Bain & Company Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

The MCQ question will be asked to check the knowledge basis

Group of candidates will be talking about a given topic with for and against

Q1. Technical questions will be asked
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Q1. One interviewer will be asking questions
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Your client is trying to come with a rewards programme - How should they go about it and what is the estimated cost of this programme?

Focus on customer life cycle and identify areas where this reward programme is helpful and what would be the target customers be for this. For estimating cost take assumptions on average order value, redemption rate, leakage and cost per loyalty benefit unit

Q1. Tell me about your previous work ex
Ans. Spoke about my expereince at a Big4 consulting firm, my projects and what I liked the most. Try to keep it short and succinct
Answered by infiniteport
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Q2. Why do you want to join Bain?
Ans. Spoke about Bain's culture, opportunities at global trainings and the firms leadership in PE clients
Answered by infiniteport
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Q1. How has your day been?
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Q2. Tell me something about yourself which is not on your CV?
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Q3. How are you? Where are you from?
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Q4. What did you like about BCG and when was the time when you felt like leaving the organization / work that you were doing?
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Q5. Tell me some instances when you shared your ideas and if they were implemented by the case team?
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Q6. Would you like to work with Bain?
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Q7. Do you have any issues in that?
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You are working with online retailer focusing on the fashion industry. Their private label business is 200mn USD. How will you further grow this?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Reiterated the problem and said that we can assume this to be Myntra to start with.

I: Sure. Go ahead.

C: Please share more details about the company and about their business.

I: The company is 7-8 years old, based out of India and is in apparel & accessories segment. No major customer segments. The company holds 25% market share and is among top 4 players in ecommerce, and top 2 in fashion.

C: Asked if there is enough demand in the market. Given it is in the India market, said there must be enough demand.

I: Yes, there is. We can focus on how to cater to the demand.

C: So, we can expand in 2 ways- B2B and B2C. Gave example of B2B – like giving clothes to big bazaar.

I: We need to make our brand name, so focus on B2C.

C: Sure, so in that case we have multiple options – (1) selling through own website, (2) selling through third party websites, (3) from own new stores or (4) from third party stores.

Asked Interviewer of what she wanted me to focus on and how to proceed ahead.

I: Please size the market for each of these options after 3 years.

C: Sure. Started taking numbers on overall market size, growth and estimated percentage that can be made from it.

I: Let us assume Amazon to present 1 bn USD opportunity with growth rate 20% and amazon has 5000 brands.

C: Calculated market size - 1.7 bn in 3 years. Assumed top 60% sales from major brands, 20% from Private labels and 20% from others. Given 100 brands in private label, calculated 3.4 MN USD opportunity from Website.

(Similarly got information for other 3 ways and calculated market for each of them. Tried to catch on hints like own website growth would be more than that on Amazon, and how to push own product on our website without losing customers.)

You are working with IT service company and the profits are less than those of the competitors. Identify the issues and also suggest possible solutions.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Tried to ask about the company and what all it does.

I: Sure, so company is like Wipro etc. who work across multiple industries like consumer, Industrial goods etc. These company get projects from the industry and work on it. Do you know about Hunter, Farmers, New logo, win rate and close rate?

C: No, since I am new to this industry, it will be great if you can help me with these.

I: Sure. Hunters are sales team members, farmers are accountants. New logo referred to new companies that were clients within the past 1 year. Win rate is clients hat got converted divided by total companies approached by hunters. While close rate was total potential of the converted clients divided by total available pool. Next, tell me why are new logos important?

C: It is because these are essentially clients that can will give us lot of work in the future and have lot of potential.

I: Absolutely correct. So, our win rate is same as other companies, but close rate is lower. Can you figure out the reason?

C: Sure, so it is important to understand this from a hunter’s perspective. Broke the problem into 2 parts- if the hunters were willingly doing this or not. Gave justification of willingness as motivation could be less because of fixed pay or pay in terms of number of deals.

I: No, so they are paid 2% of the deal amount.

C: There could be a few cases here, if the hunters themselves selected these pools of people and did not realize the potential or they were given a set of people.

I: They themselves choose to select the people.

C: Hence that means they were not strategically approaching these people and that is leading to the issue of lower profits and revenue eventually.

I: Correct, but how will you solve this issue?

C: Figured out multiple ways like – salary basis client size, fixing the clients to interact, better training for good conversion rates, allocating clients basis capabilities.

I: Yes, one more way is to pay more for bigger clients like 6-7% for bigger clients in terms of opportunities, and 2% of deal for smaller clients.

Q1. Estimate the revenue of a museum in a day in a city in Europe?
Ans. 
Estimating the revenue of a museum in a day in a European city.
• Consider the average ticket price of the museum

• Estimate the number of visitors based on the museum's popularity and capacity

• Factor in additional revenue sources like gift shop sales or special exhibitions

• Take into account any discounts or promotions offered by the museum

• Research similar museums in the city to gather comparative data
Answered by AI
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Smooth test, LR, DI and quant questions

Q1. Guesstimate based on your resume/extra curriculars
Ans. 
Guesstimate the impact of my resume/extra curriculars
• Analyze the relevant skills and experiences mentioned in the resume

• Consider the impact of extracurricular activities on personal development

• Evaluate the potential value I can bring to the role based on my background

• Assess the alignment between my qualifications and the job requirements
Answered by AI
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Q1. Market entry or profitability case solving
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Q1. Hi Bhavya, how has your day been so far?
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Q2. Tell me about yourself.
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Q3. How was your experience at Bain earlier this year?
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Q4. How do you like to spend your weekends prior to IIML?
Ans. 
I enjoyed exploring new places, trying new cuisines, and spending time with friends and family.
• I loved traveling to different cities and countries

• I enjoyed trying out new restaurants and cuisines

• I spent time with my friends and family, either by going out or having them over

• I also enjoyed reading books and watching movies in my free time
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Q5. What projects did you work on during your time at Deloitte?
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An IT company is seeing decline in profits. Diagnose the issue & provide recommendations.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

I: (Interviewer realized I was a bit anxious and stressed, so had a candid conversation about Bain, her work there and general stuff about IIML for 5-7 minutes).

Okay Bhavya, let's get started with a case. Our client is one of the top 3 IT service providers, you can imagine it to be a Wipro/Infosys. It has 5 verticals: CPR, Manufacturing, Tech, Media and Financial Services. Of these, CPR, Manufacturing and Financial Services have a sales Department. The work of the IT company involves building applications, infra maintenance or building of servers, app maintenance, data work (e.g., Cloud) and IT consulting work. Now the focus here has to be on IT Consulting.

For procuring these projects, the company has salespeople. They have targets they have to meet based on which their salary is dependent.

Now, it has been observed that our sales have decreased while the salesforce commissions based on the targets have remained the same. It has also been observed that the average time period per project has decreased. Can you help us diagnose this?

C: Sure! Firstly, could I know since when this decline has been there and whether it has been there across the verticals?

I: It's a secular decline, taking place for the last 1 year.

C: Alright, secondly, I'd like to understand the salespersons' salary structure a little better. I'd imagine there would be a fixed and variable component, and the variable component is based on them meeting the sales targets?

I: Yes, and let's assume the variable component makes up most of the salary.

C: Great, could you explain how the commission structure is designed?

I: The structure is designed as No. Of projects * Conversion Factor.

C: Oh okay, what exactly is the conversion factor?

I: Good question. The conversion factor is defined two ways: 1) Number of projects won/ Number of projects bid or 2) value of projects won/value of projects bid.

C: Oh, so if I get this correctly, there's one based on no. of projects while the other is based on the sales value of projects?

I: Yes, that is correct.

C: Oh alright, I'd want to dig deeper into this a little bit before I proceed. Have both metrics seen a decline?

I: No, so while number of projects won is at par, the value won has declined.

C: Understood. So here I'd want to explore potentially something were doing wrong because of which the value we're winning is low.

I: Go ahead.

C: So, I believe there could be a couple of things. Either there's some problem with the projects itself, with the way they're being pitched by salespeople, or the competition is offering something better.

I: Hmm, well the pitch is fine. But the competition is largely providing longer term projects while we aren't.

C: Understood, so in that case, that seems to be the issue. We aren't able to pitch longer term projects which might have higher dollar value. Now, I'd want to understand differences between the competition and us in terms of securing these longer-term projects. Can I assume similar types of projects and similar salespersons?

I: Yes.

C: Okay, in that case, if the salespersons are similar and so are the projects, there might be an issue in pushing the projects from our salespersons. Is the conversion factor we talked about linked to Number of Projects or Value of Projects?

I: Yes, the conversion factor is largely linked to number of projects.

C: Understood. In that case, it's apparent that pushing longer term projects isn't incentivized adequately, is that fair?

I: Yes. However, there are other factors at play too, since till last year the value of projects was at par.

C: Understood. Are there other attributes of longer-term projects that differentiate themselves from the short-term projects? Potentially in terms of nature of projects, time to convert for salespersons or effort involved even in shorter time periods?

I: Yes, the second is the case. It takes more time on average to close the project which is causing the issue. Do you have any recommendations for this issue?

C: Yes, for our current sales,

1) We could incentivize longer term projects better through value-based approach

2) We could train the salesforce to pitch the projects in a shorter time period and close it earlier

3) We could increase the quality/composition of Salesforce that could be more equipped to deal longer term projects. Alternatively, we could think of identifying new areas of sales that could compensate for lost sales through longer term projects, potentially specializing in short term projects and increasing volume there.

I: Great, thanks Bhavya. How do you think it went?

C: Umm, I think I diagnosed the problem, but it took a lot of time to reach there. Could've been more efficient.

I: Yep, I felt it was alright as well, you could've been more efficient. But thanks for your time, and best of luck!

Havells Chief Logistics Head is thinking of employing Bain. What ideas can we propose? (I had worked in the Transportation & Logistics space during Deloitte Consulting, so case made potentially keeping that in mind)
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

(Interviewer proceeded to tell me about himself and experience at Bain. He asked me questions including why don't you tell me about yourself, what was your work like at Deloitte, how do you spend your weekends, post that to ease me into the case)

I: So, you know how these interviews go, I am obligated to give you a case while I'd like to keep chatting. Let me give you something maybe slightly related to what you've worked on.

Your client is head of logistics of Havells. This is our 1st meeting with him, and we're supposed to have a conversation to pitch ideas.

C: Great, just so I understand this correctly, we have to pitch some ideas to Havells' Logistics head regarding potential improvements in their department for reducing logistics costs?

I: Yes.

C: I'd like to understand Havells a bit better before I proceed. Is it the electrical goods company? What sort of products does it have and what is its value chain like?

I: So yes, Havells has multiple factories and produces wires, switches, etc. They manage their own logistics.

C: Okay, and just to be sure about this, they procure raw material, there's inbound logistics, they manufacture the goods, there’s out outbound logistics, they store goods at their own warehouses and sell it to distributors?

I: Yes. You can ignore inbound logistics, however. Just focus on factories to distributors.

C: Great, also are there any specific objectives Havells has, going into this meeting?

I: Yeah, so you can assume they want to improve cost of logistics as a % of revenue. So even a 5% improvement for 10K crore company is high.

C: So, the structure I'd like to proceed with involves assessing Transportation & Warehousing. I can potentially proceed with transportation here.

I: Go ahead

C: Under transportation, aspects I'd want to look at include 1) The Modal Mix 2) The Route design 3) Effectiveness of covering routes.

I: What do you mean by Modal Mix? Havells just uses Road.

C: Oh okay, I could have looked into any scope for efficiency from transports mix that could reduce costs. Is there a constraint only on using roads on?

I: Yes, go ahead with route design?

C: Sure. So, there we could explore the potential routes decided at a network level between plants to minimize time and cost. The permutations could be explored that work best for Havells.

I: How can a consulting firm here provide value? Havells must know it's routes well already.

C: I understand, but:

1) Consulting firms typically have access to huge amounts of data and analytics tools that are unique solutions for such kinds of problems. We could leverage them to optimize route design for them.

2) Business owners/heads have their own biases while approaching such issues, an objective route mapping could help check for any bottlenecks.

I: Okay, go ahead?

C: Under route effectiveness, I'd want to look at if there's any internal or external factors that inhibit truck owners from covering these routes adequately. In internal issues, aspects such as truck capacity/truck effectiveness in carrying goods, driver issues can be explored. In external issues, aspects such as stoppages, bribery etc. could be explored.

I: Okay, but why does this even matter?

C: Improving effectiveness in routes would mean lesser time taken on these routes.

I: And how does that help? They pay fixed amount per ton to drivers.

C: Well time saved would mean more tons delivered in the total time present. Then the incremental revenues in the time saved would be the benefit to Havells.

I: Hmm, let's move forward.

C: Right, I'll move to warehousing now. Herein, I believe again either optimization at the network level can be done or within warehouses can be done.

I: What sort of optimization at network level are you talking about? And how would we do it?

C: This would involve the ideal placement of warehouses on the routes to minimize time and costs, as discussed earlier for route design using data and analytics. Herein the aspects to optimize would include:

1) Number of warehouses

2) Location of warehouses.

I: Hmm. Can you provide aspects within warehouse improvements?

C: Sure, this would include aspects such as improving turnaround time of trucks at warehouses and improving logistics operations within the warehouse.

I: Examples of within warehouse improvements?

C: Few that come to mind include improving inventory management, assembly and roll out of goods in shortest time. Labor and Role of automation here could be explored for improvements in time.

I: Hmm. Alright, we can stop here. How do you think it went?

C: I think it was alright, I tried to cover the board but there could've been improvements.

I: Right, I think you largely covered everything. Just could've taken more pauses and been more concise. But that's fine. Alright, best of luck and take care Bhavya!

Q1. Tell me something about yourself apart from your resume.
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Q2. Why consulting? Why Bain?
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Q3. Are you a team player or an individual player (asked to give an example of both)?
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Q4. What is your biggest fear about consulting?
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Q5. Tell me about your experience in filmmaking, how did you go about making a 12M+ views video?
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Q6. Roles and responsibilities at Texas Instruments.
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My friend is a Financial Advisor. He is looking to buy a smart gallery. How will you value it?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: What is a smart gallery?

I: Smart Gallery is an art gallery portraying works of upcoming as well as local artists.

C: What are the revenue streams for the art gallery and where is it located?

I: Located in Mumbai. It has three kinds of revenue streams:
1) Buying & Selling of Paintings
2) Commission from tickets on Exhibitions organized
3) Renting the space for private events like corporate parties.

C: Number of paintings the art gallery currently has, the number of exhibitions and private events that are organized each year and the revenue from each?

I: Lets focus on the paintings for now, the art gallery currently has 50 paintings.

C: We can value these paintings by looking at Competitors' prices of similar paintings or find out the cost of acquisition and use cost plus method or even use value-based method depending on the product attributes to value the paintings.

I: How will you use the value-based method?

C: We can start with a Base price of paintings and add value to the painting based on factors such as: price of artist's similar works, price of similar style of paintings, price of paintings at similar art galleries.

I: Any other lever to value the painting.

C: I am not sure which one I am missing.

I: You have covered all, apart from this there could be an X-factor to each painting.

C: Yes surely, it could be possible if the painting has some story or historical incidence related to it.

Bain has been hired by a PE firm who is evaluating investing in a hospital in Gurgaon. Help them decide how much they should value the business if they are looking at a 25% IRR in a 5-year horizon.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: What kind of investments have the PE firm made before and how long have they been operating?

I: Mostly in Healthcare industries only, have several ventures.

C: Can you help me understand more about the hospital they are currently evaluating; in terms of the services, it provides and customers it caters to.

I: It is a specialty hospital with premium services and serving high-income individuals.

C: What are the sources of revenues for the hospital?

I: It is a 1000 bed hospital with 80% utilization factor and 2 Crores p.a. revenue from each bed, having a 20% EBITDA. We can explore other revenue sources.

C: Based on the data given, I calculated the initial investment cost to be done using NPV and discounting. I would next want to evaluate the decision based on some Macro and Industry level factors.

I: Macro parameters are good, let us look at the Industry level factors.

C: (Asked about the competitors, supplier buying powers and customers.)

I: Faces competition from some of the known brands like Apollo, Vedanta, etc. prices are similar. How do you think we can increase the revenue of the hospital?

C: We can break it down into factors such as No. of customers, the customer mix, Average duration of stay for a customer and the price per customer.

I: What can be some of the other sources of revenue for the hospital?

C: We can list down other services that the hostel can start, explore treatment of diseases that are not covered till now, establish a loyalty program with customers for consultations, launch health checkup packages, extend the pathology services of the hospital, increase revenues from the canteen, parking space.