Arthur D. Little Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Telecom, Digital Transformation, Pricing

Q1. Background screening
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Q2. English level screening
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Typical case of study like the ones of Deloitte, Mckinsey.

Q1. Tell me about yourself.
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Q2. Discussion on Bharatnatyam.
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Have you ever visited rural parts of Maharashtra? (My family owns a mango farm). We had a discussion on how mangoes are cultivated after which I was given the case statement. You have been approached by Maharashtra Government to help bring reforms in mango farming on 3 aspects: Finance, growth in agricultural produce and increasing people connect.
Type of mangoes: Alphonso (different mangoes have a different cultivation process).

Location: Ratnagiri.

Need to bring reform: Government wants to increase export of mangoes.

Weather conditions: as seen in rural Maharashtra. Sometimes unforeseen rains spoil the produce.

I divided it in 2 buckets: (a) steps that can be taken by farmers and

(b) steps that can be taken by government.

A. Farmers: Divided it by months as follows:

July: January (Manure, Water: rains, rainwater harvesting, ground water, Organic Farming, Insecticide);

January: March (Pre-Harvesting: water, covering the ground with leaves to ensure that fruits hanging near the ground don’t get spoilt because of excess heat); April: June (Harvesting (right time to harvest), Theft, Inventory).

B. Government: Financial incentive and support, purchase of excess produce, cutting out the middlemen.

The interviewer cut me off. He asked me if I am passionate about farming. Recommendation
from interviewer: I missed to ask the needs of the farmers: main stakeholders to get affected by the reforms.

Which industries have you worked in before?
Picked hotel industry. Case: A hotel chain (say ITC) wants to grow its business. Assume covid cases are reducing and the government is allowing international travel.

Number of hotels: around 30.

Market share: 10%

Operations: PAN India.

Services offered: as seen in any luxury hotel.

Buckets: Covid safety precautions and services offered: current and additional.

Covid safety precautions: stated all the government and WHO regulated precautions.

Service Offerings: took an example of Goa:

I gave examples basis my own past hotel experiences on what I liked and what I disliked.

Q1. Follow up questions on my introduction.
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Q2. Industries I have worked on.
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Q3. If an FMCG company wants to launch a product, what steps should it follow.
Ans. 
To launch a product, an FMCG company should follow several steps including market research, product development, branding, distribution, and marketing.
• Conduct market research to identify consumer needs and preferences

• Develop the product based on the research findings

• Create a strong brand identity and positioning

• Establish distribution channels to reach the target market

• Implement marketing strategies to create awareness
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Estimate the market size of high-speed internet line for home connections in 2030.
About the new internet line: 1 GBPS, fixed line, cost: Rs.300: 400

About the existing internet line: 100-200 MBPS, optic fiber, cost: Rs. 2,500: 3,000

Will require a completely new infrastructure.

Target consumers: home connections (OTT users)

He asked me not to start with the population of India (was looking for a non-conventional approach) and he did not want numbers, rather just the approach.

I started with income group and number of OTT users.

In which city between Mumbai and Jaipur would it make more sense to launch the service and why?
As the population density and the target audience of the high-income group is higher in Mumbai, it would be idea to launch the service in Mumbai.

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

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

C: Asked for growth trend or any data available.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I: Not decided yet.

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

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

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

I: Manufacture in India.

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

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

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

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

C: Prepared a similar framework as above.

I: Let’s move to the second case.

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

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

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

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

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

Q1. Tell me something about yourself.
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Q2. What did you do at ZS? Few follow up questions.
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Q3. In the past few interviews, you have had, what was one thing you lacked?
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Q4. Walk me through your CV.
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Q5. What did you learn at ZS?
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Q6. How would you apply your learnings gained from ZS in a retail bank?
Ans. 
Applying ZS learnings in retail banking
• Leverage data analytics to identify customer segments and personalize offerings

• Implement sales force effectiveness strategies to optimize branch performance

• Apply agile methodologies to streamline processes and improve efficiency

• Utilize ZS's expertise in customer experience to enhance customer satisfaction

• Leverage ZS's knowledge of digital transformation to improve online and mobil
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Q7. Questions on internship.
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Your client is a scientist who has created a teleporter. Now, she wants to monetize her invention. Tell her 5 things to consider doing the same.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

(It was more of an idea generation case and was completely led by the interviewee).

C: Asked a few scoping questions and then proceeded to tell the points I’d consider.

1. Safety precautions (Invention would be dangerous in the wrong hands)

2. Target Group: Government/Military, not open to all due to high risk

3. Pricing strategy

4. GTM strategy

5. Patent

Your client owns a pathology lab in southern region of the country. He wants to increase his business by 4-5x times. What would you do?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

It was more of an idea generation case and was completely led by the interviewee.

C: Covered the following things post scoping questions

1. Digital transformation

2. Promotions

3. Anshoff matrix

4. Backward/Forward integration

5. M&A

I was asked a case study on cement market assessment

Q1. I was asked questions on which position will i be slotted in, when can I join
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