National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) Placement Interview Questions

Find out the number of pencil cells sold in India every day.
Broke the problem into 3 heads.

Batteries used in A.C. Remotes.

Batteries used in T.V. remotes.

Batteries used in other applications (Toys, Torch, etc.).

Then did 3 guesstimates for different heads and added up.

Used population approaches. Interviewer asked me don’t you think that people with higher income group will be having more than 1 AC at their home.

Me: For the sake of ease of calculation I have considered linear distribution I will later add an error allowance of 10%. There will be offices buildings etc. where we have more number of AC and TV etc.

TESLA company have made a Teleporting Machine, and they want to sell it to a company A. You have been hired as a consultant for tesla to suggest them a price that to be quoted to A.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: What does this teleporting machine do? Is it the only self-sufficient machine or it requires some regular accessories updates etc.

I: It’s a one-time install, it transports a person from one place to other in a blink of an eye. The person should stand on the machine and type the name of the drop location and he will reach there after pressing the GO button.

C: How does he come back?

I: He has a remote and after pressing the return button he comes back to original location.

C: Is there any other company working on the same project? Do we have anything of this kind in news or can we expect similar product by other companies soon?

I: No, it’s an innovative product. First of its kind in the industry. As far as the innovations are concerned all companies are working on innovations but as of now only TESLA has developed such products.

C: Well, that sounds interesting, give me some times to collect my thoughts.

I: Sure, (and he walked out of the room for 3~4 minutes).

C: Since this is a case where no other price for reference is available in the market and this is first time pricing for the company and no such product is available is the market so the company should go for price based costing, i.e. the price that customer is willing to pay.

I: Yes, you got it right. Now go ahead.

C: Now I will find out the monetary saving by A by using this machine in their daily purpose. And after adding some profit margin I will reach on to some amount to be quoted.

Before going further, I want to ask few questions about the investment cost.

I: Negligible.

C: Fine, Since A is a consulting company and consultants are always on the move so the company, by using teleporting, will be able to save travelling expenses and the consultant-hours (Time).

I: That right, how would you go ahead now?

C: At this point, to show them that I have studied about the company, I told him that A has XXXX number of employees and out of these I assume 40% are travelling.

I: Do not assume data, always ask.

C: Sorry, can you please tell me the number of employees in A?

I: So, there are 200 employees in U.S.A and 300 in India.

C: And how many of them travel and how often. Any further details about their travel?

I: U.S. office employees travel regularly every week to the domestic clients that is to the local U.S based clients only, and the India office employees travel to U.S. office once in every 6 months on an average.

C: Okay so I will first consider the U.S. employees travel domestically to local clients. Tell me something more about their travel. When they leave, how they travel, client’s location from the airport etc.

I: A consultant leaves on Monday and comes back on Thursday. He uses taxi to move from office to airport. Then takes a flight and takes a rental car after reaching at client’s location airport.

C: So, can you tell me, what are the charges of the taxi, for the air travel and for the rental car that he takes?

I: The taxi charges are negligible as compared to air tickets. The flight costs $1600 to and fro. The rental car that he takes with him costs $100 per day.

C: Okay so the total saving in the Mon-Thu stay will be 1600+(100x4) = 2000.

I: You are missing something. What you do when you go to a place take a rental car, what else?

C: I will stay in a hotel. Okay so what are the hotel expenses?

I: $300 per day.

C: So now the figure goes to 2000+(300x4) = $3200.

Apart from this, the consultant will also save time. So, I would like to know about the utilization of consultant during the travel time. Does he work in the flight or taxi?

I: No, during travel nobody likes to work. And here employees also do the same.

C: So, what is the per hour salary of consultant and how many hours he saves?

I: per hour salary is $40 per hour and in the to and fro flight and taxi, he saves 8 hours.

C: So, he additionally saves $320.

So, total money saved on one consultant per week is 3200+320 = $3520 Per year saving on one consultant= 50 weeks x 3520 = $17600. (I have considered that there will be holidays, X-mas, Easter etc. so number of weeks rounded off to 50) Total saving on USA consultants = 200 consultants x 17600 =3520000 Interviewer: so, for the sake of ease you can round it off to $3.5 Million.

C: Now I will work on the same approach for Indian employees (in the same way, asked questions for India and calculated for 6 months and 300 employees it came out to be $1 Million so the annual expenses $2 Million).

C: Total saving per year is $3.5 Million+ $2 Million = $5.5 million.

After this I asked multiple questions enquiring about any further charges that the TESLA company will be charging for. I asked for Licensing type (open, single user, transferrable/ non-transferrable). I asked for utility support charges (Maintenance, upgrade etc.). I asked for resale value.

Finally, he made me to consider only $5.5 Million.

C: What is the life of the equipment?

I: 10 years.

C: So, the net worth will be $ 5.5 Million x 10 = $55 Million.

I: That’s good you have reached out to a final figure. Now Tesla can sell it on this price only or with some margin. Thanks, you have followed a proper approach and reached on to the conclusion.

• Q1. In this round, by a different interviewer I was asked to summarize the TESLA case solved in previous round. After that a general discussion on Point to Point an...read more
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Estimate the market size in US of Premium foldable phone Iron Man Limited edition. Also give recommendation weather to make new facility in US or outsource to China and why.

(20 minutes)

2 Pharma companies have merged, with facilities and market all over the world, one is specialized cancer drug making company and other is making generic OTC drugs. Establish operational synergies, cut costs in supply chain and give 30 second elevator pitch to the CEO on your recommendations (lot of data for analysis was given to find area of improvement).

(30 minutes)

• Q1. Biggest impact made.
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• Q2. Why consulting?
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• Q1. Why Deloitte?
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• Q2. One weakness and what you did to overcome it?
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• Q3. What will you bring to Deloitte?
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Let’s say person X wants to set up a premium coffee kiosk in Hiranandani. Instead of renting a space and invest in creating ambience, he wants to set up as a coffee kiosk and save the money to cut costs. What is the demand for the premium coffee, and what should be the pricing of a cup of coffee?

(25 minutes)

An Automobile parts manufacturer from Japan is struggling to maintain consistent sales and revenue has started to plummet, You have been asked by the management to identify the problem and come up with strategies to make a recovery.
Initially, I clarified the objectives. I was asked to list down all the possible revenue streams and costs. Though the case seemed straightforward, the use of profitability framework was not completely helpful. Determining the root cause took some time. I was missing a significant element (of costs incurred) which was later arrived using value chain analysis.

Then, there was a lot of number crunching in determining various financial metrics. I arrived at the problem that there were cheaper substitutes available for the automobile parts which drove the revenues down. Observations followed by appropriate recommendations were shared to the interviewers. I was asked to summarize the entire case, along with recommendations.

• Q1. I was one of the first group to be called for interviews. I was to be interviewed by Panel 1 which consisted of a Director. The interview started a little late ...read more
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• Q2. Tell me about the work that you did. How big was your client?
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• Q3. Guesstimate the market size of my client based on the information I knew.
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• Q4. Again asked why consulting?
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• Q5. Do you have any questions?
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My panel consisted of a Principal (who recognized me from the workshop) and a Senior Manager. They straight away dived into the case. The sr. manager had the data sheets which they did not let me have a glimpse of. The case was driven by them. They gave me the initial situation which I made notes of. Then they had 3 parts that they wanted me to solve. They provided me data and asked questions whenever needed. It lasted for around 45 minutes to 1 hour.

The case was on a Consumer Electronics Firm which was making losses.

The first question asked was the approach that I would take to evaluate this case.
I started with the external - competition/market and explained all the factors there. Then moved to the internal – company, and then considered Revenue and cost in detail.

The second question was about a strategy called loss leader that the company was thinking of implementing.
Loss leader strategy is one where the company sells one product at a price lower than the market price to attract customers and in turn make profits through cross selling other products. So, I asked for data here and they gave me the price and quantities of the loss leader product and the cross sold product. They also gave me the profit that the company was looking at and asked me to calculate the change in price and quantity if the profit changed. I had to solve a quadratic equation to come to the answer and had to explain everything to them side by side.

The third question was about closing of low performing stores and about the company thinking of shutting them down and moving to online selling.
I was supposed to calculate the no. of online customers the company would need to make up for the profit of the stores shut down. I asked for information here regarding the normal profit, the profit/loss the low performing stores made, their count, the average sale per customer online.

The client is a conglomerate operating in around sixty countries and is facing problems of rising costs. The different countries currently work on legacy systems and the challenge is to cut costs by the integrating and using a single instance of the ERP system. The investment figure was given to $50 Million and we had to discuss on 4 major questions:

1. Challenges of a single instance implementation.
2. Packaged product vs customized product.
3. The CIO had an experience with the finance module, so how will his experience come into play while budgeting for this single implementation.
Gist of the case discussion.

Started with what exactly is an ERP implementation and what are the challenges in implementing it as a single instance such as:

Taxation structures,
Multilingual abilities,
Currency,
Leave schedules,
Forward and backward integration,
And many more.

After this, we discussed on the advantages of getting this singles system, which mainly revolved around the advantages of an integrated system i.e.:

Integrated accounting
Better resource management

Then we discussed about the pros and cons of a customized system vs package system. Following this, we discussed on the cost factor. The data related to cost was not given, however, the fall in sales as a percentage was provided. We did not focus on too many numbers and discussed on the cost saving aspects and how a onetime investment can yield a large term profits.

Presentation:

This solution had to be charted down on a single chart paper and presented to a different panelist. We divided the questions and roles and we focused on the points which were discussed rather than adding new points. The panelist kept on cross questioning to anyone randomly he also focused on things we had missed out like scalability and timeline of deployment, whether the deployment should be big bang rollout or phased rollout of the system.

• Q1. Number of panelists -2 Tell me about yourself?
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• Q2. How is the PLM system important and where is it implemented? (based on my work ex)?
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• Q3. What do you expect from the summer project at this firm?
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• Q4. You have a background with Oracle, so is there a s preference of working on oracle over SAP?
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• Q5. Any Questions?
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Duration: 20 mins

The case given to us was that of a telecom company working in southeast Asia. The company had the option of expanding into 4G segment in India or going for a market outside India. We were supposed to analyze the situation and provide suggestions. We were also asked to predict the kind of service departments we would establish if we have to enter new market.
The case went well. The moderator gave us 15 minutes to discuss and a chart paper to present our case. Followed by our case presentation was a Q & A round.

• Q1. My interview was completely based on my past work experience. Tell me something about yourself.
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• Q2. Tell me about your work profile.
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• Q3. How would you integrate Primavera with SAP?
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• Q4. How is EPM different from EEPM?
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• Q5. Do you have any question?
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Candidates will be divided into groups of 7-10. Each group will be given a case, usually in the form of a printed sheet. The team will have 2-3 minutes to think about the topic and then about 15 minutes to discuss. Let me be very clear, this is a case discussion, not a case argument. Talk with your teammates, carry forward ideas, contribute valid points. The main focus should be on devising a solution not on being the loudest or speaking the most. It has to be professional and civil. There will be a panelist observing you during the discussion.

You are also required to make a presentation on the basis of the solution you have come up with. You will have to create a presentation on a A3 sheet using sketch pens etc. Depending on panelist they might ask you to do this while discussing or might give you a few minutes after the GD to complete it.

After the GD the panelists are changed. So the new person who comes in will have no idea about the GD that had occurred earlier. The evaluation will be based purely on the chart that you have prepared and the presentation you give. The panelist may ask you clarifications and queries about the topic, either individually or to the team as a whole. Be civil here as well, do not speak over your teammates and be polite.

The panelist walked in introduced himself. He was very friendly and explained the process to us. He made it explicit that he wants a case discussion and not an argument. The case was given to us in the form of a single printed sheet. The case was about a telecom firm who was a market leader in Southeast Asia. Over the past few years, revenue and profits have been decreasing and competition has been steadily growing in the Southeast. The company recently bagged the 4G license in their home country, implementation of which will take up 75 % of their resources and workforce. Also, the government has mandated that the 4G services must be launched before the beginning of the next financial year or the company will be heavily fined.

It is now that the company won the license to set up telecommunications in an African country with a growing economy. The country has no wireless connectivity as of now. We were asked to figure out the future course of action and strategy for the company with proper justification for the decision.
The discussion was very good. Everyone pitched in with valid points. There was no bickering and everyone could speak well. We discussed the various aspects and decided that entering Africa would be the best course of action, the points that we used to validate the claims were that the SE Asian market is getting saturated and the company needs to expand more. In Africa, they had the first mover’s advantage. We proposed setting up a JV with an African player as the best entry strategy. All the points were backed up by data and points.

At the end of approximately the 12th minute we proceeded to work on our chart. The panelist informed us at the end of the fifteen minutes allocated for the GD. By the time we had made our presentation chart. He did not look at it too intently, but instead thanked us for the discussion and informed that the next panelist will be arriving shortly to evaluate our presentation.

By the time that the next panelist arrived (approximately 5 minutes later) we had discussed amongst ourselves the sequence in which we will be presenting the case. Each topic was assigned to a person and I concluded the presentation. He asked us a few doubts regarding the exit strategy and asked us to clarify a few of the points. Overall the process was over in about 25-30 minutes.

I proceeded to the S&O 1st round interview immediately after this. By the time I returned after that the tech panel was ready for my interview.

• Q1. The interviewer was a senior consultant. We shook hands and he spoke a little bit about himself before proceeding with the interview. The initial few minutes wa...read more
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• Q2. He asked me if I had any doubts or questions?
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The first round was a case based group discussion. There were 7 members in the group. We were given the case to read and asked to go through it for the first five minutes.

The case was on an Asian telecom company whose business was primarily spread across the home country and other emerging countries. As the competition grew, the profit margin got reduced and they were looking for new avenues to increase their profit. At the same, they won a license from the 4G spectrum auction in their home country. But there were penalties associated if they failed to complete the project on time. Africa was an unexplored region as per as penetration of mobile services were concerned. We were asked to analyze the conditions and decide the next step for the company.
The next fifteen minutes were allocated for the discussion. We had to solve the case within the stipulated time and had to present it on a chart paper. The first panel went out after we finished the discussion and a new panel came in for the presentation. We, as a team, briefed him about the case and presented the solution we proposed.

This was an eliminating round.

• Q1. I had one round of interview. I was first asked about me as a person, my job responsibilities and my achievements. As I had already worked on ERP platform the n...read more
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A case was given and we were asked to make a 3 slider presentation within 40 minutes which we had to present post the stipulated time.

Case brief: Mr Bhardwaj started a consumer durable retail chain 12 years ago and currently had a total of 13 stores in Baroda, Ahmedabad and Pune. The economy was doing well and also in the recent times several Government regulations were enforced/about to be enforced (like company act 2013, GST etc.) which favoured businesses. In the past year, the company witnessed a decline in their bottom-line though the revenue was on the rise (implicitly given).

Still, looking at the external conditions, Mr Bhardwaj wanted to expand the business beyond the territory of its current presence. Until now, the strategic decisions of the company was taken by family and only operational level decisions by store-level manager. They wanted to keep their values and culture of the company intact. They laid a lot of emphasis on the service levels and also spent a lot in training their employees in this regard. The cost was also rising due to piling up of inventory, damage of inventory, increase in rent etc. Also, they were facing stiff competition from online players’ predatory pricing policy and also the large players who leveraged their market share to bargain with suppliers. We are asked about the forward strategy for the retail client.
Provided solution for:
• Increasing Profit margin
• Increasing market share

Was cross questioned several times on the solutions and was also asked to give example to a real-life situation where the solution could be applied. E.g. – I said they can look for joint venture. Then I was asked why someone who is already established would want to form a joint venture with a small company like our client.

Then I was extensively asked about my work experience. The technical aspects of it as well. They wanted to see the depth of my understanding as I was from communication domain and they also hired for the same field.

Then, I was asked a few current affairs questions and a few facts of communication sector.

I was asked a guestimate (How many 2-wheelers are there in India?).

P.S. – The basic structure of questions for all those interviewed was same i.e. presentation related question and how logically we came to derive our solution (case question), work-ex, CV and guestimate.