain like Apollo and a healthcare diagnostic startup? (I had experience across both)
  Add Answer
• Q5. What area did you focus on the most while you were working with HealthRozz?
  Add Answer

There is a German pharma company that manufactures anti-cancer drugs and wants to enter India. Find out the market size for the company.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

I: Please feel comfortable. Let me start with a very obvious question. Why are you here after doing MBBS?

C: Gave the answer I prepared.

I: Fair enough. So, tell me, which subject do you find the most difficult here?

C: Economics.

I: Why do you find it difficult? Is it the subject or the prof? or both? Is it Macro or Micro that you studied?

C: Gave answers accordingly.

I: And your favorite subject?

C: Marketing

I: That's very obvious.

I: So, let's start with a guesstimate. There is a pharma company based in Germany. And they develop anti-cancer drugs and wants to enter into Indian market. Can you help me find the revenue for the company?

C: Asked some clarifying questions. I started stating assumptions about the number of cancer patients in India based on my knowledge and then confirmed it with interviewer.

Can I remove people who do not believe in modern medicine?

I: Yes, you should. You can also remove people who would stop taking meds for monetary or any other issues.

C: Sure. I did some number crunching and confirmed it at every stage to finally arrive at a number which he seemed pretty satisfied with.

I: Are you comfortable with data analysis tools like Excel?

C: Yes, pretty comfortable

• Q1. Tell me something about yourself.
  Add Answer
• Q2. What do you know about Eversana?
  Add Answer
• Q3. What makes Eversana different from other consulting firms?
  Add Answer
• Q4. What are the other challenges in front of the world after COVID?
  View Answers (1)
• Q5. Are you a number guy or a word guy?
  Add Answer