Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad
Hyderabad, Telangana
Your seniors at Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad helped you with their notes. Now they're helping you with their placement interview questions. 🙏
AmbitionBox
Search
Reviews
- Reviews
- Salaries
- Interview Questions
- About Company
- Benefits
- Jobs
- Office Photos
- Community
Filter interviews byIndian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad Placement Interview Questions
Updated
22 Sep 2024
228 interviews found
I applied via Campus Placement
4 Interview Rounds
Interview Questions
- Q1. PI question: Experiences where you led a team or motivated a team
- Q2. What issues you faced. How did you resolve them?
- Q3. Multiple
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Personal Interview Experience:
Personal Interview was mostly conversational. Asked about experiences from work. For instance, examples of experiences where you led a team or motivated a team. What issues you faced. How did you resolve them. Personally, coming from an Infosys background, my discussion went into the Onsite-Offshore model and the motivational/leadership challenges that come with it.
Case Details:
Basically the interviewer had a (printed out) slide deck about a pharma company. Each slide had some graphs and charts and you are supposed to draw inferences from them. For example, spot increasing/decreasing trends or abnormal behavior and then the interviewer would dig deeper and ask for possible reasons for such trends/behaviors. Once he was satisfied that you have spotted the right trends and the possible explanations he would move on to the next slide. Towards the end there were some calculations involved as well. For example, market sizing estimate figures were to be calculated based on market segment estimates. Calculations were fairly straightforward and logical (no real mba fundae were needed). Overall, I got the impression that they were basically trying to test if you are comfortable with numbers and are analytically inclined, that’s all.
I think my PI part of the interview went pretty well. I kind of connected with the interviewer on my motivational leadership example because it was based on the onsite offshore model (somewhat similar to what ZS has now) and spoke about issues that the interviewer himself had faced at ZS.
Not much went wrong. Except that the case/analytical part of the interview could have gone smoother. I was a little slow initially and so towards the end didn’t have enough time to complete the calculations for the last
question. Although, the interviewer seemed satisfied with me just showing him the working (and not actually calculating the exact figure)
Tips: There is not too much that can be done in terms of preparation for the Case. I’d just suggest that you go in with a fresh mind. The questions are pretty straightforward you just need to be confident and also need to show your thinking (perhaps thinking out loud could be a good idea to do this).
As for the PI. The usual PI questions should be prepared. For example, leadership/motivation/team work/innovation examples from work etc. Nothing out of the expected here.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case Details:
It was more of a “Case Study” than a typical case interview where we were given about 30-40 pages of information and were supposed to read through it and present on it in 40 mins time.
Case involved an ice cream retailing company that was feeling the heat financially. The case was about what options/alternatives the company had going forward…should it expand/cut down on its outlets, acquire new retailers etc. The case itself is not so important as the format. We were given a total of 40 mins where we had to read through LOTS of information and prepare a 10-15 minute presentation of the case (on flip charts). The information was in various formats and was jumbled. For example, there was a complete annual report of the company, there was a newspaper article about real estate rents going down (hence the possibility of renting out new retail shops and thus the connection with the case), letters from the bank to the company about not meeting their financial obligations, stock trends for the company, information about competitors and possible acquisition options etc. etc. I think I was fairly confident with my presentation…that helped a lot.
Although I didn’t read through the entire material word for word (that was not humanly possible given the time frame) I managed to get a feel of what was happening overall and put it all together in a story.
Not much went wrong. I was asked one question on my presentation that I could not answer because I had missed out that piece of information. But I don’t think it mattered too much overall.
Tips: It’s very important to understand that it’s not humanly possible to read through the entire material in the given time frame. What is expected is for you to capture the main essence of each article/piece of information provided. A good idea maybe to start off with the heading of the article and read just the first and last sentences of the paragraphs (basically, “speed reading” whichever way it works for you). Secondly, it’s critical to split up the 40 mins between reading the material and making the presentation. I think what I did was I kept 25 mins for the
reading part, and 15mins for drawing out the presentation (on the flip charts). Once again, when making the presentation, it is a good idea to probably draw out four/six (whichever works) slides on the chart (coz typically you wouldn’t have enough meat to fill up the entire chart with just one slide). And then start off with giving headings to each slide so you can build your story overall mentally and then start filling in the details (so even if you run short of time at least you have the overall story intact in terms of headings and you can still present).
Once again, no hardcore mba concepts tested as such. Just some sensible business understanding/thinking, good time management and smart presentation skills is what they’re looking for.
Round: Personal Interview
Experience: Personal Interview was mostly conversational and very similar to the first round PI. Asked about experiences from work as in the first round, strengths, weaknesses, why ZS etc.
There was no case as such but they did ask a couple of analytical questions once again similar to the first round. Basically the questions were more like logical thinking puzzles rather than business case questions. Once again, PI part went pretty well and I could connect with the interviewer. I could’ve answered some of the puzzle questions better but I did well enough I guess.
Tips: Once again, very little that can be done in terms of preparation. Work on your PI well (the usual PI questions) and come with a fresh mind for the puzzles.
They’re not tough at all and all they want to test is if you can think logically. So show them your thinking even if you can’t solve the entire problem
Skills:
Duration: NA
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: Personal Interview Experience:
Personal Interview was mostly conversational. Asked about experiences from work. For instance, examples of experiences where you led a team or motivated a team. What issues you faced. How did you resolve them. Personally, coming from an Infosys background, my discussion went into the Onsite-Offshore model and the motivational/leadership challenges that come with it.
Case Details:
Basically the interviewer had a (printed out) slide deck about a pharma company. Each slide had some graphs and charts and you are supposed to draw inferences from them. For example, spot increasing/decreasing trends or abnormal behavior and then the interviewer would dig deeper and ask for possible reasons for such trends/behaviors. Once he was satisfied that you have spotted the right trends and the possible explanations he would move on to the next slide. Towards the end there were some calculations involved as well. For example, market sizing estimate figures were to be calculated based on market segment estimates. Calculations were fairly straightforward and logical (no real mba fundae were needed). Overall, I got the impression that they were basically trying to test if you are comfortable with numbers and are analytically inclined, that’s all.
I think my PI part of the interview went pretty well. I kind of connected with the interviewer on my motivational leadership example because it was based on the onsite offshore model (somewhat similar to what ZS has now) and spoke about issues that the interviewer himself had faced at ZS.
Not much went wrong. Except that the case/analytical part of the interview could have gone smoother. I was a little slow initially and so towards the end didn’t have enough time to complete the calculations for the last
question. Although, the interviewer seemed satisfied with me just showing him the working (and not actually calculating the exact figure)
Tips: There is not too much that can be done in terms of preparation for the Case. I’d just suggest that you go in with a fresh mind. The questions are pretty straightforward you just need to be confident and also need to show your thinking (perhaps thinking out loud could be a good idea to do this).
As for the PI. The usual PI questions should be prepared. For example, leadership/motivation/team work/innovation examples from work etc. Nothing out of the expected here.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case Details:
It was more of a “Case Study” than a typical case interview where we were given about 30-40 pages of information and were supposed to read through it and present on it in 40 mins time.
Case involved an ice cream retailing company that was feeling the heat financially. The case was about what options/alternatives the company had going forward…should it expand/cut down on its outlets, acquire new retailers etc. The case itself is not so important as the format. We were given a total of 40 mins where we had to read through LOTS of information and prepare a 10-15 minute presentation of the case (on flip charts). The information was in various formats and was jumbled. For example, there was a complete annual report of the company, there was a newspaper article about real estate rents going down (hence the possibility of renting out new retail shops and thus the connection with the case), letters from the bank to the company about not meeting their financial obligations, stock trends for the company, information about competitors and possible acquisition options etc. etc. I think I was fairly confident with my presentation…that helped a lot.
Although I didn’t read through the entire material word for word (that was not humanly possible given the time frame) I managed to get a feel of what was happening overall and put it all together in a story.
Not much went wrong. I was asked one question on my presentation that I could not answer because I had missed out that piece of information. But I don’t think it mattered too much overall.
Tips: It’s very important to understand that it’s not humanly possible to read through the entire material in the given time frame. What is expected is for you to capture the main essence of each article/piece of information provided. A good idea maybe to start off with the heading of the article and read just the first and last sentences of the paragraphs (basically, “speed reading” whichever way it works for you). Secondly, it’s critical to split up the 40 mins between reading the material and making the presentation. I think what I did was I kept 25 mins for the
reading part, and 15mins for drawing out the presentation (on the flip charts). Once again, when making the presentation, it is a good idea to probably draw out four/six (whichever works) slides on the chart (coz typically you wouldn’t have enough meat to fill up the entire chart with just one slide). And then start off with giving headings to each slide so you can build your story overall mentally and then start filling in the details (so even if you run short of time at least you have the overall story intact in terms of headings and you can still present).
Once again, no hardcore mba concepts tested as such. Just some sensible business understanding/thinking, good time management and smart presentation skills is what they’re looking for.
Round: Personal Interview
Experience: Personal Interview was mostly conversational and very similar to the first round PI. Asked about experiences from work as in the first round, strengths, weaknesses, why ZS etc.
There was no case as such but they did ask a couple of analytical questions once again similar to the first round. Basically the questions were more like logical thinking puzzles rather than business case questions. Once again, PI part went pretty well and I could connect with the interviewer. I could’ve answered some of the puzzle questions better but I did well enough I guess.
Tips: Once again, very little that can be done in terms of preparation. Work on your PI well (the usual PI questions) and come with a fresh mind for the puzzles.
They’re not tough at all and all they want to test is if you can think logically. So show them your thinking even if you can’t solve the entire problem
Skills:
Duration: NA
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
5 Interview Rounds
Interview Questions
- Q1. Case statement: If you have to merge two companies what will you look at?( Case Type: M&A)
- Q2. Tell me about yourself
- Q3. Why consulting?
- Q4. What are your strength
- Q5. There is a cement company which is interested in increasing their profit/kg. How should they go about doing this?(Case Type: Profitability)
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case Details:
Wrote the formula as Company A’s value + Revenue synergy + Cost synergy – Loss in Shareholder’s value. He was impressed by the detailed formula and then we discussed about all of the points we had written. I further broke down revenue and cost synergy into financial and operation synergies and mentioned about how these synergies can be realized.
Tips: Take your electives seriously. Call a few alums in case you need help. Please do take CCMA (Term 6) and MGSP (Term 6). These courses will make all the M&A cases a walk in the park for you. Other than this I found LSCM (Term 6), ECSG (Term 7) and ATAM (Term 7) very useful. Term 5 for me was a disaster because I didn’t consult with any alum and ended up taking most of the irrelevant courses.
Round: personal interview and case study
Experience: Personal Interview:
This was by far the best interview I had. The interviewer was a lot of fun to talk to and we immediately connected with each other. He said that we will do a case first and then the PI. Once the cases were over we started with PI.
1) Tell me one reason why you will not join BCG?
I told him that people are great and that is why BCG was my top priority but BCG did not have as big a brand as one of its competitors. Then he went on to explain how BCG has the same brand value in the eyes of senior management of most of the top firms in the world.
2) Tell me three reasons why we should not hire you?
He was smiling when asking this question and told me he knows the question is not fair. It’s very important to reciprocate the way the interviewer is behaving. I also smiled back and said I do not have any consulting experience. If you find people with that experience you should hire him. Both of us laughed at the answer and then he asked me about a genuine weakness. I said procrastination and how I had to go and work in the SantaCruz office during Mumbai terrorist attacks because of this habit and what I was doing to overcome this problem.
Case Statement:
A conglomerate is trying to open another company in IT sector. Tell me what are the things the conglomerate should give to this company and what are the things it should not give? He also asked to tell him how should the firm ramp up its operations? (Case Type:Expansion Strategy )
Case Details:
I asked him what was the aim behind the decision to open an IT arm and he revealed that it was the company believes IT sector will be profitable in the future. He also told me that the conglomerate is aiming to reach a turnover of $400mn by the end of the five years. I asked him about the size of the conglomerate and he said I can assume somewhere close to $40bn. I decided to solve the case using the profitability framework and told him that I will look at what contribution can the conglomerate make on increasing the revenues and decreasing the cost of the IT firm.
He (interviewer) was fine with this structure. Thereafter I started by talking about revenues and wrote revenue = num of projects * avg hrs per project * price/hr. For increasing the number of projects we should do the following:
1. Internal projects. Since the firm is valued at $40bn I assumed that it will have about $400mn worth of IT projects internally and
hence the target can be achieved by giving only the internal projects. However I also said that the conglomerate should not give all the internal projects to the new IT firm and should continue outsourcing some of the critical projects for the next few
years at least. He then asked me should all the internal projects eventually be given to the new company. I told him that different projects require different expertise and hence a new expertise should be developed only if we can get more projects on that particular expertise. He was visibly impressed with this answer.
2. Brand name. I said that the biggest advantage which the conglomerate had over other new IT firms was the brand name associated. I made the assumption that since it’s a big conglomerate it has a good reputation in the market and it can leverage it to get a lot of internal as well as external projects.
3. Relationship. I also told him that the conglomerate will have good relations with number of other big players in India as well as
internationally. We can leverage these relationships to get more projects. I made an assumption that we cannot make an impact on avg hrs per project. However we can charge a premium on price/hr since we have a strong brand associated with us. On the cost front I told him that the primary spending in cost will be
1. Direct Labor (S/W engineers, Project Managers): I told him that brand should help in this recruitment as well since brand is one of the biggest non monetary motivators for employees. Besides the firm should already have some IT engineers in their current firms. They can transfer them to this firm. This will give the IT engineers higher satisfaction as it will give them an opportunity to work on different projects.
2. Sales: Since the firm is an IT Conglomerate it should have a brilliant sales team. The firm can transfer some of their best sales guys to the new firm initially to rope in more customers.
3. Administrative (Finance/HR): In this case I told him that the firm should not give the new IT firm its HR/admin team but hire a new team. This was the case since IT is very different from conventional sectors and hence the culture is different and hence
HR and management team should be radically different from other firms.
4. Power: Probably some subsidy can be obtained from the government.
5. Infrastructure (Rent, Laptops, Computers etc.): The conglomerate might have some land available and can lease out the land to the new firm at a cheaper rate. After this he asked me to tell him how should the sales look like in the next few years and how will that impact their hiring plans. He asked me to predict sales in 6, 12, 24, 36 and 60 months. I wrote a GP series and said that sales would keep increasing exponentially. Hence if the firm wants $400mn in 60 months they should get $200M in 36, $100M in 24 and $50M in 1 year. He smiled and told me what’s wrong with this. I immediately corrected my mistake and told him that it will be $200M in 4 yrs, $100 in 3 yrs and so on. Then he asked me what might go wrong with these projections. I told him that what may be wrong is the growth of 100% at the end of 60 months. Hence may be the growth will slow down and hence the growth in sales might be 100% in first two years, 50% in the next two years and 25% in the final year. He was fine with this answer and then we went forward with PI.
Tips: Do not neglect PI. I was asked why we should not hire you in my DB interview in November. I screwed it up badly because I never expected that question. But during my consulting interviews I was ready for this question and it helped. Make a list of at least 50 questions which can be asked in PI interviews and write brief bullet points for each question. Do not mug up the answer but practice each question at least 3 times in front of the mirror.
Round: personal interview
Experience: This was my 13th interview of the day but looking at the interviewer I was sure it was his 13th or 14th as well. However I had got an offer from Booz and hence was upbeat and confident. There was no case in this round which was a bit strange. However we talked for more than 15 minutes. I do not remember all the questions but they varied from mugged up questions like why consulting to questions about my family. He even asked me that since I plan to get married as soon as I join consulting how is my wife going to take it. On this I replied that she has told me that I can work as much as I want on weekdays but weekends are for her. Hearing this
he smiled for the first time in the interview and said good that she already understands this . After this we had some discussion on
telecom sector since I decided to talk to him as to where does he think the price war in the sector is heading towards.
Tips: During the entire interview the interviewer looked disinterested. He was looking down, at my CV, wasn’t maintaining eye contact and asking random questions. However I decided to remain upbeat and kept answering with confidence and a smile on my face. This helped me in maintaining the pace of the interview and he did smile back eventually at one of my answers. In spite of this being the 13th interview I was able to achieve this because I had got into the habit of solving 4-5 cases in a day. Hence start practicing cases on a stretch and do take mockathons organized by consulting club very seriously. Besides remember to keep the mood
upbeat at all the time no matter how your previous interviews have gone and no matter how tired you are.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case Details:
Asked him why they are interested in profit/kg and he told me to think what might be the reason. Told him that the amount they can produce is limited and hence might their profits are maximized if their profit/kg is
maximized. After this I wrote profit/kg = Price – VC – FC/kg. Since cement is a commodity we cannot affect the price a lot. At this he told me that is it impossible to increase the average price for the company. On hearing this I asked him about the markets we serve and does each market have different price. He also told me that was indeed the case and the prices were higher in certain regions of India and lower in other regions. I asked him why and he told me to think. I could not come up with an answer so he asked me to look at the cost. I broke VC to Direct Material, Direct Labor and transportation cost. It then struck me that transportation cost will be different for different regions and hence prices in those regions will be different. On hearing this he smiled and told me how we can then help our firm optimize. After this I wrote the standard DMOP supply demand optimization
problem and he was happy with the answer. But then he asked me to think if we change supply in a region what will happen. I drew the supply demand curve and told him that price will go down. He told me how I can represent the graph in the optimization equation. I could not think of anything and then he replied back telling me that we will include the price elasticity for cement in each region in the equation as well. After this he told me to think of competitive response. I told him that we can solve the optimization equation for the entire industry and try optimize for the entire industry. He liked the solution but asked me what else we can do if we do not know about the exact cost of all our competitors. Then I drew up a 2 X 2 with one axis being our variable cost in a region vs. our competitors’ variable cost.
He told me to think in terms of strength of competitors as well and I told him we should increase supply in regions where strong regional players are not there since the regional players cannot reduce the supply in a region but the national player can reduce supply in this region and increase supply elsewhere. He then asked me what may go wrong. I told him that if we do not communicate our strategy well than we may get into a price war in the entire country with the national player and this might lead to a bigger problem. On hearing this he was satisfied and told me if I had some questions for him.
Tips: Read all the core term courses well. I never thought a DMOP problem might be asked in the case study and it was and hence you should have good control of all the core term courses. Also revise Economics properly since a large number of cases can be solved if you can think in terms of demand and supply properly. Besides in the interview do not try to judge yourself. In this interview I was not able to answer about the elasticity bit but I did not lose my confidence and excelled later in analyzing the competitive response.
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: Case Details:
Wrote the formula as Company A’s value + Revenue synergy + Cost synergy – Loss in Shareholder’s value. He was impressed by the detailed formula and then we discussed about all of the points we had written. I further broke down revenue and cost synergy into financial and operation synergies and mentioned about how these synergies can be realized.
Tips: Take your electives seriously. Call a few alums in case you need help. Please do take CCMA (Term 6) and MGSP (Term 6). These courses will make all the M&A cases a walk in the park for you. Other than this I found LSCM (Term 6), ECSG (Term 7) and ATAM (Term 7) very useful. Term 5 for me was a disaster because I didn’t consult with any alum and ended up taking most of the irrelevant courses.
Round: personal interview and case study
Experience: Personal Interview:
This was by far the best interview I had. The interviewer was a lot of fun to talk to and we immediately connected with each other. He said that we will do a case first and then the PI. Once the cases were over we started with PI.
1) Tell me one reason why you will not join BCG?
I told him that people are great and that is why BCG was my top priority but BCG did not have as big a brand as one of its competitors. Then he went on to explain how BCG has the same brand value in the eyes of senior management of most of the top firms in the world.
2) Tell me three reasons why we should not hire you?
He was smiling when asking this question and told me he knows the question is not fair. It’s very important to reciprocate the way the interviewer is behaving. I also smiled back and said I do not have any consulting experience. If you find people with that experience you should hire him. Both of us laughed at the answer and then he asked me about a genuine weakness. I said procrastination and how I had to go and work in the SantaCruz office during Mumbai terrorist attacks because of this habit and what I was doing to overcome this problem.
Case Statement:
A conglomerate is trying to open another company in IT sector. Tell me what are the things the conglomerate should give to this company and what are the things it should not give? He also asked to tell him how should the firm ramp up its operations? (Case Type:Expansion Strategy )
Case Details:
I asked him what was the aim behind the decision to open an IT arm and he revealed that it was the company believes IT sector will be profitable in the future. He also told me that the conglomerate is aiming to reach a turnover of $400mn by the end of the five years. I asked him about the size of the conglomerate and he said I can assume somewhere close to $40bn. I decided to solve the case using the profitability framework and told him that I will look at what contribution can the conglomerate make on increasing the revenues and decreasing the cost of the IT firm.
He (interviewer) was fine with this structure. Thereafter I started by talking about revenues and wrote revenue = num of projects * avg hrs per project * price/hr. For increasing the number of projects we should do the following:
1. Internal projects. Since the firm is valued at $40bn I assumed that it will have about $400mn worth of IT projects internally and
hence the target can be achieved by giving only the internal projects. However I also said that the conglomerate should not give all the internal projects to the new IT firm and should continue outsourcing some of the critical projects for the next few
years at least. He then asked me should all the internal projects eventually be given to the new company. I told him that different projects require different expertise and hence a new expertise should be developed only if we can get more projects on that particular expertise. He was visibly impressed with this answer.
2. Brand name. I said that the biggest advantage which the conglomerate had over other new IT firms was the brand name associated. I made the assumption that since it’s a big conglomerate it has a good reputation in the market and it can leverage it to get a lot of internal as well as external projects.
3. Relationship. I also told him that the conglomerate will have good relations with number of other big players in India as well as
internationally. We can leverage these relationships to get more projects. I made an assumption that we cannot make an impact on avg hrs per project. However we can charge a premium on price/hr since we have a strong brand associated with us. On the cost front I told him that the primary spending in cost will be
1. Direct Labor (S/W engineers, Project Managers): I told him that brand should help in this recruitment as well since brand is one of the biggest non monetary motivators for employees. Besides the firm should already have some IT engineers in their current firms. They can transfer them to this firm. This will give the IT engineers higher satisfaction as it will give them an opportunity to work on different projects.
2. Sales: Since the firm is an IT Conglomerate it should have a brilliant sales team. The firm can transfer some of their best sales guys to the new firm initially to rope in more customers.
3. Administrative (Finance/HR): In this case I told him that the firm should not give the new IT firm its HR/admin team but hire a new team. This was the case since IT is very different from conventional sectors and hence the culture is different and hence
HR and management team should be radically different from other firms.
4. Power: Probably some subsidy can be obtained from the government.
5. Infrastructure (Rent, Laptops, Computers etc.): The conglomerate might have some land available and can lease out the land to the new firm at a cheaper rate. After this he asked me to tell him how should the sales look like in the next few years and how will that impact their hiring plans. He asked me to predict sales in 6, 12, 24, 36 and 60 months. I wrote a GP series and said that sales would keep increasing exponentially. Hence if the firm wants $400mn in 60 months they should get $200M in 36, $100M in 24 and $50M in 1 year. He smiled and told me what’s wrong with this. I immediately corrected my mistake and told him that it will be $200M in 4 yrs, $100 in 3 yrs and so on. Then he asked me what might go wrong with these projections. I told him that what may be wrong is the growth of 100% at the end of 60 months. Hence may be the growth will slow down and hence the growth in sales might be 100% in first two years, 50% in the next two years and 25% in the final year. He was fine with this answer and then we went forward with PI.
Tips: Do not neglect PI. I was asked why we should not hire you in my DB interview in November. I screwed it up badly because I never expected that question. But during my consulting interviews I was ready for this question and it helped. Make a list of at least 50 questions which can be asked in PI interviews and write brief bullet points for each question. Do not mug up the answer but practice each question at least 3 times in front of the mirror.
Round: personal interview
Experience: This was my 13th interview of the day but looking at the interviewer I was sure it was his 13th or 14th as well. However I had got an offer from Booz and hence was upbeat and confident. There was no case in this round which was a bit strange. However we talked for more than 15 minutes. I do not remember all the questions but they varied from mugged up questions like why consulting to questions about my family. He even asked me that since I plan to get married as soon as I join consulting how is my wife going to take it. On this I replied that she has told me that I can work as much as I want on weekdays but weekends are for her. Hearing this
he smiled for the first time in the interview and said good that she already understands this . After this we had some discussion on
telecom sector since I decided to talk to him as to where does he think the price war in the sector is heading towards.
Tips: During the entire interview the interviewer looked disinterested. He was looking down, at my CV, wasn’t maintaining eye contact and asking random questions. However I decided to remain upbeat and kept answering with confidence and a smile on my face. This helped me in maintaining the pace of the interview and he did smile back eventually at one of my answers. In spite of this being the 13th interview I was able to achieve this because I had got into the habit of solving 4-5 cases in a day. Hence start practicing cases on a stretch and do take mockathons organized by consulting club very seriously. Besides remember to keep the mood
upbeat at all the time no matter how your previous interviews have gone and no matter how tired you are.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case Details:
Asked him why they are interested in profit/kg and he told me to think what might be the reason. Told him that the amount they can produce is limited and hence might their profits are maximized if their profit/kg is
maximized. After this I wrote profit/kg = Price – VC – FC/kg. Since cement is a commodity we cannot affect the price a lot. At this he told me that is it impossible to increase the average price for the company. On hearing this I asked him about the markets we serve and does each market have different price. He also told me that was indeed the case and the prices were higher in certain regions of India and lower in other regions. I asked him why and he told me to think. I could not come up with an answer so he asked me to look at the cost. I broke VC to Direct Material, Direct Labor and transportation cost. It then struck me that transportation cost will be different for different regions and hence prices in those regions will be different. On hearing this he smiled and told me how we can then help our firm optimize. After this I wrote the standard DMOP supply demand optimization
problem and he was happy with the answer. But then he asked me to think if we change supply in a region what will happen. I drew the supply demand curve and told him that price will go down. He told me how I can represent the graph in the optimization equation. I could not think of anything and then he replied back telling me that we will include the price elasticity for cement in each region in the equation as well. After this he told me to think of competitive response. I told him that we can solve the optimization equation for the entire industry and try optimize for the entire industry. He liked the solution but asked me what else we can do if we do not know about the exact cost of all our competitors. Then I drew up a 2 X 2 with one axis being our variable cost in a region vs. our competitors’ variable cost.
He told me to think in terms of strength of competitors as well and I told him we should increase supply in regions where strong regional players are not there since the regional players cannot reduce the supply in a region but the national player can reduce supply in this region and increase supply elsewhere. He then asked me what may go wrong. I told him that if we do not communicate our strategy well than we may get into a price war in the entire country with the national player and this might lead to a bigger problem. On hearing this he was satisfied and told me if I had some questions for him.
Tips: Read all the core term courses well. I never thought a DMOP problem might be asked in the case study and it was and hence you should have good control of all the core term courses. Also revise Economics properly since a large number of cases can be solved if you can think in terms of demand and supply properly. Besides in the interview do not try to judge yourself. In this interview I was not able to answer about the elasticity bit but I did not lose my confidence and excelled later in analyzing the competitive response.
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
5 Interview Rounds
Interview Questions
- Q1. Improving performance of two retail stores
- Q2. There are two companies one with 50% equity and other with 60% equity and rest debt. Everything else being same, what would be the difference in cost of capital...read more
- Q3. How many interviews you gave in the day
- Q4. Tell me about yourself question
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The interviewer started “tell me about yourself” while he was reading through the resume.
Case Details:
Then the interviewer asked about a particular bullet point in resume. The question given as case study was based on this.
For the next 15-20 minutes, we spoke about the measures taken to improve the performance. We went into exhaustive discussions
about the steps taken and what else could have been done. We discussed about product mix, the performance of other stores in the
region, agricultural potential of the area, means to attract customers etc.
For the next question, I asked about the tax rate and he said the tax rate is zero. I gave the answer.
He then asked me if I wanted to ask something about the job. I asked him about his career progression. I also asked that Booz being relatively new entrant in India, how it was planning to expand.
The detailed discussion on resume point went well. I was also pretty relaxed during the interview which helped.
While giving answer for the WACC question, I simply gave an answer and did not illustrate the logic of it. I could have taken him through the logic.
Tips: Typically we prepare a 3-4 minute pitch for each resume point. In my case the discussion on a single point went for about 20 minutes. So it’s important to know your resume very well and talk about it convincingly.
Round: PI and Case study
Experience: : Tell me something about yourself (went on for about 4 minutes as he did not stop me and expected more)
: What are the qualities required to be a successful consultant
: Why do you think you would make a good consultant
: What other career choices are you looking at. Which other firms are you interviewing with.
: What are your long term career goals. How would you achieve them.
: While discussing my experience in KPMG audit, the discussion veered towards corporate governance. So he asked me to tell
what went wrong with Enron – the question stumped me because I had not expected it and had last read about Enron more than 5
years back. I gave him a rough sketch about how Enron managed to cook its books.
The personal interview lasted for about 15-20 minutes. Generally there were follow up questions to what I answered. Then we started with a case.
Case question: An oil marketing company wants to launch a fuel card where the customer can pay through the card and settle the bills at the end of the month. Users would also get loyalty points. How would you advise the company on whether they should undertake the project.
Case Details:
I started with broadly stating that the considerations would be strategic, financial to see if the project is viable and then operational to see if it can be implemented. To see whether we would have any strategic advantage over competition with fuel card launch, I explored the potential customers.
S(me): Has any competitor launched fuel cards or any similar program of their own?
P(interviewer): No. Ours is the first company considering its launch.
S: To see whether customers would value fuel cards, let’s categorize the customers. One set who would value it would be transport service operators. Other set would be retail customers who would appreciate the convenience offered by fuel cards and loyalty points. The points would also help in creating a customer lock-in.
P: That covers practically everybody. Why would transport service operators value fuel card ?
S: It would mean drivers would not need to carry cash with them on trips and hence greatly reduce operational hassles. There will be decrease in leakage/theft as the drivers would be paying directly by cards. Operators would have transaction ease in paying at the end of month and also greater control over the fuel usage. Interviewer seemed happy with the reasons. I said that there seemed to be a market for fuel cards and by implementing it, we would be able to increase our sales by eating into our competitor’s pie. We proceeded to check the financial viability. To check the financial feasibility I outlined the following scheme: Incremental contribution due to fuel cards Implementation and operating costs for the same Hit in margin if we do not implement and some competitor implements the same
I checked with interviewer if he was ok with the overall approach and he said fine.
S: To compute the incremental contribution, we need the current sales level and the margin level
P: Current sales are 100 mn lts. Margin is 10 cents per ltr
S: We would need the competitive scenario, number of stores and incremental sales expected at each store to estimate incremental margin
P: Assume there is an overall 30% increase in sales volume
I thus calculated the incremental contribution. We then proceeded to calculate the cost of implementation and operation.
S: Operating costs would depend on the model of operation. We can either tie up with a bank and they can take over all the back-end like and operate it like credit card operations. Else we can have our own set-up and generate bills for the customers. In our own set-up, there will be higher set-up costs and interest foregone for credit period. In tie-up with bank, we would have credit card charges as normally levied by the banks which are generally around 1.5% and maybe some additional operating costs. Other than that, we would have incremental costs at the pump level like a telephone line for card usage. Interviewer gave me a fixed cost per month which was same for both scheme and included depreciation etc. This certainly made life easy
S: What are the loyalty points costing us?
P: 3 cents per ltr
S: When we launch fuel cards, the card sale would also poach into our cash sale. Hence though the overall incremental sale is 30%, what is card sale as a % of total sale?
P: cash and card sales are 50% each.
I then worked out the numbers to determine that launching fuel cards was leading to financial loss on a standalone basis. I then asked whether we should proceed to compute the potential loss in revenue in case we do not launch fuel cards but a competitor launches it. The interviewer asked me to summarize the case there. I said that fuel cards seem to have a good market but is leading to a loss on standalone basis. To take a decision, we need to see potential loss if we do not launch and a competitor launches the same. Also, we could look into reducing loyalty points as it’s a major cost head. We are delivering real value to customer and current scheme may not be required.
Prep for personal questions helped me in the first half. Case went well in a structured manner.
To conclude, what I think went wrong with the interview was the Enron question surprised me and I did not give a very good answer. But I guess there can always be surprise questions. Having a fair idea in the field of prior experience would help.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: We did not discuss any case during the interview. However, we spoke on length about my work experience and learnings. I had worked in rural retail business and rural marketing business in ITC before joining ISB. So we went into a lengthy discussion about rural India and its potential. He asked whether the buzz surrounding rural India was justified. I gave my opinion. He then asked what were the hurdles in rural India and what were the factors determining success. I gave examples from my experience and listed down the hurdles and success factors. We discussed them in details and he came up with a sort of matrix to evaluate the potential for rural success based on factors discussed. I also highlighted the importance of right product which can make a big difference and gave some examples in this regard. I also listed down the key drivers for business in retailing business in rural
India.
After some more questions, the interview ended.
What I think went right in the interview is that I was able to talk about my experience of rural India in both retailing and marketing businesses in detail with numbers and examples which made the discussion more lively and believable.
Tips: Again knowing about your work experience thoroughly helps.
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: The interviewer started “tell me about yourself” while he was reading through the resume.
Case Details:
Then the interviewer asked about a particular bullet point in resume. The question given as case study was based on this.
For the next 15-20 minutes, we spoke about the measures taken to improve the performance. We went into exhaustive discussions
about the steps taken and what else could have been done. We discussed about product mix, the performance of other stores in the
region, agricultural potential of the area, means to attract customers etc.
For the next question, I asked about the tax rate and he said the tax rate is zero. I gave the answer.
He then asked me if I wanted to ask something about the job. I asked him about his career progression. I also asked that Booz being relatively new entrant in India, how it was planning to expand.
The detailed discussion on resume point went well. I was also pretty relaxed during the interview which helped.
While giving answer for the WACC question, I simply gave an answer and did not illustrate the logic of it. I could have taken him through the logic.
Tips: Typically we prepare a 3-4 minute pitch for each resume point. In my case the discussion on a single point went for about 20 minutes. So it’s important to know your resume very well and talk about it convincingly.
Round: PI and Case study
Experience: : Tell me something about yourself (went on for about 4 minutes as he did not stop me and expected more)
: What are the qualities required to be a successful consultant
: Why do you think you would make a good consultant
: What other career choices are you looking at. Which other firms are you interviewing with.
: What are your long term career goals. How would you achieve them.
: While discussing my experience in KPMG audit, the discussion veered towards corporate governance. So he asked me to tell
what went wrong with Enron – the question stumped me because I had not expected it and had last read about Enron more than 5
years back. I gave him a rough sketch about how Enron managed to cook its books.
The personal interview lasted for about 15-20 minutes. Generally there were follow up questions to what I answered. Then we started with a case.
Case question: An oil marketing company wants to launch a fuel card where the customer can pay through the card and settle the bills at the end of the month. Users would also get loyalty points. How would you advise the company on whether they should undertake the project.
Case Details:
I started with broadly stating that the considerations would be strategic, financial to see if the project is viable and then operational to see if it can be implemented. To see whether we would have any strategic advantage over competition with fuel card launch, I explored the potential customers.
S(me): Has any competitor launched fuel cards or any similar program of their own?
P(interviewer): No. Ours is the first company considering its launch.
S: To see whether customers would value fuel cards, let’s categorize the customers. One set who would value it would be transport service operators. Other set would be retail customers who would appreciate the convenience offered by fuel cards and loyalty points. The points would also help in creating a customer lock-in.
P: That covers practically everybody. Why would transport service operators value fuel card ?
S: It would mean drivers would not need to carry cash with them on trips and hence greatly reduce operational hassles. There will be decrease in leakage/theft as the drivers would be paying directly by cards. Operators would have transaction ease in paying at the end of month and also greater control over the fuel usage. Interviewer seemed happy with the reasons. I said that there seemed to be a market for fuel cards and by implementing it, we would be able to increase our sales by eating into our competitor’s pie. We proceeded to check the financial viability. To check the financial feasibility I outlined the following scheme: Incremental contribution due to fuel cards Implementation and operating costs for the same Hit in margin if we do not implement and some competitor implements the same
I checked with interviewer if he was ok with the overall approach and he said fine.
S: To compute the incremental contribution, we need the current sales level and the margin level
P: Current sales are 100 mn lts. Margin is 10 cents per ltr
S: We would need the competitive scenario, number of stores and incremental sales expected at each store to estimate incremental margin
P: Assume there is an overall 30% increase in sales volume
I thus calculated the incremental contribution. We then proceeded to calculate the cost of implementation and operation.
S: Operating costs would depend on the model of operation. We can either tie up with a bank and they can take over all the back-end like and operate it like credit card operations. Else we can have our own set-up and generate bills for the customers. In our own set-up, there will be higher set-up costs and interest foregone for credit period. In tie-up with bank, we would have credit card charges as normally levied by the banks which are generally around 1.5% and maybe some additional operating costs. Other than that, we would have incremental costs at the pump level like a telephone line for card usage. Interviewer gave me a fixed cost per month which was same for both scheme and included depreciation etc. This certainly made life easy
S: What are the loyalty points costing us?
P: 3 cents per ltr
S: When we launch fuel cards, the card sale would also poach into our cash sale. Hence though the overall incremental sale is 30%, what is card sale as a % of total sale?
P: cash and card sales are 50% each.
I then worked out the numbers to determine that launching fuel cards was leading to financial loss on a standalone basis. I then asked whether we should proceed to compute the potential loss in revenue in case we do not launch fuel cards but a competitor launches it. The interviewer asked me to summarize the case there. I said that fuel cards seem to have a good market but is leading to a loss on standalone basis. To take a decision, we need to see potential loss if we do not launch and a competitor launches the same. Also, we could look into reducing loyalty points as it’s a major cost head. We are delivering real value to customer and current scheme may not be required.
Prep for personal questions helped me in the first half. Case went well in a structured manner.
To conclude, what I think went wrong with the interview was the Enron question surprised me and I did not give a very good answer. But I guess there can always be surprise questions. Having a fair idea in the field of prior experience would help.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: We did not discuss any case during the interview. However, we spoke on length about my work experience and learnings. I had worked in rural retail business and rural marketing business in ITC before joining ISB. So we went into a lengthy discussion about rural India and its potential. He asked whether the buzz surrounding rural India was justified. I gave my opinion. He then asked what were the hurdles in rural India and what were the factors determining success. I gave examples from my experience and listed down the hurdles and success factors. We discussed them in details and he came up with a sort of matrix to evaluate the potential for rural success based on factors discussed. I also highlighted the importance of right product which can make a big difference and gave some examples in this regard. I also listed down the key drivers for business in retailing business in rural
India.
After some more questions, the interview ended.
What I think went right in the interview is that I was able to talk about my experience of rural India in both retailing and marketing businesses in detail with numbers and examples which made the discussion more lively and believable.
Tips: Again knowing about your work experience thoroughly helps.
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
4 Interview Rounds
Interview Questions
- Q1. Telecom company wants to reduce the processing time of applications
- Q2. Farmer grows oranges assuming lot of money in the market. Herd mentality makes everyone think the same, so everyone grows oranges. What happens then? How to tac...read more
- Q3. How to find the Appraisal points of a Pilot –KPAs to be more precise
- Q4. How to go about finding the right country to sell Islamic Insurance
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case Details:
Case 1 : This was a typical ops case. A few pokes made me realize this is a local company, a govt body, is suffering from loss of customers due to long time of processing leading to frustration. The guy kept repeating the fact that most of the application did not need any house survey by the officers but still they used to continue with the process (This was a hint). Poke him more he will give u the entire process flow: 1 . Receive 2. Documentation 3. Survey 4. Permission 5. Fee collection 6. Approval 7. Installation. Poke him more he will come out with the time on each process. It was found points1 , 2, 5, 6 dint take much time. 3, 4, 7 were the time consumers. 4, 7 nothing could be done. Zeroed on 3. Final solution: make categories of applications basis survey requirement. A: Needs survey as it is close to bridges, lakes, rivers etc. B: does not require survey as it is in plain lands. Find indicators to sort out such applications 1 . Maps 2. Customer questionnaire 3. Experience from old customers.
Case 2: Typical micro-eco case. Supply overpowers demand. Prices will fall, profits will go down. Hell will let loose upon the farmers. Solution: 1 . Store it to sell in future = So then think of storage cost + lost of quality + Loss of moisture in the fruit 2. Any sort of value addition possible = 1 . Pulp 2. Ketchup 3. Juices & Squash etc
Case3: That was an easy one, I know u ppl will crack it
Case 4: I messed up with this case. Asked the preliminary questions on the current company ops, why they wanted to expand, and particular revenues targets etc. I dint lay out a structure as such and came out with random variables 1 . Size, demo, populations of Islam, income slabs, requirement etc. Missed out on a very big point and that was govt regulations which was declared to me in the end.
Tips: It’s a telecom – so they are not checking your paper. Too much of silence is dangerous, u have to engage them all the time. Be very clear with your pronunciation, diction voice modulations as he is not seeing u gesticulate. Be loud.
Round: Personal Interview
Experience: Questions asked:
1 . Why consultancy?
2. Why ADL?
3. Long term plans.
The asked a number of brain teasers – which are short shouldn’t take more than 3-4 minutes
I had a good rapport with interviewers. Picked up the hints well. Was honest if I got stuck. Dint maintain long silence over the phone.Messed up the brain teasers because I was pretty much caught unaware most of the time. The last round’s brain teaser was made to be mailed to me to the partner, and it had to be done on 10 minutes!!
Tips: ADL needs separate and an early preparation than the rest as the rounds start early than the actual placements.
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: Case Details:
Case 1 : This was a typical ops case. A few pokes made me realize this is a local company, a govt body, is suffering from loss of customers due to long time of processing leading to frustration. The guy kept repeating the fact that most of the application did not need any house survey by the officers but still they used to continue with the process (This was a hint). Poke him more he will give u the entire process flow: 1 . Receive 2. Documentation 3. Survey 4. Permission 5. Fee collection 6. Approval 7. Installation. Poke him more he will come out with the time on each process. It was found points1 , 2, 5, 6 dint take much time. 3, 4, 7 were the time consumers. 4, 7 nothing could be done. Zeroed on 3. Final solution: make categories of applications basis survey requirement. A: Needs survey as it is close to bridges, lakes, rivers etc. B: does not require survey as it is in plain lands. Find indicators to sort out such applications 1 . Maps 2. Customer questionnaire 3. Experience from old customers.
Case 2: Typical micro-eco case. Supply overpowers demand. Prices will fall, profits will go down. Hell will let loose upon the farmers. Solution: 1 . Store it to sell in future = So then think of storage cost + lost of quality + Loss of moisture in the fruit 2. Any sort of value addition possible = 1 . Pulp 2. Ketchup 3. Juices & Squash etc
Case3: That was an easy one, I know u ppl will crack it
Case 4: I messed up with this case. Asked the preliminary questions on the current company ops, why they wanted to expand, and particular revenues targets etc. I dint lay out a structure as such and came out with random variables 1 . Size, demo, populations of Islam, income slabs, requirement etc. Missed out on a very big point and that was govt regulations which was declared to me in the end.
Tips: It’s a telecom – so they are not checking your paper. Too much of silence is dangerous, u have to engage them all the time. Be very clear with your pronunciation, diction voice modulations as he is not seeing u gesticulate. Be loud.
Round: Personal Interview
Experience: Questions asked:
1 . Why consultancy?
2. Why ADL?
3. Long term plans.
The asked a number of brain teasers – which are short shouldn’t take more than 3-4 minutes
I had a good rapport with interviewers. Picked up the hints well. Was honest if I got stuck. Dint maintain long silence over the phone.Messed up the brain teasers because I was pretty much caught unaware most of the time. The last round’s brain teaser was made to be mailed to me to the partner, and it had to be done on 10 minutes!!
Tips: ADL needs separate and an early preparation than the rest as the rounds start early than the actual placements.
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
4 Interview Rounds
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Personal Interview
Experience: The interview questions asked:
- Expand on career highlights
- Specific details of your role in product development for
emerging markets
- Details of international work experience
- Since I have done product development in automotive
electronics for considerable part of my career, will I be able to
cope with assignments in non- automotive sectors, such as
telecom, healthcare, etc
- Talk about your extracurricular activities
- Talk about two defining moments in life which have made you
what you are today
- Two positives and two negatives which your family, peers and
superiors see in you. What steps have you taken to improve on
it?
Round: Personal interview
Experience: Personal Interview Questions:
- Tools used for product life cycle management
- Career progress
- How much did you score in DMOP?
- What is your CGPA?
Round: personal interview
Experience: Personal Interview Questions:
- Career progress
- Will you be able to cope with assignments in non- automotive
sectors, such as telecom, healthcare, etc
- Talk about your extracurricular activities
- Are you willing to relocate to Gurgaon?
- Salary expectation
Work experience and the relevance of work experience for the job description were helpful through the interview.
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: The interview questions asked:
- Expand on career highlights
- Specific details of your role in product development for
emerging markets
- Details of international work experience
- Since I have done product development in automotive
electronics for considerable part of my career, will I be able to
cope with assignments in non- automotive sectors, such as
telecom, healthcare, etc
- Talk about your extracurricular activities
- Talk about two defining moments in life which have made you
what you are today
- Two positives and two negatives which your family, peers and
superiors see in you. What steps have you taken to improve on
it?
Round: Personal interview
Experience: Personal Interview Questions:
- Tools used for product life cycle management
- Career progress
- How much did you score in DMOP?
- What is your CGPA?
Round: personal interview
Experience: Personal Interview Questions:
- Career progress
- Will you be able to cope with assignments in non- automotive
sectors, such as telecom, healthcare, etc
- Talk about your extracurricular activities
- Are you willing to relocate to Gurgaon?
- Salary expectation
Work experience and the relevance of work experience for the job description were helpful through the interview.
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
3 Interview Rounds
Interview Questions
- Q1. A new business is being set up for collecting car insurance data from different companies focused on accident claim history and no-claim bonus. The agency with ...read more
- Q2. Why consulting?
- Q3. Why this firm?
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case Details:
I understood the business model quickly. I drew the process on a sheet of paper and got the buy in. The main issue with the business model in this case was data quality. I did not understand the significance of the word “PSU” in the Insurance company context and relate it to bad data quality. I got there, but I think it took a little bit more time than expected.
Tips: Listen keenly to every word that is said. It is said for a reason.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: Qualified for next round that was Partner round. Both these rounds were PI questions and I was ultimately given the offer.
Tips:
Listen keenly to every word that is said. It is said for a reason.
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: Case Details:
I understood the business model quickly. I drew the process on a sheet of paper and got the buy in. The main issue with the business model in this case was data quality. I did not understand the significance of the word “PSU” in the Insurance company context and relate it to bad data quality. I got there, but I think it took a little bit more time than expected.
Tips: Listen keenly to every word that is said. It is said for a reason.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: Qualified for next round that was Partner round. Both these rounds were PI questions and I was ultimately given the offer.
Tips:
Listen keenly to every word that is said. It is said for a reason.
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
3 Interview Rounds
Interview Questions
- Q1. A bank of Australia is planning to enter the Indian market. Assess the opportunity
- Q2. Assess the opportunity of Bank A acquiring Bank B in US
- Q3. Sales of a retail store is going down, provide a strategy to boost sales
- Q4. About my previous experience at work
- Q5. Why consulting?
- Q6. How would you manage the travelling part in the job?
- Q7. Why Accenture?
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: This round started with 2 mins of general introduction asking about my previous experience and then the case study. Case study details: The types of case study was market Entry
and M&A. It was a direct case of market entry. I analyzed the Indian Banking industry in terms of its attractiveness to enter. We then discussed about the existing banks and the products it was offering. The discussion further went ahead with how to enter the Indian market- organic, inorganic ways. For 2nd case study I assessed the opportunity of Bank A acquiring Bank B in US, and for 3rd provided strategy to boost sales of a retail store.
I was able to apply my experience in the Financial Services domain to discuss few key essential things which he brought up during the case.
Tips: Be Composed & Confident.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: 40 mins HR interview.
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: This round started with 2 mins of general introduction asking about my previous experience and then the case study. Case study details: The types of case study was market Entry
and M&A. It was a direct case of market entry. I analyzed the Indian Banking industry in terms of its attractiveness to enter. We then discussed about the existing banks and the products it was offering. The discussion further went ahead with how to enter the Indian market- organic, inorganic ways. For 2nd case study I assessed the opportunity of Bank A acquiring Bank B in US, and for 3rd provided strategy to boost sales of a retail store.
I was able to apply my experience in the Financial Services domain to discuss few key essential things which he brought up during the case.
Tips: Be Composed & Confident.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: 40 mins HR interview.
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
5 Interview Rounds
Interview Questions
- Q1. The company has implemented a demand forecasting system and improved the forecast accuracy significantly. What operational processes will be affected, which pro...read more
- Q2. Instances of leadership, conflict with the client? (Something beyond your resume).
- Q3. How will your previous manager describe you (your strengths and where you need to improve)?
- Q4. Why Accenture?
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case Details:
Basically, I had applied to the supply chain position and had done demand planning at my previous job. This case was more of discussion. We identified several planning processes in the company (inventory planning, transportation planning, facility planning) and discussed how each of them would be affected. We talked about the differences in sales and marketing forecasts. We talked about promotions and cannibalization. We then shifted our discussion to how marketing in U.S. uses AC Nielsen. Then we discussed the process metrics like no. of stock outs. I started talking about costs but then he said that would be financial impact. I couldn’t come up with many metrics. For the financial part, I wrote the formula for free cash flow and then discussed how each component will be affected.
I had a good connect throughout with the interviewer which helped me throughout the interview. I honestly told him which my top target companies were, also gave him the reasons. He seemed very convinced.
This case was based on the work I had done before. I was not very thoroughly prepared. I took time to understand what he wanted from the case. We had this interview on the AC lawns, where he gave me the case and went on a walk. I called him after 2 minutes and then started discussing in detail.
Tips: Be thorough with what work you have done before Know why consulting and in case you have several shortlists, be prepared to answer what your target companies are and why?
Round: Telephonic interview
Experience: This was a PI round with similar questions-Tell me about yourself?; Talk about your previous work experience?; What skills you bring?
Round: HR Interview
Experience: This was an exhaustive PI round and I was well prepared for standard questions. It lasted for about 45 minutes and another person was noting down something (don’t know what).
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: Case Details:
Basically, I had applied to the supply chain position and had done demand planning at my previous job. This case was more of discussion. We identified several planning processes in the company (inventory planning, transportation planning, facility planning) and discussed how each of them would be affected. We talked about the differences in sales and marketing forecasts. We talked about promotions and cannibalization. We then shifted our discussion to how marketing in U.S. uses AC Nielsen. Then we discussed the process metrics like no. of stock outs. I started talking about costs but then he said that would be financial impact. I couldn’t come up with many metrics. For the financial part, I wrote the formula for free cash flow and then discussed how each component will be affected.
I had a good connect throughout with the interviewer which helped me throughout the interview. I honestly told him which my top target companies were, also gave him the reasons. He seemed very convinced.
This case was based on the work I had done before. I was not very thoroughly prepared. I took time to understand what he wanted from the case. We had this interview on the AC lawns, where he gave me the case and went on a walk. I called him after 2 minutes and then started discussing in detail.
Tips: Be thorough with what work you have done before Know why consulting and in case you have several shortlists, be prepared to answer what your target companies are and why?
Round: Telephonic interview
Experience: This was a PI round with similar questions-Tell me about yourself?; Talk about your previous work experience?; What skills you bring?
Round: HR Interview
Experience: This was an exhaustive PI round and I was well prepared for standard questions. It lasted for about 45 minutes and another person was noting down something (don’t know what).
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Interview Questions of Popular Companies
Campus Placement Interview Questions at Top Colleges
- Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai Placement Interview Questions
- Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology, Delhi Placement Interview Questions
- National Institute of Technology (NIT), Warangal Placement Interview Questions
- Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow Placement Interview Questions
- Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) Placement Interview Questions
- Show more
- Home >
- colleges >
- indian school of business isb hyderabad placement interview questions