Bain & Company Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Q1. So, I have had a brief look at your profile. Can you please take me through the motivations behind your career choices till now?
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Your client is in the hospitality industry. They have 2 landmark 5-star hotels in Chennai and Kolkata which have been there established since the last 30-40 years.

After COVID, the hotels have been operating at only 70% capacity utilization. Can you help them by creating a sustainable revenue strategy going forward? Focus on making new use cases
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: Conducted CPCC, found out that 70% of the customers were from the Business segment. The drop in Business customers was more than the drop in Leisure customers.

I: Why do you think that may be?

C: Because of the whole remote working model? Travel by business travelers has decreased.

I: Precisely! Meetings are conducted over Zoom now. Given that, can you help the hotel?

C: Sure, please give me a minute to structure my thoughts. I drew a first level structure by dividing the problem into two: Boosting utilization of capacity within existing use cases & defining new use uses. Divided the first bucket further into 3 different types of customers:

Business, Tourists and Locals. The second bucket I divided further into revenue sources: Rooms, Restaurant, Spa, Gyms, Conference Hall etc.

I explored various ideas with each bucket. For example, (First Bucket) Corporate Partnerships, tying up with more tour operators, offering anniversary or birthday packages etc.

(Second Bucket) promoting staycations, opening the spa and the gym to outsiders, movie screenings or other ticketed events at the Conference Hall etc.

I: That is all valid and fine. But can you think something for the business customers specifically? Since their need to travel itself has gone down. A different kind of value proposition maybe.

C: I feel that shared capacity might result in a drop in our brand image. Since this is a luxury hotel.

I: Okay, what else?

C: I tried to explore more options but wasn't able to get to what the recruiter wanted. At each step I was letting him know what I was thinking. As soon as I repeated the point about shared capacity.

I: What exactly do you mean by shared capacity?

C: The hotel could save out on fixed costs by leasing out part of the property to a third party!

I: Correct, in terms of business customers this would mean?

C: A co-working space where the remote part of the office could work.

I: Exactly! Can you craft a value proposition for this offering? Also focus on how you will price it.

C: Did a basic STP analysis.

I: Great, and now pricing?

C: Outlined how we will arrive at value-based pricing based on the incremental change in cashflows to the corporate with which we will share capacity: We should focus on two aspects: fixed cost saved by the business & the value of the increased productivity the employees will deliver due to working in comfortable settings.

I: Sounds good. Now, Aditi can you please deliver an elevator pitch to the client about your proposed solution.

Your client is a manufacturer of Diesel Generator sets. They were pre-dominantly in the industrial space where they were #1, and they’ve recently ventured into the retail space (say for individual big houses, shopping complexes, nursing homes etc.) They are #3 in this industry with only 10% market share. They want to go to #1 in 3-5 years. Help them out.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: Conducted CPCC. Major points were that our sets were priced at Rs 2.2 L while the rest of the market was priced at Rs 2 L. This was because we had a better performance in certain aspects.

Can you please tell me how are we performing better? Which metric is this measured on?

I: Why don't you tell me how one diesel generator set can be better than the other?

C: Latest technology, brand image, longer shelf-life, per liter fuel efficiency.

I: Okay, what else?

C: The number of variants offered, safety, ease of usage & installation.

I: Okay, & what else?

C: If it makes any sound or air pollution, how the generator looks, how compact is it for a residential setting.

I: Okay, what else?

C: (Struggling at this point) Availability of service centers, time taken for the generator to start, repair & maintenance cost, if the repair parts are easily available.

I: (Smiles) Good. We can stop now. So, what should the client do?

C: Started talking about increasing revenue through a loose consumer journey approach. E.g.: Commissioning influencers (electricians) etc.

I: You won't look at the costs?

C: Of course! The consumers are not valuing our product enough to account for the difference of Rs. 20,000. We should try to come down to the Rs 2 Lakh price tag so that we can have a distinct competitive advantage in terms of quality for money.

I: Yes, that is right. Now, you have walked into a lift at Bain, and you see the client standing there. He asks you for a solution. You only have this preliminary discussion worth of information. What would you tell him?

C: (Understood that he was also asking for an elevator pitch. Summarized the case as if I was
pitching to a client)

I: Good.


We had about 3-4 minutes of discussion after this about any questions I had. The Partner then
left the zoom call.

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.

Q1. Tell me something about yourself? Why consulting?
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How will you value a broking / wealth management firm?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: As a financial services firm, we will have a number of services offered.

I: Let us consider a broking firm. What business verticals can you consider?

C: Major services offered would include the following:
1. Broking services
2. Debt syndication
3. Commodities
4. Advisory - Investment banking, Portfolio services etc.

I: Good, let us consider broking firm into equities.

C: What is the geography where the broking firm is located?

I: Bombay and has clients with NSE.

C: Do we operate in stock exchange across India?

I: Let us consider clients across India, operating in NSE.

C: What is the client base that we cater to?

I: HNI + General public.

C: When we are considering valuation of a broking firm, we can evaluate the revenue and cost to determine the cash inflows.

Revenue is based on value and % of brokerage. (Value = Price of shares * Quantity of shares * Mix of shares).

I: Which parameters affect the quantity?

C: No. of customers, type of customers (for instance - HNI will trade more than general people), exchanges traded in, we can also look at the geography, penetration, competitors, and the life cycle in stock exchange (gave relevance of 2008 stock crash leading to reduction in number of people).

I: How to evaluate price over a period of time.

C: We can assign a growth rate based on the growth rate of the economy and performance of equities related to it.

I: How will you value these?

C: As these are a series of cash flows, we can take a DCF approach.

I: This is on an ongoing basis. How about if I close the business?

C: We will also consider the terminal value. It can be calculated based on tangible and intangible assets. Tangible assets could include assets of the firm (computers, office etc.) and a broking card (important and holds great value as a license). Intangible assets could include assets - customer data and relations. The team will have access to funds of customers which is valuable.

We are a steel pipe manufacturer, and we are working on a cost transformation program and wish to reduce our cost by Rs. 150 Crs.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: What is the time horizon within which we would like to reduce the cost?

I: 12 months.

C: What is the product that we manufacture and whom do we cater to?

I: Large steel pipe and we cater to B2B and large customers.

C: Do we deal in separate product SKUs?

I: We have different diameters and variants depending on the process. But let us have one SKU for now.

C: What would be the location?

I: Hanjar port. We can import raw material from China and export it to the neighboring countries.

C: Would it be safe to assume that our customers are international?

I: Yes.

C: Given we are looking at reducing costs, what would our total current cost be?

I: Rs.6000 Cr. What are the various costs that I can incur?

C: Raw Material (RM), production, distribution, marketing, and support.

I: RM is my major cost, and it accounts for 60% of the overall cost.

C: RM will include purchase cost and inbound transmission.

I: Let us consider purchase cost.

C: Purchase cost = Price / tonne * Quantity

I: What parameters would affect the price?

C: The country from where we purchase - China, South Africa, Indonesia etc. It is a commodity and, thus, prices would fluctuate. We can consider domestic purchase as well. Quality, grade of the RM can also be considered. Concept of EOQ i.e., ordering cost v/s storage cost tradeoff.

I: Good, let us assume we have an order of 100 tonnes, and efficiency is 95%, so we will roughly order 105 tonnes. We have 2 options, order 105 in one go or in 2 parts, what would you recommend and why?

C: As melting steel is costly; it would be better to do so in one go. How much of it would be needed in the start?

I: Let us say 80% is needed in the start.

C: Then it is advisable to order in one go as it will help to reduce storage and transport cost and help to get a bulk discount.

I: Why would I consider ordering 20% in the start?

C: Maybe if it is a new supplier and we are not sure of the quality or the manufacture process with our infrastructure.

I: What if I have options to order, 3/4/5 times.

C: We will consider the EOQ concept and evaluate it independently based on requirement.

I: We can also consider the confidence we have on supplier to build a relationship.

C: Yes.

I: Let us do a quick calculation. If I am able to save 2% of the RM cost, what would the amount be and how am I able to justify the same with my target?

C: Total cost is 6000 cr. RM is 60%, i.e., 3600 Crs and 2% of the same is 72 Crs. Our target is 150 Crs and, thus, we will not be able to achieve it.

Q1. Being from St. Xavier's and Calcutta, why didn't you pursue CA?
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Q2. Tell me something about yourself apart from what's there on your resume.
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You are meeting the head of the logistics department of a company. They are involved in both B2B and B2C sides of the business. Talk about what would be the agenda of the meet and the proposition you would take to transform their logistics business.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Asked me a couple of HR questions including why not CA.

I: Answered and realized he was a CA. He started laughing based on my answer.

C: Followed the CPCC approach.

I: (Stopping in between) Do not follow the conventional case solving models and logically explain the thought process and rationale.

C: What’s the name of company, chief products/ services, their operating cities? Can I also know the current system of logistics:

Internal/External vendors, technology being used for inventory/supply chain/vendor management?

I: The company name is Havells India selling all the current products you’re aware of. They have engagement with multiple outside vendors for delivery. The storage & warehousing is internal, and SAP is the ERP system currently being used by them for all internal purposes.

C: Okay. I have all the information I need. Can I take a minute to analyses the way to go?

The typical supply chain process comprises of the following 4 stages:

Inbound logistics, storage & warehousing, operations, and finally outbound logistics.

If this seems fair, I’d like to explore each stage and discuss the integral parts and deliberate upon the changes/improvements in each stage.

I: Fair enough. Go ahead but be very brief as we don’t have a lot of time. Only focus on the key element in each stage.

C: Sure. Under Inbound logistics, the key component is the number of vendors.

My suggestion here is to have limited but integral vendors with the aim of solidifying long term relationships with the same. This will give them confidence and give us higher bargaining power to cut costs via economies of scale.

C: Under storage & warehousing, and operations, I suggest having an end-to-end application linked to our ERP system for end-to-end internal tracking of orders, dispatches and an overall pulse over inventory.

If time permits, I would like to also talk about the current inventory system we follow.

I: No, let’s ignore that for now.

C: Under outbound logistics, again the number of vendors is important. Also, I’d also like to look at the reverse logistics aspect since electronic goods tend to have a high return percentage, hence would also explore this angle.

I: (Starts laughing and asks me to hold on). At this point, it seems you’re blabbering on and on. Take a minute and tell me what the three most important aspects in this entire process are.

C: (After a minute) The three most important part of this process would be the technology, employees and the current system of processes and operations.

C: Do you have any feedback for me?

I: I think you have a lot of ideas and despite the lack of industry knowledge, you were able to come up with good ideas. The three important aspects were correct, but you missed out on cost. In logistics, cost would be extremely crucial. For future cases, try to be a little more structured. That’s it.