Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad
Hyderabad, Telangana
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Filter interviews byIndian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad Placement Interview Questions
Updated
22 Sep 2024
7 interviews found
I applied via Walk-in
1 Interview Round
Interview Questions
- Q1. What do you think is supply chain consulting all about? Should HUL enter the Rural Markets? Do these rural consumers have even the purchasing power? What format...read more
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: This was an unstructured multiple case/scenario based interview and needed on spot thinking and some knowledge about the retail scenario in Indian Urban/Rural spaces. Interviewer was looking always doubtful about my ideas and was challenging the thoughts in between with some facts from his experience. What helped that I maintained my calm and followed a firm and informed stand on issues and gave relevant examples (like HUL’s Re 1 Shampoo sachet success in low income group people).
I presented my thoughts clearly and convincingly with examples of rural people buying luxury items as well and gave a few statistics about the size of urban vs rural markets in India. I further went on with examples of ITC retail, which was going successfully in integrating its rural retail business with agri-procurement channel (e-chaupal). Gave a few creative ideas about 2-3 possible new formats.
Skills: Case Solving Ability, Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: This was an unstructured multiple case/scenario based interview and needed on spot thinking and some knowledge about the retail scenario in Indian Urban/Rural spaces. Interviewer was looking always doubtful about my ideas and was challenging the thoughts in between with some facts from his experience. What helped that I maintained my calm and followed a firm and informed stand on issues and gave relevant examples (like HUL’s Re 1 Shampoo sachet success in low income group people).
I presented my thoughts clearly and convincingly with examples of rural people buying luxury items as well and gave a few statistics about the size of urban vs rural markets in India. I further went on with examples of ITC retail, which was going successfully in integrating its rural retail business with agri-procurement channel (e-chaupal). Gave a few creative ideas about 2-3 possible new formats.
Skills: Case Solving Ability, Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
I applied via Walk-in
1 Interview Round
Interview Questions
- Q1. I was given an eight pages case write up about a hospital chain in India which was experiencing low assets utilization and stagnant revenues.
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The case write up was well written and quite comprehensive so he asked me start with my gut feeling of what was going wrong with the hospital chain. As all of the information was already given to me in the case, I did following things before moving into the interview room: Broke the case analysis in four standard parts: Defined the Problem: A hospital chain which provides treatment to the lower end diseases (non lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, heart related diseases etc.) is experiencing a decline in sales/revenues over the period of last four years. (All the information was given in the write up). Structure: The structure I applied was: Sales are defined: ∑ PI * Qi where Q = number of patients*average patient days and price was price charged per patient. And I stand for different diseases which the hospital serves. I told him that we would we analysing these three components for the client, the completion and the customer preferences. Before proceeding to using the structure, I asked him whether the proposed structure covered everything or there was any critical piece which he thought might be important for the discussion but I missed out, He appreciated my structure and complimented me for coming with such a nice structure☺. Then, he told me that, before I move on to apply the structure, what are the different ways we can break up the revenue so I told him the following ways:
1. By diseases the client serves.
2. By types of customers: demographic, psychological, economic parameters based segmentation.
3. By referral and non-referral patients. (this point came out after he directed me towards this but once I mentioned this he seemed quite happy ☺).
Then we moved on to third part, issue analysis and based on whatever notes I had made from the case write-up, We came to the conclusion that
1. The healthcare market was booming in the life style related diseases which generates higher revenues. The other two competitors had already moved to treating theses diseases.
2. The client was focusing only on the local customers which were quite price sensitive while there was a huge opportunity in the global and medical tourism market where the competitors had already moved in.
3. Insurance companies were playing a significant role in the decision making process of the patients and the client lacked strong partnership with the top firms in this market. All this information was given in the case and I did a good thing of making notes of all these points which came very handy during our discussion.
Finally I recommended the client to:
1. Enter into the life style disease treatment market.
2. Focus on global brand building and attracting pan India and foreign customers.
3. Get into strategic partnership with insurance companies to attract more new and high potential customers.
Tips: Do prepare for such case write up based interviews. As a group, we made cases from our work experiences which actually helped a lot in knowing industries well.
Skills: Case Solving Ability, Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: The case write up was well written and quite comprehensive so he asked me start with my gut feeling of what was going wrong with the hospital chain. As all of the information was already given to me in the case, I did following things before moving into the interview room: Broke the case analysis in four standard parts: Defined the Problem: A hospital chain which provides treatment to the lower end diseases (non lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, heart related diseases etc.) is experiencing a decline in sales/revenues over the period of last four years. (All the information was given in the write up). Structure: The structure I applied was: Sales are defined: ∑ PI * Qi where Q = number of patients*average patient days and price was price charged per patient. And I stand for different diseases which the hospital serves. I told him that we would we analysing these three components for the client, the completion and the customer preferences. Before proceeding to using the structure, I asked him whether the proposed structure covered everything or there was any critical piece which he thought might be important for the discussion but I missed out, He appreciated my structure and complimented me for coming with such a nice structure☺. Then, he told me that, before I move on to apply the structure, what are the different ways we can break up the revenue so I told him the following ways:
1. By diseases the client serves.
2. By types of customers: demographic, psychological, economic parameters based segmentation.
3. By referral and non-referral patients. (this point came out after he directed me towards this but once I mentioned this he seemed quite happy ☺).
Then we moved on to third part, issue analysis and based on whatever notes I had made from the case write-up, We came to the conclusion that
1. The healthcare market was booming in the life style related diseases which generates higher revenues. The other two competitors had already moved to treating theses diseases.
2. The client was focusing only on the local customers which were quite price sensitive while there was a huge opportunity in the global and medical tourism market where the competitors had already moved in.
3. Insurance companies were playing a significant role in the decision making process of the patients and the client lacked strong partnership with the top firms in this market. All this information was given in the case and I did a good thing of making notes of all these points which came very handy during our discussion.
Finally I recommended the client to:
1. Enter into the life style disease treatment market.
2. Focus on global brand building and attracting pan India and foreign customers.
3. Get into strategic partnership with insurance companies to attract more new and high potential customers.
Tips: Do prepare for such case write up based interviews. As a group, we made cases from our work experiences which actually helped a lot in knowing industries well.
Skills: Case Solving Ability, Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
I applied via Walk-in
1 Interview Round
Interview Questions
- Q1. A North American telecom operator wants to enter the Indian market. They hire you as a consultant. How would you go about helping them in making a decision? And...read more
- Q2. Mini case - You are consulting for a top investment bank. You need to help them in deciding what all processes to outsource. Mention a criteria that can be used...read more
- Q3. Estimate the petrol utilization in Mumbai in a year.
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: In this market entry case, I started with the industry analysis in terms of size, profitability, growth potential etc. Then I went on to do the competitor, customer and company analysis (if it can leverage its existing strengths in the Indian market). I spoke about the regulatory issues too. The interviewer cut me short in the analysis and wanted me to focus on the ways the operators can go about the entry in any market and the ways it has been done in India. Here I spoke about options like MVNO (not allowed in India)/ partnership/ JV/acquisition etc. Next she asked me to determine the segment this telco should target. I spoke about the Indian Telecom scenario. The penetration in Urban and rural areas. Also given that this telco has more competencies in dealing with the youth segment in North America, this might be a good segment to target initially. I identified other reasons for this. In the end we had a discussion on the recent entry of Virgin mobile in the Indian market and how they are targeting the Youth segment. In this case along with the use of framework, I was also tested on my understanding of the Indian telecom market. I have prior experience in Telecom. The interviewer was also interested in the implementation issues.
I started by mentioning how the core and non-core activities can be used as a criteria for outsourcing. Then she wanted me to identify the non core processes for an investment bank. Some of the processes I identified were Non core - procurement, financial accounting, human resources, reporting, some part of IT etc.
Tips: I was being interviewed for the Telecom, Technology and the Outsourcing vertical. This was reflected in the cases. So knowledge of the sectors you are applying to helps a lot.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: It was a market size estimation case. I approached it by estimating the number of families in Mumbai from its population. Then I segmented the market based on income level and for each segment assumed a “vehicle per family” ratio (both for 2 wheelers and 4 wheelers). Then I assumed the average distance covered for each category and the mileage.
Tips: Be systematic in estimation cases and state each assumption clearly. Practice prevents us from making arbitrary assumptions.
Skills: Case Solving Ability, Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: In this market entry case, I started with the industry analysis in terms of size, profitability, growth potential etc. Then I went on to do the competitor, customer and company analysis (if it can leverage its existing strengths in the Indian market). I spoke about the regulatory issues too. The interviewer cut me short in the analysis and wanted me to focus on the ways the operators can go about the entry in any market and the ways it has been done in India. Here I spoke about options like MVNO (not allowed in India)/ partnership/ JV/acquisition etc. Next she asked me to determine the segment this telco should target. I spoke about the Indian Telecom scenario. The penetration in Urban and rural areas. Also given that this telco has more competencies in dealing with the youth segment in North America, this might be a good segment to target initially. I identified other reasons for this. In the end we had a discussion on the recent entry of Virgin mobile in the Indian market and how they are targeting the Youth segment. In this case along with the use of framework, I was also tested on my understanding of the Indian telecom market. I have prior experience in Telecom. The interviewer was also interested in the implementation issues.
I started by mentioning how the core and non-core activities can be used as a criteria for outsourcing. Then she wanted me to identify the non core processes for an investment bank. Some of the processes I identified were Non core - procurement, financial accounting, human resources, reporting, some part of IT etc.
Tips: I was being interviewed for the Telecom, Technology and the Outsourcing vertical. This was reflected in the cases. So knowledge of the sectors you are applying to helps a lot.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: It was a market size estimation case. I approached it by estimating the number of families in Mumbai from its population. Then I segmented the market based on income level and for each segment assumed a “vehicle per family” ratio (both for 2 wheelers and 4 wheelers). Then I assumed the average distance covered for each category and the mileage.
Tips: Be systematic in estimation cases and state each assumption clearly. Practice prevents us from making arbitrary assumptions.
Skills: Case Solving Ability, Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
I applied via Walk-in
1 Interview Round
Interview Questions
- Q1. Devise entry strategy for a conveyer belts manufacturer
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: My case discussion lasted for 5 minutes. He asked me the question. I asked them two questions to get a hang of the industry/objective. Then I told them my approach for solving the problem and summarized by describing my structure.
I think they liked freshness of my approach. Typically people ask a lot of questions and often the process gets slowed down or becomes uninteresting. I touched upon the entire set of important points and summarized it quickly.
Tips: 1. Don’t over-prepare for case interviews. I had read first chapter of ‘Case in point’ to understand different types of cases. I had done only 3 – 5 cases myself but observed around 10 cases.
2. Interviewers appreciate crisp and comprehensive communication.
3. Be thorough with your resume and be comfortable talking about its relevance to the vertical you are targeting.
4. Try to understand the background of the interviewer and gauge his expectation from your interview.
5. Utilize the opportunities to demonstrate the value you bring to the table.
6. Stay calm, focused and confident
Skills: Case Solving Ability, Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: My case discussion lasted for 5 minutes. He asked me the question. I asked them two questions to get a hang of the industry/objective. Then I told them my approach for solving the problem and summarized by describing my structure.
I think they liked freshness of my approach. Typically people ask a lot of questions and often the process gets slowed down or becomes uninteresting. I touched upon the entire set of important points and summarized it quickly.
Tips: 1. Don’t over-prepare for case interviews. I had read first chapter of ‘Case in point’ to understand different types of cases. I had done only 3 – 5 cases myself but observed around 10 cases.
2. Interviewers appreciate crisp and comprehensive communication.
3. Be thorough with your resume and be comfortable talking about its relevance to the vertical you are targeting.
4. Try to understand the background of the interviewer and gauge his expectation from your interview.
5. Utilize the opportunities to demonstrate the value you bring to the table.
6. Stay calm, focused and confident
Skills: Case Solving Ability, Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
I applied via Walk-in
1 Interview Round
Interview Questions
- Q1. A retailer needs to set up warehouses. Should he hire a logistics provider or should he do it himself. How would you analyse the same? If he cannot find a good ...read more
- Q2. How would you measure the number of windows in Delhi
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I said I would analyse the costs, but as per my personal experience, until and unless the retailer intends to get into the logistics business, he should hire an external logistics provider, since it makes sense to concentrate in the core, and outsource the non-core activities.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I said I would take the population of Delhi and find out the working population and the non-working population. For the non-working, I would estimate the number of households taking an average of 4 people per household. And then an estimate on the number of windows per house. Taking the number of working people, I would further divide them into people working in different sizes of workplaces, and then estimate the no of establishments and the no of windows in each establishment.
Tips: Be confident.
Skills: Case Solving Ability, Case Analysis, Guesstimate Skills
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: I said I would analyse the costs, but as per my personal experience, until and unless the retailer intends to get into the logistics business, he should hire an external logistics provider, since it makes sense to concentrate in the core, and outsource the non-core activities.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I said I would take the population of Delhi and find out the working population and the non-working population. For the non-working, I would estimate the number of households taking an average of 4 people per household. And then an estimate on the number of windows per house. Taking the number of working people, I would further divide them into people working in different sizes of workplaces, and then estimate the no of establishments and the no of windows in each establishment.
Tips: Be confident.
Skills: Case Solving Ability, Case Analysis, Guesstimate Skills
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
I applied via Walk-in
1 Interview Round
Interview Questions
- Q1. P&G has acquired Gillette and is looking for cost reduction across logistics & supply chain. How would you advise them?
- Q2. How would you leverage E&Y strengths to help telecom companies grow their enterprise business?
- Q3. What are the 2 key areas that would help Indian IT companies remain competitive
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I asked a couple of clarifying questions: Does P&G manufacture/market shaving products? Answer: No. Is the integration complete (I got a vague response for this)? Are we defining a strategy for short term or long term? Answer: Both I then classified 3 areas of cost reduction: Sourcing, Manufacturing & Distribution. I also mentioned that we need to take 2 perspectives on each cost reduction measure: Operations View: Operationally how feasible is achieving cost reduction and a Strategic View: What are the strategic implications of the cost cutting measure Once I got affirmation of my structure I proceeded to identify the various broad level levers we could adopt. Sourcing: Rationalize the supplier portfolio, renegotiate contracts and allocate more to those who provide better rates Manufacturing; Consolidate manufacturing if P&G plants can produce Gillette goods. It turned out that only packaging could be consolidated as Gillette goods need specialized machinery that P&G does not have. Also P&G due to its larger size can have economies of scale in maintenance Distribution: I was asked to get deep into details regarding a couple of items and this is where I stumbled a bit. I believe the normal case preparation only lets you get a 30,000 foot overview of the situation. Since EnY also does implementation one must depart from a strategic view and address how these measures can be actually implemented. After all this, I ended the case by suggesting the use of a matrix to plot all measures. The X-axis would be amount of cost reduction that can be achieved and Y-axis would be ease of implementation.
Tips: Firms like EnY, Deloitte hire you as consultants for a specific vertical so you need to demonstrate fit in the resume, EoI and interview. It may be good to inquire about specific projects/expertise they have in the vertical of your choice and coming up with examples to demonstrate how your experience will be helpful.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: 1) I said we can leverage our domain expertise to recommend innovative business models to telecom companies that involve triple-play, quadruple-play of services. We can see which model provides greatest benefits and suggest that our client use that. Our implementation focus can also help us
2) For this question, I took the conservative approach and was not very creative. I said that the 2 key areas are: driving innovation and controlling attrition.
Tips: When the interview is with people at the partner level, they become more like conversations. In my experience, in such cases the interviewer is looking for cut and dry responses and not the traditional rehearsed answers. Also, they look for a practical approach to problem solving and a passion for consulting.
Skills: Case Solving Ability, Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: I asked a couple of clarifying questions: Does P&G manufacture/market shaving products? Answer: No. Is the integration complete (I got a vague response for this)? Are we defining a strategy for short term or long term? Answer: Both I then classified 3 areas of cost reduction: Sourcing, Manufacturing & Distribution. I also mentioned that we need to take 2 perspectives on each cost reduction measure: Operations View: Operationally how feasible is achieving cost reduction and a Strategic View: What are the strategic implications of the cost cutting measure Once I got affirmation of my structure I proceeded to identify the various broad level levers we could adopt. Sourcing: Rationalize the supplier portfolio, renegotiate contracts and allocate more to those who provide better rates Manufacturing; Consolidate manufacturing if P&G plants can produce Gillette goods. It turned out that only packaging could be consolidated as Gillette goods need specialized machinery that P&G does not have. Also P&G due to its larger size can have economies of scale in maintenance Distribution: I was asked to get deep into details regarding a couple of items and this is where I stumbled a bit. I believe the normal case preparation only lets you get a 30,000 foot overview of the situation. Since EnY also does implementation one must depart from a strategic view and address how these measures can be actually implemented. After all this, I ended the case by suggesting the use of a matrix to plot all measures. The X-axis would be amount of cost reduction that can be achieved and Y-axis would be ease of implementation.
Tips: Firms like EnY, Deloitte hire you as consultants for a specific vertical so you need to demonstrate fit in the resume, EoI and interview. It may be good to inquire about specific projects/expertise they have in the vertical of your choice and coming up with examples to demonstrate how your experience will be helpful.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: 1) I said we can leverage our domain expertise to recommend innovative business models to telecom companies that involve triple-play, quadruple-play of services. We can see which model provides greatest benefits and suggest that our client use that. Our implementation focus can also help us
2) For this question, I took the conservative approach and was not very creative. I said that the 2 key areas are: driving innovation and controlling attrition.
Tips: When the interview is with people at the partner level, they become more like conversations. In my experience, in such cases the interviewer is looking for cut and dry responses and not the traditional rehearsed answers. Also, they look for a practical approach to problem solving and a passion for consulting.
Skills: Case Solving Ability, Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
I applied via Walk-in
1 Interview Round
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: HR Interview
Experience: Most of the questions were around school education as E&Y asked candidates to fill up forms on schooling. I was also asked to state my understanding of role. This led to further questioning on verticals I would like to work on? I guess candidate was expected to clearly state his/her choice and later on show the sound understanding of that vertical. To gauge some general awareness I was asked to give my views on latest boom in retailing and give the name of one company which would win in long run (with reason). I answered this question using some macroeconomic model and quoted Reliance as the clear winner.
Tips: Stay calm and be yourself.
Skills: Personality
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: Most of the questions were around school education as E&Y asked candidates to fill up forms on schooling. I was also asked to state my understanding of role. This led to further questioning on verticals I would like to work on? I guess candidate was expected to clearly state his/her choice and later on show the sound understanding of that vertical. To gauge some general awareness I was asked to give my views on latest boom in retailing and give the name of one company which would win in long run (with reason). I answered this question using some macroeconomic model and quoted Reliance as the clear winner.
Tips: Stay calm and be yourself.
Skills: Personality
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
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