Bain & Company Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

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The client is a billion-dollar IT services player (application and infrastructure management). They have been lagging behind in profitability and need help with this problem.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: What is the quantum of the lag in profitability? Is there any data available for how short is the company falling of its targets? Also, since when has the company been facing this issue?

I: Yes, the company has been clocking 12-13% EBITDA compared to a 15-16% expectation. The issue has come to light in the last 3-4 years.

C: Thank you. As I am not too aware of the concerned industry here, could you help me understand what do we exactly mean by ‘application and infrastructure management’ services?

I: Application services are simply app development and maintenance while infrastructure management services range from cloud-based data management to ERP solutions to core system maintenance and a few other add-ons.

C: I would like to know a bit about the client to establish some context here. Can you help me the following details? Location, Areas of operations (client bases), age/maturity of company, size of the company (in terms of workforce- as it is an IT services company).

I: Sure! The company is based in India and has offices in Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, and Trivandrum. It is a mid-90s company and has approx. 2500 employees. 80% of the client base is in US.

C: Sounds good. To understand the offering better, is it safe to assume that the company offers customized solutions to every client given different scales of client firms?

I: Yes absolutely. The requirements of every client would differ based on its scale and specific solution needs.

C: Also, I would assume that there would be a fair amount of competition in India in this industry. Can I get some information on the competitive landscape here?

I: Yes, that is correct. There are 3 tiers of companies serving as good competition. Tier-I would be the likes of TCS & Infosys, we would be a part of Tier-II followed by smaller local players.

C: Thank you. I have sufficient information to dive into the issue. As the company is experiencing a profitability issue, I can define profits as Revenues - Cost considering a single stream of revenue which is service fees.

I: Yes, ignore revenues for now, let us look at costs for the client.

C: Sure! As it is an IT services company servicing mostly US-based clients, people’s costs would be a major component of total costs for the client apart from other operational and non-operational costs like.

I: Yes, ignore other costs for now. Let us focus on personnel costs which forms 80% of total costs.

C: To ascertain personnel costs, I would like to use the following equation = No. of offices x No. of projects x Avg. no. of people per project x Avg. CTC.

Moreover, Avg. no. of people and CTC will be different for different tiers of employees.

I: Yes, that seems fine but on what other ‘lever’ would the costs depend?

C: Further, the projects would have different tiers of personnel and their CTCs will be different based on level of skill/seniority.

I: Yes correct. Can you think of any other ‘lever’ that could vary costs in this context?

C: I have a few questions which I need more clarity on. Is the employee structure top-heavy or bottom-heavy? Moreover, could efficiency of certain tiers of employees also be a cost driver here?

I: In such a firm, the structure is almost always bottom-heavy. Also, what do you mean by efficiency, can you explain your thought process behind this. You can also consider the office space available as a factor of personnel costs in this context.

C: Sure. By efficiency I meant the amount of time that an average team would take to complete a project and benchmarking that with that of other competitors, we could get an idea about the relative efficiency of the workforce. Also, I think I missed the space aspect earlier. Different office locations would have different office space available and hence, the costs could vary across these locations. Would you want me to explore this further?

I: Yes, that sounds good. How would you benchmark the efficiency of employees when projects are customized and not uniform across various clients in different industries?

C: Yes, I agree that benchmarking would not be fully accurate, but it is just to get an idea of relative costs. If we take a hypothetical project and allocate a group of employees and compare across competitors for the same, we might be able to assess if we are less or more efficient than them and get an idea of relatively higher/lower costs.

I: Alright, that makes sense but like you said, it is not possible to have this data and hence is a hypothetical scenario. Also, we have ¾ mins. left with us. Can you quickly think of some additional points that could drive personnel costs?

C: I have a few more points which could be cost drivers. Firstly, we could look at benchmarking the salaries of different tiers of employees with that of the competitors. Secondly, we can compare the utilization of employees per annum and compare it with that of competitors.

The client is a specialized chemicals manufacturer and is facing issues with its profitability. They need us to help them figure the problem and recommend solutions.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

I: Focus only on structure and idea generation.

C: Sure! Since how long has the client been facing these issues? Also, I would like to know a bit about the client and the industry it operates in and the timeline in which the client is looking to resolve the issue.

I: Let me help you with some initial information. The client manufactures chemicals used further to produce plastics, paints, textiles, and leather goods. It has 400 different SKUs and clocked revenues of INR 160 Cr. last year. They require quick solutions which can be implemented within a 2-3-week period.

C: Thank you for that information. (Made some assumptions and confirmed with the interviewer: B2B clients pan-India and business model/value chain were from Sourcing-Manufacturing-Sales & Distribution). Asked a few more questions about the competitive landscape.

I: Yes, you can go ahead with that understanding. Ignore the competitive landscape. Although could you tell me the kind of clients this company could have?

C: Yes, I would assume consumer durables, apparel, lifestyle brands to be key clients. Is that a good assumption?

I: Yes, that sounds good. Go ahead!

C: I will break down profits into Revenue-Cost. Assuming multiple revenue streams and cost centers for 4 different types of products, would you like me to focus on any of these specifically or can I explore each one by one?

I: Yes, that is a good point. Leather products are driving down the profitability primarily. Can you explain about the cost structure/heads of this company?

C: Sure. On the nature of costs, I could divide them into Operational & Non-operational costs. On the basis of behavior, I could use a Fixed, Variable & Semi: variable classification.

I: Good. Name a few operational & non-operational costs here and let us proceed with it then.

C: Under operational costs, I would list down raw material costs, labor costs, in-bound logistics cost, production process costs, warehousing & storage costs and distribution costs including outbound logistics, R&D costs, Administrative costs, and technology costs. Under non-operational I would consider depreciation and finance costs.

I: Alright, let us move to the revenue aspect now. How would you proceed?

C: Before I dive into it, could you help me with an SKU distribution across all 400. This is to determine how heavy is the leather products’ SKU share among the overall SKUs offered.

I: Sure. Consider it as 50, 70, 120 & 160 SKUs for plastics, paints, textiles, and leather goods, respectively.

C: Thank you. As we can observe that leather goods for the highest share of the overall SKU mix, the top line can be majorly affected by leather goods. Following this, I would break the revenue as no. of leather goods’ units produced avg. price of leather SKUs. Do we have any information on the quantity produced or the pricing policy/trends that the client has observed for their goods in the past?

I: Good observation. So, the client follows a cost + mark-up pricing model. The quantity of production has not changed. Anyway, can you quickly suggest some ideas for a company like this to improve profitability?

C: As we have a short timeline to improve profitability, I would look at the SKU mix offered. We would have to increase sales effort on certain SKUs and reduce or phase out a few. Producing and selling larger SKUs could reduce carrying costs and packaging costs. Since our clients are all B2B, if the smaller SKUs are not truly relevant, we could look at reducing sales of these and reallocate resources towards larger SKUs. Would that be a fair suggestion?

I: Yes, although the cost of producing the primary material is the same across all SKUs, the other product costs could be tweaked. I like the idea of pushing large SKU sales although phasing those out would not be recommended as there are certain buyers for its who would not purchase beyond a certain limit due to many reasons. If phased out, the revenue and profits from that segment could get totally wiped out.

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Your client is a Brick Manufacturer. A new player has entered the market and slashed the price by 10%. The client is asking us what they should do.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: To understand our client better, can you tell me how old is the company?

I: The client is an old company in this line.

C: Does the client also have other lines of business?

I: No. The client only manufactures bricks and sells it directly to customers.

C: As we are selling directly to customers, can I assume that most of our customer base is builders?

I: Yes. Most of our customers are small builders.

C: Okay. Where is the Client located? Also, what is our scale of operation?

I: The Client is located in East India. It has a single plant in a catchment. It is one of the biggest players in East India.

C: Who are our competitors? Also, is it a fragmented industry?

I: Yes. It is a fragmented market with 30 odd players in the market. There are 2-3 big players in the market and our client is one of them.

C: Okay. What is the price that we are currently charging for the brick? Is that the price that our competitors are charging as well?

I: We are currently charging Rs. 10 per brick. Yes, the price throughout the market currently is more or less similar. However, the new player has entered and cut price by 10%.

C: As we have to decide if we should cut the price by 10% or not, we can consider the following before taking a decision. Our Market Share in the current market, the current pricing of the product, the process of manufacturing, our customer base and their perception of a price cut, the quality of our product vis a vis our competitors.

I: This sounds good. Let us look at the market share but I want you do a few calculations for me first.

C: Sure.

I: Let us say we are selling 100 thousand bricks. Should we reduce our price? Is it feasible?

C: I would like to decide the feasibility of price reduction on the basis of our profitability. To understand more about it, do we have any information about the costs incurred for production as well as the fixed costs?

I: Yes. The variable costs are around Rs. 3 per brick and the fixed cost is Rs. 20000 currently.

C: (Asked for some time for calculating profit) Currently, we are selling a 100 thousand bricks at Rs. 10 per brick. Thus, our sales are Rs. 10 Lakhs. The variable cost of producing 100 thousand bricks is Rs. 3L. Contribution is 10L minus 3L i.e., 7L. The fixed costs are 2L thus our profit is Rs. 5 Lakh. We have a profit margin of 50% currently. If we reduce the price 10% per brick for the same sale quantity, the sales would be 9L and the profit would be 4L. Although our profit margin would reduce from 50% currently to around 45%, it still seems a feasible option.

I: Sounds Fair. How many bricks will I have to produce and sell if I still want to earn a profit of Rs. 4L without reducing the price by 10%.

C: In this scenario, the price of the brick is Rs. 10. We need to earn a profit of Rs. 4L. The fixed costs will not change due to change in quantity of sales and production. Thus, the contribution will be 6L. Per brick contribution is Rs. 7, thus, I will have to produce and sell around 85,000 bricks.

I: Yes, that makes sense. What does the contribution signify?

C: The contribution is that portion of revenue which is not used up by variable costs and used to cover the fixed costs. Contribution is also considered while calculating the break-even quantity essential to keep the business running in the short term.

I: Good. All the factors you listed while considering a price cut make sense. However, as we are short of time, can you tell me why would you consider customers while deciding a price cut?

C: As we are an established player manufacturing since many years and amongst the Top 3 players, can I assume we would be having a specific loyal customer base since many years?

I: Yes, we do have some loyal customers who value our quality.

C: Customers might perceive price cut as reduction in our quality of bricks. It can create a lower perceived value for the product and buyers might consider our product less valuable.

I: That sounds fair. So, what do you think should we do?

C: As currently the pricing in the market is more or less similar, 10% reduction by one player will affect the pricing of other competitors as well. Based on the calculations, a 10% price reduction will affect our profitability by 5%. We are a big player in the market, and we have the capacity to reduce our prices and focus on increasing our volume to compensate for the reduction in profit. Also, since most of our customers are small builders, a 10% saving in brick cost might also be an attractive opportunity for them to shift to another manufacturer since the product offered by all players is similar. Thus, we can also go ahead with reducing our price by 10%.

I: Correct. Seems good. That will be all.

Your Client is the manufacturer of fishing nets. These nets are used in agriculture, fishing, and construction. The growth has slowed down. It wants to grow at 15%.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: (Clarified the problem statement). What is the current growth rate of our client? Has there been a fall in our growth rate?

I: The client is currently growing at 5%. It is a well-established player and was growing at 10% earlier but the growth has gradually reduced to 5% over the last few years.

C: What is time period within which we need to achieve this target of 15% growth?

I: We need to achieve this target in the next 3 years. Let us only consider the fishing industry for this problem.

C: Okay. I would like to understand at what rate is the fishing industry growing.

I: The industry is also growing at 4-5% and our growth currently is in line with the growth of the industry.

C: Okay. Where is the client located? Also, what is the distribution channel that the client uses?

I: The client is located in India. It operates through dealerships and has a distribution network all over India.

C: I would like to understand a little more about our competitors and their share in the market.

I: We are one of the major players in the market. Our market share is about 70%. We have not been able to grow much as the market has now stagnated.

C: Okay. In order to grow at 15%, I would like to explore the existing market and also explore new geography or businesses.

I: Let us consider the existing market for now.

C: While exploring the existing market, I would look at increasing the volume of sales or increasing the price of our nets.

I: I would like you to look at increasing the volume of sales first.

C: The volume of sales can be increased by increasing our customer base or increasing the quantity sold to a particular customer.

I: Can you help me estimate the size of the market for fishing net?

C: Sure. Fishing net can be used for sea water as well as freshwater fishing. I would divide the population of the country on the basis of access to coast or river and those with no water body around for fishing.

I: Let us consider only seawater fishing here. Since we are short of time, tell me the approach first and then you can calculate.

C: Sure. I would divide population of India who live along the coast and those who live in landlocked areas. Out of the people living along the coast, I would divide them into those living in rural areas and those in urban. The population practicing fishing as a profession in urban areas would not be much thus, I would first look at the professions practiced in rural areas along the coast. On the basis of their professions, I would divide the population majorly between agriculture/farming, poultry/animal husbandry, fishing and other. Out of the population that practices fishing, I would consider the number of households here and divide the population assuming 5 people per household. This would give me a number of fisherman and assuming every fisherman buys his own net, that would be the number of nets required. However, the fishermen would not buy a new net every year so we also need to factor in the number of years after which they would buy a new net.

I: This is a good approach. Can you also tell me what other strategies can we look at to grow in the existing market?

C: Firstly, we can increase the overall distribution network that we have. Currently, we are only selling through dealership. We can increase our distribution channels and also venture into setting up our own retail stores. Or we can also increase the number of dealerships we have within the same channel.

Second, we can analyze the current market and try to onboard more customers.

Third, we can diversify our product. We can introduce different sizes for the fishing net. We can also introduce a variety in the shapes of the mesh.

Fourth, we can market our product better. As most of the customers we are targeting are from rural areas, we can market our product through radio or local bazaars and trade fairs.

Fifth, we can also consider acquiring other players in the market. However, that depends on two factors – their willingness to sell and our capacity to buy.

Sixth, we can look at the pricing of the product.

I: This sounds good. I think you have covered all. We can stop here. Do you have any questions for me?

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Client is global IT company who is facing problem with revenues from new client. Please help.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

After the initial introduction, there was a small conversation on industries which she works on.

I: I have given a case from the industry which I specialize. If you want, we can do a case from some other industry.

C: I can try. Can I ask questions about processes specific to the industry, wherever relevant?

I: Sure, I will help you with industry specific practices.

C: Reiterated the problem statement and asked Preliminary questions (CPCC), questions relevant to the case, how long the problem has persisted? The definition of revenue from new clients (First year revenue). Any particular geography which is facing the issue? Revenue generation from old client’s v/s new clients? Any particular service industry facing this problem and Competitive landscape.

I: Problem has been there for 6 years now. No specific location assumes any one region and team working there. The revenue generation is 99% from existing clients and 1% from new logos. Problem with every vertical (Industry served by the IT company). Company is growing with the market, but new client revenue is sub-par comparing with the major Competitors.

C: My overall approach would be look at the client acquisition team as a separate entity from the company and look at the structure and hierarchy of the team and the human resources (Ability and Willingness), approach followed by the team while dealing with the prospective clients, and lastly the integration between the both the teams.

I: Sounds fair. Client acquisition employees are generally called hunters. So, the team has Junior hunters, Senior hunters, and Team leader. The team leader reports to the vertical heads.

C: Talking about the division of work, I assume that the junior hunter generally research on the prospective clients, prepares pitches and the senior hunter leads the client interactions? Further, talking about the Ability in terms of qualification, job fit and attrition and also in terms of number of hunters & Willingness in terms of monetary and non-monetary factors. Do you want me to dive deep into either of the factors?

I: Junior hunters are involved in client interactions too. No problem with Ability. We can discuss about the willingness aspect later in the case.

C: Sure, Should I look at the approach followed by the team?

I: Can you elaborate?

C: I will try to analyze the buckets such as Lead generation and targets, vertical expertise of the hunters, resources allocation and sharing with the main team (Integration).

I: There is no set procedure for lead generation. The hunters get leads from farmers (Who have contacts and leads). The farmers are not formal employees of the company but are friends with the hunters. No problem with resource sharing, but the integration is a problem.

C: I could identify few problems here. 1) Lack of formal structure in place which leads to haphazard targeting. 2) Single channel of lead generation and that too informal, 3) Integration problem could be that the client acquisition team is neglected by the vertical heads as they might concentrate on the existing clientele since the revenue share is pretty high.

I: Right, these are few of the problems. However, I want to you to find the reason why the same is happening.

C: Okay, sure. (Confused, as the interview was going well and now the interviewer wanted me to change the course of thinking).

I: Think on a considerably basic level, one aspect which has led to the problems mentioned above.

C: Any particular aspect?

I: Revenue formula.

C: So the Revenue would number of clients multiplied by the average revenue. Has there been a dip in the number of clients through these years?

I: There has been an increase, in fact.

C: Bringing in the quality aspect here. New logos have been increasing but total revenue is not picking up which might be due to the ticket size from new clients.

I: Right, link it to the salary aspects of the hunters.

C: The salary of the hunters would be comprising of fixed, variable and bonus component. Starting with variable and bonus component. Looking at the trend and revenue generation from the new clients, I assume that the bonus component is linked with the number of clients rather than the size?

I: Great, can you give few recommendations?

C: Streamlining the process, information sharing from the teams working with the existing clients to know the industry trends which might help in targeting new clients, Salary structure, where bonus and also the variable component is linked to the size, progressive variable pay policy. (Tried explaining which would be applicable in the short term and long term but interrupted as the interview was already over 45 minutes)

Growth Strategy for a net manufacturer.

The case was more in terms of idea generation and also the approach followed during a guesstimate.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Asked the Preliminary questions. The relevant facts were that the major product line was the fishing nets, and the case was about fishing nets.

I would approach the problem by looking at the equation, Revenue= Quantity sold X Average Price, I would first look at the Pricing Strategy in terms of demand elasticity of the agricultural nets.

I: Explain more on Elasticity.

C: If the demand for our product is inelastic, an increase in price would increase our revenue and if the demand is elastic, a decrease would increase our overall revenue.

I: Fair enough. Go ahead.

C: In terms of quantity sold, I would evaluate the options in terms of a 2x2 matrix, keeping product offering on one axis and market on another axis (Ansoff matrix). Further, I would analyze the value chain from production to distribution to check for any bottlenecks.

I: Why Value chain? Cost is never a problem; we just have to look at the top line.

C: Analyzing the value chain to see if there are ways to enhance production capacity to meet demands which are not satisfied currently.

I: Right, no problem with fulfilment of demand. And now we are talking about demand, can you estimate the market size for fishing nets in India.

C: Sure, I would first try to lay out the approach and look for reduction factors and come up with a number.

I: Okay.

C: Since our target audience are fishermen, from the 130 million population, I would eliminate half of the population looking at the geography of the country (southern half) assuming symmetry. Out of the remaining area, assuming 25% being the coastal region where fishing is done. I would add 20% of the fishing in coastal region to arrive at inland fishing.

I: You can ignore inland fishing.

C: Of the population, I would split it in terms of occupation. (Agriculture, Manufacturing, and Services). Around 60% of the population is involved in agriculture and similar activities. Out of which I am again assuming around 60% to be involved in Fishing and related activities. Now I would divide the population in terms of number of people per household and arrive at the households involved in fishing. Calculating this...

I: That is fine. We are short on time, summarize the case.

C: Summarized.

Client is Pipe manufacturer. We need to reduce the cost by 150 crores. A. Growth Objects: Historically, the company had 8 - 10% growth. New target is 5%.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Before asking question would want to know which type of pipes and the base which we are looking at.

I: Good Question. We produce pipes to transport oil and gas to consumers and hence the costs are extremely high, around 6000 cr.

C: Asked the preliminary questions. No important facts as such.

I: What are the heads under which you would categorize the costs.

C: Material, labor, machine, production methods. Any particular category to focus upon.

I: Let us talk about material. Our raw material constitutes around 60% of the cost. Steel which we bend and make the rolls for our pipe is 95% of our raw material.

C: I will start looking at the procurement process currently and try to find potential optimization methods.

I: We procure for the entire year in one shipment currently.

C: Do we have possibility to alter this, as we might be saving on inventory costs.

I: Inventory is not a problem. But we can break the total order in multiple orders. Efficiency and utilization are an issue. But if we have the liberty to order as many times as possible, we like, what should be the number according to you. Like 1,2,3, 4 or maybe even more?

C: I would go with 2 as we can assess efficiency from the first order and order according and saving on transportation.

I: Great. Should I order 80% in the first or 20% in the first?

C: Should be 80% as would have safety margins and reduce stock out costs as it might disrupt the entire process.

I: Sure. Doing this we can reduce the steel cost by 2%. Can you come up the number?

C: Sure. 60% of 6000 would be the cost of raw material, which is 3600 and 2% of which is 72cr. (Instantly realizing that I missed the 95% part). Sorry, did not factor the 95%, factoring in would come to be around...

I: That is completely fine. Number is secondary.

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Client is a ropes and nets manufacturer. Their growth has slowed down while their margins are improving. They want to achieve full potential. Help them.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: What is the current growth level?

I: Single digit.

C: What is the KRA for achieving full potential?

I: Sales acceleration- double business in 5 years.

C: Who are primary clients and what is our product mix?

I: Primary industries are fishing, construction and agriculture. Let us restrict our analysis to nets.

C: Is it correct to assume our products include safety nets, fishing nets and shade nets predominantly across the three industries?

I: Yes

C: Is it safe to assume that we operate across the value chain and the distribution network is dealership module with region wise traders in place?

I: Yes, distribution module is the most critical and works in the dealership mechanism.

C: How much market share is captured by us and how is the competitive landscape?

I: We are a dominant player.

C: Shall I analyze all the 3 industries and layout their sales acceleration strategy or focus on any particular industry?

I: Let us start with fishing industry.

C: How many types of fishing net do we have? What is the quality, material, and life of these nets?

I: Nylon and rayon nets. Average life 7 years

C: I would like to analyze the product mix, pricing, and distribution aspects across the existing and new potential markets.

I: That is good. Asked follow up questions on what in each bucket would you analyze. Asked to guesstimate the size of the fisherman market.

C: Discussed broad approach. Extrapolated Bengal population to average out the population of coastal states. Divided population by income levels and assumed proportion of population in the segment involved in fishing industry. Estimated overall market demand considering initial and replacement demand based on average years mentioned. Considered market growth @ 5% lower than GDP owing to nature of product. Selling Price of net given by interviewer.

I: Summarize the case and give key next steps to achieve full potential.

C: Checked for any time or spending limit. Suggested recommendations across product, contract-strategy, and distribution network. Product diversification into relatively lower grade and life of net. Increase variants other than rayon and nylon and other use cases for the product. Recommended long-term contracts with fisherman and rental option. Streamline Distribution network across operations. With dealership restricted to one player across prominent regions. Reduce overheads and increases sales.

Your client is an OTA aggregator. It is growing really well at 20-30% over the last 5-6 years. It wants to be IPO ready in 5 years but has negative EBITDA. Chart out the strategy.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Since when is the client operating?

I: 10 years.

C: What is its current market share and how many competitors exist?

I: 30% share and it is the 3rd largest player among the few competitors.

C: What are key services. Are we like MMT with flights and hotels as are key product offerings? Do we offer any other product?

I: Yes, while flights and hotels capture 80% and 15% of revenue mix. We also offer train/bus booking and experiences with experiences captures less than 1%.

C: Are we facing negative EBITDA across all segments?

I: Yes.

C: Primary revenue sources would be commissions. Is my understanding correct?

I: Yes.

C: Is it safe to assume we are primarily catering to the upper middle class and the rich?

I: Yes.

C: Since a path to EBITDA positive is key consideration. I would like to divide my analysis into understanding revenue growth opportunities and secondly look at areas of cost minimization. Is that ok and would you like me to focus on any of the above analysis?

I: Yes, let us focus on revenue.

C: As our revenue model is commission based, I would like to confirm if it is safe to assume that the commission is based on both value and volume of transactions?

I: No, it is based only on value.

C: Since this is a B2B2C operations, I would like to analyze revenue growth opportunities through 2 key stakeholders the customers and the retailers.

I: Let us start with retailers.

C: Shall I focus on flight and hotel segment as they comprise 95% of our revenue?

I: Yes, can you give me suggestions on revenue improvement for these two segments.

C: Laid out my analysis across 3 segments: existing revenue model and scope, and contract strategy, promotions. Suggested enhancing existing revenue model by transition to commission model based on value and volume to benefit from both open and click rates. Suggested push marketing for low ticket purchases increase experience segment contribution. Revamp contract strategy to ensure increase product placement and bundled offers for improving commission paid by retailers.

Focus on revenue from advertisements on desktop, mobile website, and mobile application. Enter new segment and deprioritize segments with low revenue potential. Discussed on bus and train segment. Increase experience offerings to include products offered by likes of Thrillophilia.

I: We are planning on entering car rental. Should we do that?

C: Broke down the cab rental space talked about existing players like Zoomcar predominantly which has captured the market. Discussed about time and resource constraint given negative EBITDA of existing operations.

I: Agreed and asked if we should acquire something like Zoomcar?

C: Suggested no and substantiated based on disadvantages despite the benefits of the strategy keeping in mind the objective of IPO in 5 years.

I: Agreed with recommendation. Please summarize the case.

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Client is a hospitality chain with properties in Chennai and Kolkata. The chain has been operational for the past 40 years. Due to Covid-19, the chain has witnessed a drop in number of hotel bookings leading to a capacity utilization of 50- 55% which is below the normal level of 60-70% that the chain expects. Keeping in mind the effect of the pandemic, help them in formulating a strategy to improve their capacity utilization.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: Does the client have any operational or budgetary constraints? Do we have any specific timeline or metrics in place to evaluate any strategic option?

I: The client does not have any operational and budget constraints. However, the client would like to see improvement in utilization to the normal levels of around 60-70%.

C: Okay. Can you tell me a bit about the hotels that the client operates, how many hotels the client has in each city, what kind of services are offered?

I: Sure, the client has 2-3 hotels in Chennai and 2 in Kolkata. All the client properties are 5-star hotels under the same brand. The hotels offer a full range of services that would be expected in a normal premium hotel.

C: Can you tell me about the kind of customers who visit the hotel?

I: 70% of the customers for the hotel are business travelers, rest of 30% are primarily foreign tourists.

C: I am assuming that the decrease in the number of customers would be across the two major customer segments. Business travel might have decreased due to increased prevalence of virtual ways of working. Tourism sector has taken a hit which might have resulted in a reduction in the number of visitors coming to the hotel.

I: That is correct. The decline has been across both the customer segments.

C: The utilization of rooms in a hotel is dependent on price. In order to increase utilization, we can look at decreasing the prices. However, such an option can led to dilution of premium image of the hotel. Also, the price elasticity might be very low considering the kind of customers that the hotel caters to.

I: Yes, lowering the prices is not an option.

C: Is the hotel following dynamic pricing?

I: Okay, this can be one option that can be looked at. What else can the client do?

I would like to look at the issue of increasing utilization from two perspectives, one would be to look at ways to increase the hotel bookings by the current Target Group and the second would be to look at ways to attract different set of consumers to the hotel.

I: Let us look at different customer segments that can be attracted by the hotel.

C: We can divide customers into two groups primarily: Business Customers and Non-Business Customers.

I: Let us look at the business customers.

C: For the business customers we can further divide these according to the needs that the hotel can serve. Historically, majority of the business customers would be those staying at the hotel for 2-3 days while being on a corporate visit. Apart from this, the hotel can be used to organize corporate events or industry conferences, conventions etc.

I: Okay, let us look at the non-business customer segment.

C: The non-business customers can be divided into three major buckets: First, tourists or travelers which will include both domestic and foreign. Second, people who come for weddings, art exhibitions or other cultural events and third, people who come to the hotel for dining or entertainment purposes.

I: Okay, now that we have identified different kinds of customers: can you tell me which of these customer segments should be targeted?

C: The number of business customers will remain low as a lot of companies are starting to adapt to a virtual workplace setup. The hotel premises can be optimized for hosting weddings and other cultural events, but this segment will not really grow significantly in size in the future. I would focus on tourist segment of customers which would be expected to increase once the effects of Covid-19 subside.

I: Fine. How would you go about ensuring that this new segment of customers goes for our client’s hotels?

C: We can break down the issue into 4 aspects: Customer Need, Promotion, Accessibility and Service Experience.

I: Can you elaborate on these?

C: Sure, starting with the customer's need. Over the world, tourists seem to be attracted by the value proposition of hotels that give them a flavor of the local culture and lifestyles.

Kolkata and Chennai are two cities that are rich in their heritage and the hotels that our clients have can be shaped to reflect the cultural heritage of these cities. On top of this, tourists prefer authentic experiences and hotels which are technologically advanced.

We can have a different sub-brand for properties offering this new value proposition.

I: This seems fair. What about the other aspects?

C: Under promotion, we need to ensure that our advertising is consistent with the new proposition in terms of the message and the media on which we promote the client’s hotel brands.

Digital presence can be optimized using SEO and digital analytics can be used to target high propensity customers. Under accessibility, we need to ensure that our hotel is listed on all the major OTAs such as Expedia along with optimizing our own website.

The service experience needs to reflect the new value proposition and changes would be required in terms of tangibles, employees, and the ambience.

Our client is a 2-wheeler manufacturer based out of India for the past 35 years. In the past 3 years, it has witnessed a drop in market share from 20% to 15% and drop in EBITDA from 18% to 13%. Help the client.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: Can you tell me about the scale of operations of the client in terms of geography and the distribution channels of the client? What is the current capacity under which it is operating?

I: The client is a Pan-India player operating at 85% capacity. It has a 3rd party distribution and dealer network.

C: Can you talk about the kind of vehicles that the client manufactures? How many different SKUs does the client have?

I: The client manufactures motorcycles in the mid-price segment and has 5 different SKUs.

C: I am assuming the client would be catering to the middle–income segment.

I: Yes, that is a fair assumption.

C: Can you tell me about the competition faced by our client? Are they facing a similar issue in terms of the drop in EBITDA?

I: There are 4 major competitors including 2 emerging players who have taken the bulk of the market share that we have lost. The competitors have not seen a drop in their EBITDA margins.

C: I would like to focus upon the market share issue first. Is the market share in terms of volume or value?

I: It is in terms of value.

C: The market share decline in this can be due to two factors: First, the market share of the higher-priced segments in which our client does not operate has increased at the expense of mid-price segment. Second, our own share within the mid-price segment has decreased.

I: It is a case of both. Let me give you some data:

Segment: Premium
Share: 10
Price Range: >95000
Growth Rate: 30%

Segment: High
Share: 20
Price Range: 65000: 95000
Growth Rate: 25%

Segment: Mid
Share: 35
Price Range: 40000: 65000
Growth Rate:12%

Segment: Low
Share: 35
Price Range: <40000
Growth Rate:15%

C: The mid-price segment has grown at a below average rate of 12% which is one of the reasons for the falling market share of our client.

I: Can we do something about this?

C: Probably enter a new segment.

I: Let us say the client is confused between low and high segment, which one should he choose?

C: It will depend on 4 factors: Size and growth of the segments, profit margin in each segment, level of competition within each segment, client’s expected segment share in each segment.

I: Looking at the numbers that I provided, where do you see greater potential?

C: The high-priced segment is more attractive due to its superior growth rate. Keeping the macro-economic trends in mind, this segment will remain highly lucrative for the future. Also, it might be possible for us to upsell the existing customer base.

I: Seems right, the client has also faced declining share within the mid-priced segment. Can we explore what could be the possibilities in this case?

C: Sure, it can be a function of prices and volume of motorcycles sold. Do you want me to look at any one issue in particular?

I: Let us focus on quantity.

C: The quantity can be constrained at either the supply side, at the dealer stage or at the customer end. I am assuming that since we are running at below capacity at 85%, supply side is not an issue.

I: Yes, leave the supply side. Let us look at the dealers first. What could be the possible issues?

C: There could be two levels of issues: The first could be that the number of customers visiting the dealers themselves has decreased due to some factors such as alternate D2C channels or other dealers in the area. The second could be that the dealer is not pushing our product due to a lack of monetary or non-monetary incentives.

I: What can be done about incentives assuming we cannot increase prices or reduce the client margins?

C: Increase the margins for our dealers. We can use our excess capacity to reduce fixed cost per unit leading to a lower overall cost which can result in higher margins for the dealers assuming we do not pass the benefit to the consumers. The other option could be to offer attractive credit support to the dealers.

I: Okay, let us move on to the issue of customer demand. What could be the possible issues here?

C: We can look at 4 things here: Customer Need, Promotion, Purchase and Post-Purchase. For the first issue, Customer Need, do we have some data on how the client products fare against our competitors in terms of Performance, Features and Durability?

I: The product is competitive in these aspects. Do you think the client can introduce a greater number of SKUs?

C: It depends on how heterogeneous the customer segment is. If it is not heterogeneous, an increase in the number of SKUs will lead to an increase in operational costs with no substantial increase in revenues resulting in lower profits.

I: Seems fair. Let us look at the other issues.

C: Yes, assuming that the product is suited to the customer needs, we can look at Promotion which includes both Push-based and Pull-based promotion. Pull-based promotion will consist of advertising and use of digital marketing to ensure that the client product is within the Initial Consideration Set for the customer. The Purchase experience needs to be seamless and the availability of affordable payment options such as EMIs is extremely important. The Post-Purchase aspect consists of servicing/maintenance, warranties and response to customer feedback.

Devise a Go-To-Market Strategy for a smart watch manufacturer.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: What is the objective behind this move? Does Titan have any budgetary or operational constraints?

I: The share of conventional watches is stagnating, and the client expects huge potential for the smartwatch as an upcoming segment. The objective is to increase market share. There are no budgetary or operational constraints.

C: What is the price range in which its Titan is planning to launch the product.

I: There are two segments that we are looking at: Rs 5K-10K and Rs 10K-20K.

C: Who are the current major players in the smart watch market? What are their current shares?

I: The major players are Apple, Xiaomi and Samsung. The smart watch segment is still in the growth phase.

C: Sure, we can look at any GTM strategy in terms of 4 aspects: Customer TG, Product, Promotions and Distribution/Retail Channels.

I: Let us look at customers. How do we define them?

C: We can define the customers by looking at the needs that a smartwatch can cater to. These needs can be divided into two broad aspects: Functional and Psychological.

I: What will come under each of those broad aspects?

C: Functional needs would include Fitness tracking and Health monitoring, Environment Sensing, Sync capabilities with other devices and Smart Home applications. Psychological needs would include aspects such as Social Status, desire to be seen as cool for having a high-tech product of a brand such as Apple.

I: How do we go forward from here?

C: We need to decide which one of these different needs is going to lead to a significant customer segment. Do we have any data on this?

I: No.

C: I feel that among the functional needs, fitness is going to be a major driver. We can target this segment.

I: How do we define and target such a segment?

C: The customer segment can be largely described in terms of demographics and geography as most technologically oriented fitness-conscious people would be of a younger age group. Use of online channels for promotion and use of e-commerce platforms as well as D2C channels for distribution would be critical to reaching this customer segment. One way to increase the penetration would be to have tie-ups with certain fitness-based apps such as CultFit.

I: How can we ensure that our client gets a decent market share in this segment?

C: One major aspect in this segment would be the ecosystem effect: the greater the number of smart devices that can be connected to the watch, the greater would be its utility. The second major aspect would be the brand image, and this is where competitors such as Apple have an edge over our client due to their technological prowess.

I: But our client also has some complementary assets such as its retail stores like Croma and appliance brands like Voltas.

C: Yes, and it can also leverage some expertise in software from TCS. In addition, the Titan might be the only Indian brand in the segment giving it a unique advantage over others in this regard.

I: How should our client compete against its competitors, on what basis: Brand or Product?

C: The brand of competitors like Apple, Xiaomi and Samsung is too strong to be countered by Titan which is new in this segment. In such a situation, it is always better to compete for product superiority.

I: Interesting. If I were to estimate the size of the smart watches market, how would I do?

C: I would like to use a top-down approach. We can start with India’s population. (I proceeded to use factors in the order: Rural/Urban -> Economic Classification -> Age profile -> Propensity to purchase smart watch. I also mentioned the replacement period).

I: What are the factors that can affect the replacement period?

C: Economic prosperity leading to an upgrade in model, Technological Obsolescence, Desire to own new features and aspiration to own a smart watch from a well-known brand.

Q1. Give me a quick introduction about yourself.
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Client is an Indonesian food delivery startup, like Swiggy and Zomato. It is a market leader in South Asia. Now it wants to enter India. Chart out a Market Entry strategy.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Before starting with the analysis, I have some clarifying questions that I would like to ask.

I: Sure, go ahead.

C: I see that the client wants to enter India, is there specific purpose for this move?

I: Yes, the purpose is growth.

C: Okay. Fair enough. And how can we help our client here?

I: The client would like to know if we will be able to make unit economic profit in India.

C: Sure. I would love to help him with the best of my abilities. (Understood about the company, its USP and specifics about the revenue model, consumer, and competitors. Applied PESTLE to understand market attractiveness. I was asked to focus on unit economic profit and profit is function of revenue and cost. Therefore, I decided to deal with revenue and cost separately).

C: We can do a market estimate to determine potential unit revenue. (The major revenue streams considered were delivery charges and commissions from restaurants. After a detailed discussion, the interviewer asked me to consider 20% of bill value as commission and 25 Rupees as delivery fee. We also talked a little bit about the recent hike in delivery fee by Swiggy and Zomato. I finished the market estimation and the Interviewer nodded in approval after hearing the final number. Then we moved to cost analysis).

I: What type of costs would you consider while doing cost analysis?

C: For unit cost, I would like to focus on labor cost and fuel cost.

I: You can ignore fuel cost for now. How would you go about the labor cost?

C: We have calculated total demand in the guesstimate. From there, we can compute the total number of delivery persons by dividing demand by total number of orders per driver per day. Total number of orders per driver in a day can be found by incorporating peak and non-peak hours.

I: You can continue with this approach.
(I calculated the total number of delivery persons which came out to be a reasonable number.)

C: Do we have any information about the salary given to delivery persons?
(The Interviewer gave me an average salary paid to a delivery person. After doing necessary calculations, I found that the company will incur losses if it enters Indian market.)

Let us begin our case. Client has a diagnostic lab, one of the largest in the world. He wishes to get a good assessment of market in India.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: The client wants to enter the Indian market, I presume.

I: That is correct.

C: Before we start, I would like to ask some clarifying questions.

I: Sure, go ahead.

C: What kind of operations does the lab undertake? Does it specialize in certain areas or is it a general-purpose health lab?

I: It is a general-purpose health laboratory. It conducts 2 types of tests – Prevention tests and tests prescribed by doctors.

C: Okay. And what is the nature of technology used in these labs?

I: It is a high-end laboratory; they use the latest technology.

C: To assess the market, we can look into the potential revenue generated from these tests. I would like to analyze Prevention tests and Prescribed tests separately.

I: We can focus on the prescribed tests for the time being.

C: Sure. Since we are talking about one of the largest companies, do we have any data available on the proportion of revenue generated by prescribed tests.

I: Yes, the past data shows that prescribed tests form 80% of the revenues for the company.

C: That is great. That means analyzing the potential revenue from prescribed tests may give us a good idea about the Indian market!

I: That is correct!

C: For prescribed tests, we can analyze the market India possesses by dividing it into urban and rural areas. Rural areas have a huge scope, mainly because of two reasons. First, high percentage of population residing in rural areas. Second, rural healthcare has seen huge investments coming in in the past few years. However, there are some issues about operating a high-end laboratory chain in rural areas.

I: And what are these issues?

C: To start with, currently, there are very a smaller number of functional hospitals in rural areas. That means the number of doctors prescribing the tests would be much less than in urban areas. In addition to this, the sourcing of laboratory equipment and medical supplies would need a well-developed road connectivity. These facilities may be available in rural areas in future, say, in the next 10-15 years? However, if we are assessing the current Indian market, we can ignore rural areas.

I: Good analysis. Let us focus on urban areas.

C: Great! When we are talking about prescribed tests, we mean the tests prescribed to patients by doctors in case the former needs the test to be performed, is that correct? I mean, here we are considering all doctors, working at hospitals or clinics.

I: Yes. You have got it right!

C: Okay. We can do a guesstimate to find the number of doctors in urban areas.

I: No need to delve into that. You can assume that the number of doctors is 0.7 per people pan India.

C: Thank you! That will make the calculation much easier. We know that the current population of India is around 1.3 billion people. Using the data, you just provided, it seems like there are around 9.1 lakh doctors all over India. As number of doctors in urban areas are much more than in rural areas, we can safely say that around 60% of the doctors are working in cities.

I: That is a reasonable assumption. And how many of them would be eligible to prescribe laboratory tests?

C: I believe a huge percentage of urban doctors in India would be eligible to prescribe laboratory tests. Let us say, around 60% doctors fulfil this criterion. The final number comes out to be around 3.3 lakh doctors.

I: Good work. The number seems to be fair. How would you calculate revenue from this number? (This was followed by a discussion on average number of patients attended by a doctor in a day, the number of tests prescribed per day and an average cost of these tests in India. Both Interviewer and I were picking instances from day-to-day life to back our values. We came to an agreement that on an average a doctor prescribes 8 tests in a day with an average cost of 100 Rupees per test.)

C: From this data, the revenue derived from prescribed tests per day is around 24 crores. Say, the laboratory is open 300 days a year, the net revenue per year comes out to be 7200 crores. I presume that the client would require the potential revenue in USD.

I: That is correct. You can do the necessary conversion.

C: Taking the current conversion rate as 1 USD = 72 Rupees, the potential revenue derived from prescribed tests is around 1 Billion dollars. Do we have any data on the present revenue generated by the laboratory chain?

I: Sure, it generates around 7 Billion dollars a year. What do you think, should the client enter the Indian market?

C: India has always been a huge market for healthcare sector. A market with a potential revenue capacity of 1 Billion is an attractive option. It would also result in 14% increase in the global revenue. Moreover, this market is growing at a fast pace of 20% in India. I believe the client should consider this option. (Always back your opinion with number and current scenarios.)

I: Very well. A comprehensive analysis overall. We can close the case now. Thank you.

Let us take a small case. Client is the CEO of PVR Cinemas. Help him in understanding the unit revenue of PVR Setup.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: The revenue stream would include revenue from tickets, food and beverages, and advertisements shown before the movie or during the interval.

I: That seems right.

C: The size of a PVR Setup may vary with the size of the city/town it is being introduced in. Are we talking about a PVR Setup in a metropolitan area?

I: That is correct.

C: Okay. A general PVR Setup in a metropolitan area has 4 screens. Each screen has a capacity of 150 people. The price varies from place to place but we can take an average of around 100 Rupees. Do these assumptions seem valid?

I: The numbers seem fair. You can move forward with these values.

C: Thank you. The next step would be to calculate revenue generated from screenings.

I: And how would you go about that?

C: We can use the simple relation that revenue generated per show will be equal to (average number of screens) *(Percentage occupancy) *(average price of each ticket). (It was followed by a detailed discussion on how we would calculate percentage occupancy as it will depend on various factors like - day of the week, any new release, holidays, festivals etc.)

I: You can take an average percentage occupancy of 60%.

C: That is great! So, the number comes out to be around 150*0.6*100*4 = 36000 Rupees per show. We can multiply it by number of shows in a day. (We discussed the various factors to incorporate while calculating the number of shows. I was coming up with values based on my experience. For example, the length of English movies is around 1.5-2 hours whereas Hindi movies are generally of 2.5-3 hours. Further, around 20-30 minutes are allotted between the shows to clean the theatre and allow people to settle in for the next show.)

C: We can take the average length of movie as 2.5 hours. As per my experience, PVR Cinemas are generally operational for 14 hours in a day. Also, around 20 minutes break is given between shows for cleaning. After taking all this into account, we can say that around 5 shows are run on each screen in a PVR Setup. That means, in total, around 20 movies are shown in a day in a PVR Setup.

I: That seems fairly accurate. No need to calculate the final revenue. We can close the case here.

Q1. Why consulting, why Bain & Co.?
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Q2. Why consulting over finance?
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Your client is a cable manufacturer operating pan India. It is one of the 3 largest players in the country. For the last few years, his/her costs have been higher than industry standards. Can you help him/her figure out why is it so?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Reiterated the problem statement and asked some scoping questions. How high have the costs been against the competitors? What is the value chain of the client? Understanding more about the product of the client. What are the costs to be looked at in a particular segment (process leg, geography etc. or at an aggregate level)? Who are the consumers? Have the competitors operated in a similar manner?

I: Let us look at what the various heads of costs can be.

C: Sure. So as per my understanding, the costs incurred can be broken down into the following heads- Raw material acquisition, Inbound logistics, Production and processing, Outbound logistics, Distribution, Marketing & after sales services, others such as depreciation, financing cost etc. Is there any particular cost head I should look at?

I: Do you mind taking a guess?

C: Since it is a high-volume industry, I believe the cost of raw material and logistics (inbound) must be high.

I: That's right, the cost of raw materials and logistics is a major chunk of the client's total cost. Can you maybe figure out why do we have a higher cost?

C: Sure, there can be few reasons for the same, quantity, quality, and suppliers.

I: The quantity we buy has been in line with our processes. We have also had the same suppliers for the last 10 years or so. Is there anything else you can think of?

C: If the quantity we are buying is not an issue, that rules out possibilities of efficiency related costs. We are essentially incurring higher cost per unit which might be because of difference in the quality, form etc.

I: Yes, that is right. While we are buying aluminum in form of sheets. Our competitors are buying it in the form of blocks.

C: That's interesting, is there anything else you want me to look at in this process?

I: No, this should be fine. (Had some discussion about how this industry works and the manner in which this case was actually solved.)

Client is a steel rod manufacturer who wants to reduce costs by a target amount.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

I: Client is a steel rod manufacturer who wants to reduce costs by a target amount. You need to help the client.

C: I would like to start by listing down the major cost heads for the manufacturer. Starting with the procurement of raw material, logistics, manufacturing, storage, and distribution are the major cost heads. Is there anything I am missing here?

I: Safety costs are also a major part of the overall cost. We also import 100% of our raw materials which again is a major cost head.

C: Understood. We can domestically source the raw material required to reduce the cost. Moving on I would like to understand more about the manufacturing process. Is the manufacturing output uniform across or is it cyclic as per the demand?

I: Our client has a uniform output across the year, but the demand is not uniform. This leads to higher holding costs during low demand period. The factory generally operates at 60% of max output.

C: As I understand, the fixed cost and the holding cost are high and there is a scope to optimize it. Instead of uniform production we could look at cyclic production and lease out our factory area to other players. This would also help us get the transportation costs down and we could operate closer to max capacity, optimizing the operating costs as well.

I: Correct, we could plan to move the production process to cyclic process rather than uniform and also revisit the procurement costs. Thank you, that would be it.

One is about the profit improvement and the other one is about market entry

Q1. Behavior and case
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Q2. Working experience
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Q1. Tell me about yourself.
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The client is in the industrial sector and is a manufacturer of ropes and nets for the agricultural, fishing, and construction industries. It is a mid-size firm, and its growth has stagnated at 3-5% over the last few years and has margins in excess of 15%. Help the client realize its full potential.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

I: This was an actual problem faced by one of our clients that we solved a few years ago.

C: Reiterated the problem statement and got it confirmed to ensure that I didn’t miss out on anything specified by the interviewer. Dissected the problem statement and got a few things clarified before proceeding further.

C: Before we start off, I want a little more clarity on the problem we are staring at. Could you please help me with a few points here?

1. What growth are we referring to, topline/bottom-line/others?

2. How do we define full potential? Is there any specific metric and quantum that we are looking at?

3. What is the timeline that we are looking at?

I: We are referring to stagnation of topline growth and by full potential, there’s no specific number, but we want to improve our business scale and grow rapidly in the short term, say two years.

C: So, it’s essentially the topline that we’re focusing on. I’d then like to get a little idea about the firm, the products they deal in, its customers, and the competitive scenario before I delve deeper into the analysis (basically, I asked the clarifying questions).

I: Sure, go ahead.

C: Firstly, can I get a little information about how established the firm is?

I: It’s an established firm and has been operating for quite a few years.

C: Where do they operate?

I: Pan India.

C: Does that mean that they only manufacture in India or is their market also restricted to India.

I: They serve only the Indian market currently.

C: Are they facing any issue with a specific geography within India or is it across?

I: It’s a firm level issue.

C: How many different variants/SKUs of fishing nets do they deal in?

I: They have all variants of fishing nets: size, shape etc., approximately 100 SKUs.

C: How about the customers that they cater to? Broadly I can think of two types of customers: one, the unorganized and second, the organized. Would that be right?

I: What do you mean by unorganized and organized?

C: Unorganized would be the local fishermen, while organized would be commercial fishing.

I: Yeah, so they deal with both B2C and B2B customers.

C: So, how is the competitive scenario?

I: Our client is the dominant player in the market, with a 70-80% market share.

C: Ok, how is the remaining market, are there any major players or is it fragmented?

I: There are 3-4 other players.

C: Jotted down a broad approach and checked with the interviewer for his buy-in. So, here we are looking at topline growth of fishing nets. We can break it down into two aspects, one, the market potential and second, the firm’s growth.

I: Lets come to market potential later. Before that let’s explore what can be done around the firm’s growth.

C: Sure, just one more piece of information before I dive deep. At what rate is the industry growing?

I: Around 5%.

C: Ok, and how was the firm fairing in the past?

I: It was growing at 10-15% earlier.

C: Ok. Sure, getting back to evaluating the firm’s topline growth prospects, there are again two ways to start off with: one, the organic and second, inorganic ways. Do you want me to evaluate any specific area?

I: Let's start off with organic and then come to inorganic later.

C: Ok. Under organic ways of growing, the client can focus on 2 things again, existing, and new. When I talk of existing/new, it could be both in terms of the market or product. Do you want me to look at any specific aspect?

I: Let's take some time here and quickly figure out the market potential for fishing nets in the unorganized sector that you had spoken about earlier.

C: Sure. Can I take a minute again to lay down my approach and we can then proceed with the calculations?

I: Sure.

C: Jotted down the factors I would be considering estimating the market size of fishing nets and then discussed it with the interviewer.

Firstly, I’d look at the geography: there can be coastal areas such as the seas/Indian ocean on one hand, and inland waterways on the other.

Then rural vs urban, followed by the income split, which would in-turn determine the various professions that people could be engaged in these areas (largely agriculture, fishing, labor, street vendors etc.), take a factor for the number of people involved in fishing which can be divided by the average number of people per household, to arrive at the number of households.

Then consider the number of people per household involved in fishing. Usually, from what I’ve seen around beaches in Chennai, they do not go individually for fishing. Rather, a group of 4-5 fishermen go together. So, we would have to divide the fishermen by this factor to arrive at the number of boats.

Then a factor for number of fishing nets used per boat, life of a fishing net, which would determine the replacement factor and then finally incorporate the average price of a fishing net to arrive at the market potential.

I: Sounds good. Proceed. Take simplistic assumptions and arrive at a number.

C: Was asked to consider only the coastal areas and not inland waterways. Went on to calculate the number. Arrived at the coastline length basis India’s dimensions (length and breadth of 3000 and 2500 km approx. basis some facts I had gathered beforehand). Then went down the wrong way in calculating and arrived at 14000. Quickly realized that there was something wrong with it. The interviewer also asked if it seemed right given India’s population of 140 crore. Took a step back, sought a minute and recalculated ~2 million fishermen.

I: So, let us consider whatever is the number you have arrived at: 2 million fishermen. How will you arrive at the market potential from here?

C: Specified the factors stated before.

I: Ok. So, what would you do to address the growth stagnation issue now?

C: Ok. So, broadly we can look at expanding to new markets: basically, going international. Within existing geographies, can evaluate from 4 different standpoints

a. Price

b. Product

c. Place/distribution

d. Promotion

Do you think this is a fair approach to follow?

I: Sure, go ahead.

C: From a pricing standpoint, we can evaluate the quantum by which we can reduce prices depending on the price elasticity of the product. This could help us gain significant volume without compromising on absolute profits earned, since volume could offset the reduction in price.

From a product standpoint, we can look at the type of material used, if there’s any betterquality material which could hold a better value proposition to customers, be it in terms of the life of the net for example (didn’t have much scope from a shape/size perspective, given the wide presence with about 100 SKUs).

From a distribution standpoint, [realized I had not asked the current distribution mechanism in place] if we currently reach out through distributors, we can evaluate our distributor'spresence, whether there is any geography that we are not catering to currently. We can also engage in direct selling instead of the distributor route. However, that would involve an evaluation of how it could pan out. Since the distributors could hold some influence on the unorganized sector where the buying behavior of customers is person dependent. This leads us to our last leg, promotions.In the B2C sector, there could be certain local influencers in the fishermen colonies. So, targeting them could help receive our products better. In the B2B sector, it is all about personal selling.

I: Ok. So, by doing all of this how much do you think that you can push the growth to?

C: Well, that’s a very subjective evaluation, and to attribute a number basis this would be a long shot. However, if we still want to look at a possible number, I might consider anything between 15-20%.

I: Ok. We have 3-4 minutes left. Let’s do a quick calculation here. You said that the client who holds a market share of 70% is likely to grow at 15%, while the market is growing at 5%. What would be the potential market share that it would hold after 3 years.

C: Arrived at a number in excess of 90% [helps to round numbers. I was calculating up to 5 decimals, which isn’t required. Will save a few seconds].

I: Ok. So, what do you think will happen in this scenario where the client might end up with a market share in excess of 90%?

C: Is the market regulated? If so, there could be restrictions from regulatory bodies.

I: No. The market is not regulated. What else?

C: There could be two other things that might happen. One, the competition could grow weaker and find it difficult to survive, resulting in scope for the client to acquire these players.

I: Do you think that would be possible?

C: Well, given the scenario and the projected market share, there could be concerns that might be raised by the competition commission.

I: What else?

C: The other possibility could be that the market consolidates with competitors coming together, basically merge like what Vodafone and Idea did to survive competition from Jio.

A well-established client is in the hospitality sector and basically operates hotels in South and East India. These hotels are in landmark locations, bang in the middle of the city and are about 30-40 years old. Post COVID-19, the company believes that it needs to achieve at least 35% occupancy to break even (i.e., to cover employee and operational costs). Usually, the utilization is in the range of 65-70%. Given the aftermath of COVID and associated lockdown restrictions, travel has reduced resulting in reduced utilization, especially the business segment (dominant segment) is down by 50%.

To clarify, if there are 100 rooms in total, about 70 rooms used to be occupied, 50 by business travelers and 35 rooms have to be occupied to break even.

How do we solve this problem and help bring the utilization back to pre-COVID levels?

Also, can they continue with the current business model?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: Reiterated the problem statement. A few questions before we commence the case: first, what is the timeline we are staring at, i.e., should I consider that we are in the initial phase of lockdown / otherwise?

I: You can consider a timeline where we are beginning to get out of lockdown.

C: What restrictions are in place for commercial activities?

I: Commercial activities can take place without any major restrictions.

C: The second question would be on what timelines we are looking at for implementing the solution/ideas and whether we have any financial constraint?

I: 5 years, no capex constraint.

C: Ok. Now, to start off with, I’d like to understand a few aspects of the company, its offerings, customer segments and competition.

I: Sure, go ahead!

C: So, what type of hotel are we looking at: a basic one or luxury?

I: It’s a 5-star hotel.

C: What are its offerings and revenue streams?

I: Room rent obviously is the major source of revenue, while the other broad segments are broadly classified as F&B, comprising of bar, restaurant with various cuisines, events & conference revenue.

C: What is the customer mix that we have?

I: 70% business travelers, 30% leisure (foreign travelers, i.e., from abroad).

C: How is the competitive position in the market?

I: Overall, the demand and number of rooms have increased over a period of time pre-covid, given that our hotels are in the center of the city.

C: Sure, one last question before we deep-dive into the analysis, how many hotels do we have in total, and have we faced an issue in any specific ones or across the board?

I: They run 10-12 hotels, all owned, of which 4-5 are important and in major cities. We can focus on these for now.

C: Sure, can I take say Chennai as the reference for subsequent analysis.

I: Sure.

C: Given it was an issue with scaling up topline, jotted down my broad approach by splitting it into room and ancillary revenue (the F&B / events), further split room revenue mathematically considering that it would be the major revenue stream and laid it down to the interviewer for his buy-in.

I: That’s fine. But let us first focus on the customer segments and their use cases before getting deeper into this.

C: Split it into business travelers and other individuals and then wanted to evaluate the need, availability, affordability, awareness, and contractual arrangements that they might have in this setup.

Emphasized more on the need and contractual legs, given the new normal working style post covid (basically resulting in reduced travel). Specified a few options such as:

a. Having contractual arrangements with a minimum commitment from the companies in return for more favorable offerings/services.

b. Conversion of the facilities basis the space available: split the analysis into two aspects, something inside the hotel building and the second, any open area outside the building.

Within the hotel building, we can convert the rooms and offer them for people to work out of it (co-working spaces), improve the revenue from restaurants by making it more affordable, have more variety or a new model of home-delivery of food, which ITC, Marriott started during lockdown (ancillary revenue).

Outside the building, the options would be depending on the area available, to make the hotel more attractive.

c. Leasing out certain facilities altogether.

d. Demolishing the current setup and redesigning the hotel rooms to make them more friendly in terms of pricing, so that the rooms are more attractive.

e. Another converting a few locations basis the demand into a quarantine facility, subject to the timelines we’re looking at, given this may not be a long-term fix in light of the covid scenario.

I: Ok. So, one of the things that you mentioned is what is happening, i.e., conversion of facilities into co-working spaces model where companies are moving away from having their own facility (owned/leased). How about the other individuals, whom will you target?

C: So, here firstly, we need to focus on domestic travelers too, given the restriction on international travel. Although it would be less to start off with, given the timeline we are looking at, could be a good proposition in the long term.

I: Ok. But how would you go about attracting localities to stay in hotels, say people from Chennai to stay in Chennai?

C: Well, there are two things to consider here:

a. I may be wrong here, but I believe there are certain police restrictions on localities checking in to hotels.

b. Typically in the Indian scenario customers are price sensitive, so, for localities to check in to 5-star hotels, seems a distant possibility. However, if I relate it to a personal experience, we can have rooms booked for guests attending a wedding, that would be a feasible option.

We can change the customer behavioral pattern/mindset in the long run to promote localities checking in to hotels (subject to there being no regulatory restrictions), like Kellogg’s had taken 13 years to change the breakfast pattern in Japan.

I: Ok. Now, how would you go about pricing this for the workplace model and what would be your TG?

C: TG would be tech companies as we had discussed earlier.

I: But what size would you target?

C: We can target large companies and get the rooms booked upfront for a defined period.

I: Don’t you think that will change the core of the co-working space model in itself?

C: Well, yeah. I agree. It will become more of a lease than a co-working space setup. In that case, I would target mid-size firms and startups since they might be looking to save on facility costs in the aftermath of the pandemic and go for co-working spaces on a need basis.

I: Right, so, let's wrap it up quickly. How would you price it? Let’s only discuss the approach.

C: Specified the different pricing models with cost plus providing the base price and value based the ceiling.

Went ahead with value-based pricing: essentially how do the customers gain value from the services offered. Specified the different costs that tech cos would otherwise be incurring like facility & maintenance (including operating charges such as rental, electricity), staff: admin & maintenance, internet & telephone connectivity.

The other aspect would be a convenience factor that the companies would not have to spend their efforts any more in managing the infrastructure and upgrading it.