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

• Q1. Tell me something about yourself.
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• Q2. After all your experiences, was coming going for an MBA a conscious/planned decision or a chance one?
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• Q3. Why consulting?
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• Q4. Why Accenture?
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• Q5. Do you have any questions for me?
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The client is contract apparel manufacturer with 10 factories, with nearly $1 Bn sales. The client wants to double the sales in next 4 years. How to go about it?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Where is the client based out of and what is the extent of the business (domestically or globally)?

I: One of Southeast Asia's biggest firms, and supplies all over the world to brands like M&S, Gap, etc.

C: Where does the client supply location wise and where are the competitors located, if any?

I: Client supplies globally. The competition is located in other countries like China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka etc.

C: The client can grow sales through two approaches, either through extending the production and promotion of current line of apparels. Other would be to extend the line to other clothes which cost less (requiring less variation in style and type) such as coveralls, uniforms, etc. which are required for operations all over the world.

The client can also target more brands, new developing markets where there is a rising branded clothing consumption.

The interviewer tried probing for more solutions. I tried thinking of other measures (cannot recollect all), but eventually, told him that I cannot think of more solutions at the time.

(I had forgotten to mention inorganic growth options like M&A, JV, etc.).

• Q1. The questions were based on HR and my previous work experiences.
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• Q1. Tell me about yourself.
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• Q2. Walk me through your CV.
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• Q3. What do understand by working capital financing and what is the ideal working capital ratio for FMCG companies.
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• Q4. Detailed discussion around work-ex and internships.
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• Q5. If you met the CEO of a big MNC in a lift. He tells you that they have huge amount of cash lying idle and what should they do with it. (You have only 2 mins).
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• Q6. If the funds are idle for short term (then equity or debt market, as per risk taking capacity) or if long term (current production expansion or acquisition).
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• Q7. 3 best things you learned in MBA.
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• Q8. Why Consulting?
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• Q9. Why Accenture?
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• Q10. 3 best traits of a consultant.
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If you were to open a food truck in Civil Lines Area of Jaipur. How would you go about it?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: Do we have any time or budget constraints?

I: No budget constraints and the client want to start operations as soon as possible.

C: Ok, does the client has any other food truck or any other business?

I: No.

C: What kind of cuisine does the client want to serve?

I: You need to tell the client that.

C: Ok, is the client planning to target any customer segment?

I: What type of customers do you think will come to a food truck?

C: According to me, mostly it would be students. But, since it a sort of posh area, another set of consumers can come from offices and the people living in Civil Lines (mostly limited to children & elderly). How does the competition scenario look like?

I: There are no other food trucks in the area.

C: So, majorly the competition would be from cafes and restaurants.

I: Do you think high end restaurants can also be potential competitors.

C: Not directly, as high-end restaurants and food truck will have different customer segments. For high end restaurants, customers would be majorly going late in the evening and for their ambience & comfort. However, food truck will attract people looking for a break or passers.

(After this the case turned in a discussion.)

Points discussed: Timing of operation: early morning (time for students to go to tuitions) to late evening (when people leave the offices).

Peak timing: Early morning (majorly students), late morning (employees going to offices), noon (office employees going for lunch), evening (children & tea break for employees).

Cuisine: Fast food, which does not require any sitting; like Poha, Kachori, Samosa, or Chinese food (Noodles, Manchurian), Momos, Pasta, Pizza, etc.

The client is an FMCG MNC and wants to digitize their operations. How should they go about it?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

I: The client is an FMCG MNC and wants to digitize their operations.

C: What is the objective of digitization, is the client looking to digitize any particular process?

I: The major objective is to increase the controls and improve efficiency of operations. The digitization needs to be done for all the processes.

C: Is there any time or budget constraint?

I: No.

C: I would like to get some more information about the client like for how long they have been in operations, which geography do they operate in?

I: The company is pretty old, and they operate PAN India.

C: What are the products they deal in and at what stage of value chain does the client lie?

I: The client is a manufacturer & distributor of household supplies.

C: What is the customer segment, being targeted by the client?

I: All type of customers.

C: How does the competition scenario look like?

I: The client is the market leader and has 3 close competitors.

C: Okay, so just to reiterate the problem statement, the client is a manufacturer of household supplies, operating on PAN India level and wants to digitize the operations. Am I correct?

I: Yes.

C: I have divided the entire operations into 3 broader segments: Manufacturing (includes raw material acquisition to storing of finished goods in the warehouses), Distribution & Selling, Other Administrative functions like Finance, HR, IT, Administrative staff etc.

I: What all is included in the manufacturing segment?

C: I would like to break down manufacturing operation by the customer journey approach starting with raw material acquisition & logistics, manufacturing (including machines & equipment’s), warehousing of finished goods & outbound logistics.

I: Okay, just tell me 3 areas where you would digitize the manufacturing process?

C: Digitize the maintenance and ordering of raw materials, using biometrics or cards for maintaining log of the labor, digitizing the machines to ensure fix composition of raw material and reduced wastage & defective products.

I: Okay.

C: Should I move forward with distribution & selling piece?

I: Yes.

C: What is the distribution chain & model followed by the client and does the client has any online presence?

I: The client sells the products through C&FA (Carry & forwarding agents) and sells its product on Amazon.

C: Okay, we can divide the distribution & selling segment into direct sales, distribution through agent & wholesalers, online sales, which could be further divided into own website & third-party platform.

I: Which technology would be helpful in generating online sales?

C: I am not really sure, which particular technology as such would be helpful, but I can make a guess.

I: Go ahead.

C: Search engine optimization, data analytics.

• Q1. What was your daily work management (DWM)?
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• Q2. Introduce yourself and don't stop till we ask you to.
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• Q3. What do you see yourself as? Marketer, consultant, HR person, what exactly?
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• Q4. Give us 3-4 values basis which you function.
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• Q5. Tell us of some instances wherein you handled people and a lot of people management was required.
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• Q6. Justification of numbers on CV.
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• Q7. In-depth questions on all work-ex section.
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Imagine a situation on a shop floor wherein you see a defect in functioning or something which is malfunctioning; help us out with a detailed root cause analysis (RCA).
I used a scenario of oil leakage from a CNC machine and used 3 RCA tools: 5 Why analysis, Fishbone diagram and FMEA.

Types of poka-yokes and explain how exactly you can implement at least 4-5 varieties of poka-yokes at vendors location.
I gave one example each of implementation (end to end) of poka-yokes such as

1. Elimination poka-yoke

2. Replacement poka-yoke

3. Prevention poka-yoke

4. Facilitation poka-yoke

5. Detection poka-yoke

6. Mitigation poka-yok

There is demand in market, but the manufacturer is not able to supply the goods. Find probable reasons (raw material, manpower, logistics and financials are not the reasons).
I used value stream mapping, 4M-1T conditions, process capabilities and all 8 TPM pillars such as JH, QM etc.

• Q1. Tell me something about yourself.
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• Q2. Tell me about your past work experience (mostly on numbers that I mentioned).
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• Q3. Why do you want to join Accenture and why do you think consulting is the best fit for you?
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• Q4. What did a typical day in your life look like, in your previous organization?
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• Q5. Do you have any questions for us?
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• Q1. Introduce yourself.
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• Q2. Why Accenture? Why Consulting?
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• Q3. In depth questions about internship and live project. They asked how those things can be applied to some real-world problems.
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• Q4. About my reading hobby and a few follow up questions about Khaled Hosseini's books.
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• Q5. How was your internship at Microsoft?
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• Q6. If you would have met Satya Nadella in a lift and he asked you that Microsoft has a lot of cash and wants to spend the money. Suggest 5 ways in which he can, an...read more
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• Q7. What 5 things did you learn at your internship at Microsoft?
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• Q8. Tell me something about yourself and your family.
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• Q9. Where do you see yourself in 15 years?
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• Q10. What hidden agendas do you have that Accenture can help you achieve?
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Guesstimate the market size for an e-tailer selling plants, seeds, and pots for domestic gardens in Delhi. Then after the Guesstimate they asked me to come up with products that the e-tailer should sell
Asked a few clarifying questions about the business. Then did a standard guesstimate. Divided the population based on income and worked my way forward.

For different products, I again used consumer insights and what are the requirements of the consumer. And based on that suggested an exhaustive list of products.

Mitsubishi motors wants to enter into the auto-finance market in India. Should they or should they not?
I started with the CPCC framework. Then followed the market entry framework and tried to explain everything because the interviewer could not see my page as the interview was online. She asked me various grilling questions and came up with counter arguments.

Try to give some logical explanation and if completely cornered accept your mistake and correct it as per the suggestion.

This shows your honoring other's opinions and accepting your mistakes. After a long discussion, I suggested that they should not enter the market, after analyzing all the aspects of the Market-Entry framework.

Guesstimate the number of readers of an English men's health magazine in India.
The guesstimate was straight forward.

• Q1. Briefly walk us through your professional life.
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• Q2. Tell me more about this academic research project that you have mentioned in your CV.
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• Q3. What were the variables considered, tools used, modelling done, and conclusions drawn?
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• Q4. I see that you have been a part of the Marketing Cell at IIM Lucknow. Shed some more light on this. Is marketing your primary domain of interest?
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• Q5. Tell us about some of your learnings from team projects and individual assignments that you may have taken up during the course of your graduation.
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• Q6. How has your IIM Journey been so far?
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• Q7. Tell us a bit more about your role in the PORs that you have mentioned. How do you think they can help you while you aim to pursue a role in consulting?
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A firm that has 2 divisions. Each division produces 2 products, A and B. The first division is more profitable than the other, what is the reason for this?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Sure, so the firm in consideration has 2 divisions with 2 products in each of them and we wish to find the reason for a greater profitability of the first division. Could I ask a few clarifying questions in order to understand the problem in hand?

I: Yes, go ahead.

C: I would want to know a little more about the company? Is it a new company or an established one? And about the divisions, is any one of them more recent?

I: The company is an established one and both divisions have been operating since inception. You can move on; the divisions are similar in terms of their product designs. You need not take the revenue cost approach here; it is a customer-centric case. To add in some information, the customers of the firm are government as well as private sector companies.

C: Oh, I see. On those lines, is there any particular division that each of these segments focus on?

I: They do buy a mix but one of the divisions sells imported products and one sells local made products.

C: Understandable. Considering the difference in imported and private products, I believe this is quite important as government sector would prefer buying local made products over the imported ones. Is there a difference in the prices offered by the divisions as well?

I: Yes, you can assume that.

C: Okay. So, I assume that the division with local made products would be selling a greater quantity to the government sector customers at a significantly lower price while the imported goods and services are comparatively costlier and procured majorly by the private customers. Assuming the quantity to be the same, this difference in price would be one of the major reasons for difference in profitability. In addition, we could also look at other factors.

I: That's alright, you arrived at the major reason.

1. A company has a manufacturing plant in Pune while it serves the customers in Gujarat. It wants to shift the plant to Sikkim. Could you highlight some key implications of the same?

2. A company has its marketing activities running across television, social media, blogs, websites etc. How can it optimize their marketing spend?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

I: Let us solve some cases. First, a general one and then one in marketing. Is that okay?

C: Sure.

I: A company has a manufacturing plant in Pune while it serves the customers in Gujarat. It wants to shift the plant to Sikkim. Could you highlight some key implications of the same?

C: There are various implications that the company would have in terms of business, economic, financial etc. but I would also want to know what is the reason of this shift? Are they planning to venture into another market or any such plans?

I: No, everything remains the same. Just that there have been certain issues with the Pune plant and want to relocate.

C: Alright. Considering the two locations are quite different geographically as well, firstly, there would be financial implications in terms of the costs associated with buying the land, machinery etc. The governmental norms may be different for operations, the technological requirements.

I: That is perfect, tell me a bit more on the cost side.

C: In terms of cost, the company needs to probably purchase a land, the price for which may be different as compared to Pune. It would then need to purchase the machinery and equipment. New licenses to operate would need to be bought. The labor charges and training charges would be different. All these could either be disposed of at Pune and a new set may be purchased at Sikkim or the same may be transported, both may have different implications, positive/ negative. Further on production, the costs incurred would be different to transport the goods and services to Gujarat would probably be more from Sikkim due to the distance and as per the inventory, further logistics cost shall be considered.

I: That seems enough, great. A quick question now: A company has its marketing activities running across television, social media, blogs, websites etc. How can it optimize their marketing spend? Just touch upon the points, you need to delve deep into any.

C: Oh sure. In order to optimize the marketing, spend, the company must proceed in three phases- Analyze, Plan and Spend. It should first analyze if the current expenditure on various media and channels are effective to their target customers they plan to reach and the forecasted response. This can be done by checking the TRP for televisions, number of visitors on websites, number of clicks on display and search ads and the revenue earned from the same.

Using the results of this analysis, planning needs to be done on understanding the improvements, switching of channels.

• Q1. I have gone through your CV, but can you tell your life story and some key things from your resume?
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• Q2. If we don't make an offer to you today, what will you do and how would you react?
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• Q3. You said that McKinsey is your dream company, what is that about McKinsey?
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• Q4. Tell me about a situation when you were leading a team, and the team didn't perform to its potential, what did you do?
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I am running a very niche NBFC targeted at MSMEs. I offer hassle-free small ticket loans of about 5-10-15 lakhs through digitization. We are not growing as per our expectations, please help.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: Since when are we facing the problem and what is our target for growth?

I: We want to grow 3x-4x in a year, and the problem is happening for the last 12-18 months.

C: Which cities are we targeting currently? And MSMEs in which sector particularly?

I: We are currently focused on top 10-15 cities of India, on front end, we don't have any sectoral preferences, however, in the backend, most of our loans have been granted to MSME construction firms, restaurants and garages.

C: Can I know more about the loan terms: Collateral, documentation needed, time taken to disburse loans, Interest rates, payment terms etc.?

I: Loans are collateral free, we do full documentation check: where we need bank statements and P&L statements of the MSME for cash flow estimation, GST linkages etc. As I told the process is hassle free, we provide loans in 1-2 days, and since the loans are provided quickly, interest rates are little on higher side.

C: What is the time frame we are looking at? Is there any budgetary constraint?

I: Time horizon is 6-12 months and definitely no NBFC would be burning money like that.

(CASE SOLVING: STRUCTURE)

C: As we wish to grow the number of loans disbursed, we can divide it into: Number of customers * number of loans per customer
Focusing on number of customers: we can look at 3 dimensions:

1) New markets: Outside India and Inside India (Tier 2-3 cities where most of the MSMEs are based out of)

2) New products: Expanding into banking, Fintech (Digital payments, digital insurance, wealth tech etc.)

3) Market penetration: Attracting more no. of customers in the existing market.

I: Start with 3rd part.

C: Can I know more about the distribution model, is it all digital or we also have salesforce?

I: We operate largely online, however, salesforce is used to spread word amongst MSMEs.

C: I would like to structure this ahead in terms of

1) Awareness of our NBFC

2) Loan terms attractiveness

3) Accessibility of our salesforce and digital platform

4) Experience: issues in loan disbursal process

I: Okay, start from the first one then.

C: I would like to explore all possible mediums of lead generation like telephone calls, face to face visits, emails, website, apps and affiliate marketing. is there problem across any?

I: No.

C: Based on my prior case competition experience, where I did personal surveys with 30+ MSMEs, most of the mails etc. are made in English and loads of calls and emails are considered as SPAM by MSMEs, thus I would suggest calls and mails should be made in the regional languages of the MSMEs, and for greater trust and credibility, we should reach out to trade associations like Shankar Market Trade association in Delhi.

Generally, the MSMEs. are organized into trade associations and thus reaching out directly to these trade associations and their presidents, provide greater credibility and support from MSMEs.

I: Yes, this could be done, what else? You talked about Amazon; how can we leverage them?

C: Yes, we can do affiliate marketing on Amazon and their home page.

I: What about the various sellers who are selling on Amazon, aren't they also our target market?

C: Yes, absolutely, we should rather partner with Amazon to list us as SME loan provider while a seller is registering and creating profile with Amazon, to target them in the beginning only.

I: Yes, this could also be done. What next?

C: I would like to shift to loan terms now.

You mentioned that our rate of interest in higher, is it a possibility that we can reduce them a notch?

I: The problem is that we have little data, and thus interest rates are charged higher due to limited data.

C: In that case, for gathering more data, we should make use of open banking, partner with various digital payments providers like Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay that these MSMEs use for collecting payments so that we can estimate cash flows of the MSMEs with greater accuracy based on thus data, as a result, our interest rates can also reduce.

I: Okay, what else?

C: We can also look at the tenure and frequency of payments (EMIs), increasing the tenure of loans, provides greater cushion to MSMEs and flexible loan payment terms like balloon payments, quarterly, half yearly or yearly installments rather than monthly payments, would ease the pressure on the clients. Also, we can facilitate Auto debits, ECS/NACH mechanism so that MSMEs are regular in their payments, and they don't default.

I: We are already having auto debit facility, what else?

C: I would now like to look at accessibility part. is our app present on Android/Apple phones?

I: Yes.

C: Is there any problem with loading of the website/app and working speed?

I: No.

C: Ok, then I would shift to our salesforce. Here, I would look at quantitative and qualitative factors. Quantitative: number of salesforces, number of visits made by each. Qualitative: quality of engagement with the MSMEs, negotiation skills, training, experience etc.

I: (Abruptly ended the case, and asked to tell 2-3 major ideas from the entire discussion).

Numerical Problem

I: We are a cellphone manufacturer; we are facing the following issue -

Current price: 1000$
Margin per unit: 200$
Currently selling 2 million units:

Sales head has come with the following proposal:

Reduce price by 5%, and volume would go up by 25%.

Evaluate the proposal on contribution margin basis.

Now, if you don't want your contribution to get impacted, by what percentage should your cost reduce.
Solved the numerical based on my course knowledge.

• Q1. Tell me something about yourself.
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• Q2. Asked to walk through all the projects in work experience. Some cross questions on the same lines.
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• Q3. Why I chose biotechnology and now an MBA and how I see the biotech space growing in near future with some new findings in that area.
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Started with interviewer telling me about him and his work area in A&M.

Tell me about yourself?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Presented the prepared answer but modulated it more towards work experience and internships done in same area as the interviewer (Pharma).

I: Walk me through your CV and major projects done?

C: Started from work experience and explained all projects with an addition of projects done in internships at the end.

I: Your client is a big hospital looking to improve its operations. Come up with main 3 problems you would consider improving on by applying analytics-based methods.

C: Took a min to note down certain points. Followed the problems a normal person would face in the hospital after entering and effectively communicated my thinking for the problem with the interviewer.

Addressed problems relating to scheduling for a patient in attending a doctor consultation or lab, self-registration after entering hospital and report collection etc. and applied analytics-based solutions for the same.

You are conducting a cricket tournament in IIM Lucknow. How many cricket balls would be used in it if you want to order all at once?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

I: Tell me about your projects in dashboarding?

C: Walked him through all the projects done in that domain with all the technologies used. Some cross questioning on hygiene check of dashboards and things to consider while developing them.

I: As you mentioned you have a liking for sports, let's do a guesstimate. You are conducting a cricket tournament in IIM Lucknow. How many cricket balls would be used in it if you want to order all at once?

C: Asked preliminary questions about the tournament pattern and number of teams involved. Calculated the number of matches that would be played and then the number of balls that would be required. Added a buffer stock at the end as a random percentage but gave reasoning on the basis of loss and wear & tear of the balls.

The Interview was basically a last round just to know me more and about my background. Asked questions on why I chose biotechnology and now an MBA and how I see the biotech space growing in near future with some new findings in that area.

Some questions were about my work experience and internships and also about the life at IIM Lucknow so far.

• Q1. Questions on CV and work experience.
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• Q2. Tell me about yourself.
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• Q3. What kind of work you did?
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Guesstimate on Number of electric vehicle sales in India in 2030.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

I: Let’s do a guesstimate. We are concerned with passenger vehicles. We want to know what the expected number of EV sales in India by will be 2030.

C: Asked for growth trend or any data available.

I: Currently 2.7 Mn annual passenger vehicles are sold. Out of this about 15k are EV. We are expecting 10% growth in annual passenger vehicle sales in next 5 years and 8% growth in further next 5 years.

C: Considered this data to prepare an approach. Segmented number of vehicles based on below and above Rs.10 lac. Further divided into less and more premium, considered EVs in premium segment and then used the growth % here.

Skoda wants to enter Indian Market with EV. How would you proceed?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: Asked initial scoping questions. Where are their current operations based and why India?

I: They have EVs in Europe, USA and see India as a lucrative market.

C: Is there any particular model or particular segment/ price range at which they are aiming?

I: Not decided yet.

C: How does the current scenario look like in India?

I: Many manufacturers like Tata, Honda, Hyundai, etc. have already started making hybrid vehicles and EVs.

C: Do they plan to import vehicles or manufacture in India?

I: Manufacture in India.

C: Prepared a framework with 3 main buckets: overall industry, competition, and company (like further analysis of what the company does well, bad, etc.). Industry bucket further had market and overall analysis, competitors had tech comparison, advantages to competitors and enablers to EV provided by each company. Last bucket was not asked much.

Case 1: Russian truck company wants to enter Indian market through inorganic route (acquire, invest). Advise them.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: I would like to get some more information about our client. Where do they currently operate from and why India?

I: They are currently present in Russia, China, USA. Seeing India as a growing market, they wish to assemble and sell in India.

C: Prepared a similar framework as above.

I: Let’s move to the second case.

Case 2: Family had a sponge iron plant. Father ran the business, and it was now being passed to son. Son has come after earning MBA degree and wants to decide whether to stay or leave the business. Client is one of the big players in the market. They are located in the Eastern part of India.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: The Sponge iron industry is scattered. Since, I was not familiar with the industry, hence asked more questions to understand what process was followed at the plant: input, process, output.

I then developed an approach based on industry level framework. I provided an overall framework with various buckets that would be relevant like demand, supply, legalities, market growth, etc.

I: What other issues can there be in the industry?

C: I touched upon substitutes, price, future usage, etc.

• Q1. Tell me something about yourself.
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• Q2. Why MBA?
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• Q3. Why Consulting and Accenture?
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• Q4. What industries is Accenture into?
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• Q5. What projects did I do at Citi and their overall business impact?
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• Q6. My preferable domain to work in Accenture Strategy.
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• Q7. Why Accenture?
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• Q8. Consulting seems glamorous but it is generally not. Would you be able to cope up with pressures and different Client Expectations?
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• Q9. Extra-curricular activities I am interested in.
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• Q10. Tell us more about your academic project carried out in Germany. How are Balance sheet, Cash Flow Statements and Income Statements related?
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DSO reduction for a client. Cost Pressure on Automotive Client. How do you go about it?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Can you please elaborate what is DSO and what exactly does the client do?

I: DSO is the Days Sales Outstanding. The client is an auto manufacturer.

C: What is the objective of the client?

I: Client needs to reduce DSO from 50 to 40. What benefits can you think of?

C: Qualitatively, the benefits I could be, extra interest income that client could earn in 10 days, leaner working capital, no cash shortages and so on.

I: Okay, Great!

Our client is facing cost pressures. Help them.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: (Asked various scoping questions, using CPCC.)

I: It is an automotive client, serving distributors and various geographies in India.

C: Could you tell me about the revenue trends and other income if any.

I: Let us just focus on costs.

C: Just give me a moment to lay out the complete value chain of Cost.

I: Surely.

C: The value chain is - Procurement of Raw Material > Inbound Logistics > Manufacturing > Outbound Logistics > Post Purchase services. (I Asked various question in each of the parts.)

I: That's okay. You understand Value chain. We can close the case here.