BCG Consultant Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Q1. Questions on my background, work-ex and some discussion about the payments industry.
Add your answer
Q2. Introduce yourself.
Add your answer

If you were to launch a post payment product for the low-income households, how would you go about it? Which product, what features, market penetration etc.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

The partner wanted me to solve the case as I would on a consulting project and also asked me to use my existing knowledge of the payments industry.

So, I stuck to minimal questions and explained my approach every step of the way and took his confirmation from time to time.

C: Who wants to launch this product? Could you provide me some background information on the issuer?

I: A well-known bank in the low- middle income group, has 20+ fragmented competitors, looking to disrupt the mass affluent segment.

C: I want to divide my analysis into 3 segments:

a) Type of product and features

b) Marketing and Communication

c) Onboarding of customers

Choice of products could be debit card, credit card, co-branded card, a virtual card, replenishable cards.

(I explained what each type of product is and what they are suitable for. In the end the choice comes down to either a physical credit card or a virtual credit card for maximum benefits on every rupee spent. I made a matrix of the pros and cons considering the following metrics: Cost and Time to launch, Convenience to consumer, Consumer preference (specific to target segment), Revenue generation and concluded on the physical credit card option.)

C: Should I move on to the kind of features we should go for?

I: Leave that. Tell me what according to you are the main barriers to growth in the credit card space?

C: I divided the barriers to growth into 2 parts- merchant resistance and consumer preference.

a) Consumers: Lack of trust in credit cards due to high interest rate on late payments, not as convenient as cash or UPI payments.

b) Merchants: Interchange fees, payment regulations

I: Then how would you market such a product?

C: I followed the basic principles of mode, medium, message and customized it as per the target segment.

I: Do you know of any existing unique products for this specific target segment?

C: I spoke about Simpl (a platform for credit-based payments for online retailers) and we had a brief discussion on it.

A group of people want to start an online fitness app.

They want your help with 3 things:
a) Steps to analyze the target group and demand
b) What data do you need for this?
c) Sources for this data
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: Target market based on the below:

a) Age

b) Occupation

c) Location

d) Income levels

Narrowed down on 18–40-year age segment in tier 1 and 2 cities focusing on: students, working professionals, sports enthusiasts.

I also did a quick guesstimate of the market size on the basis of the above.

Sources of data:

a) Google location services for current place of residence and frequently visited locations.

b) Cred or similar payments apps for information on spending.

c) Zomato/ Swiggy to check food preferences for product tie-ups.

d) Social media presence and internet usage from telecommunication companies.

Q1. Tell me about yourself.
Add your answer
Q2. What motivates you in life?
Add your answer
Q3. Describe one of the best projects you have done in Deloitte USI.
Add your answer

Your client is an IT Service Company. You have been hired to analyze their cost structure and recommend solutions to reduce costs.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: I reiterated the problem statement to ensure I was not missing any information. I also asked a few clarifying questions to gain a better understanding of the problem at hand.

When you mention IT service companies, can I assume it to be like TCS, Wipro, Infosys?

I: Yes, you can assume it to be like TCS.

C: Just to know a bit more about the client, can you help with the following details - locations, client bases, age of the company, size of the company in terms of the workforce?

I: The company is based in India and has offices in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Gurgaon. It started its operations in the mid-90s and has approximately 5000 employees. Most of its clients are based out of the US, majorly Fortune 500.

C: Sounds good! To get a better understanding of the offering, is it safe to assume that it offers customized solutions to every client?

I: Yes, the requirement would vary based on its scale and specific need.

C: Cost can be broadly categorized into HR, infrastructure, and miscellaneous costs. HR cost would include employees’ salary, employee mix, benefits, and perks such as traveling, stay, F&B and insurance.

Infrastructure cost would consist of computer servers, maintenance, software license, rent, utility, hardware such as laptops/desktops and technological accessories.

The miscellaneous cost would include stationaries, security, salaries to maintenance staff, taxes, S&M. Would you like me to focus on any of these specifically, or should I explore each one by one?

I: Let’s focus on HR cost, which accounts for more than 80% of the cost.

C: Employees’ salary: fixed + variable component, and employee mix includes team composition: Onshore & Offshore, and team utilization.

I: Good, now I would like you to think of a few major cost components associated with support departments?

C: Could you please help to understand what does support department do?

I: They provide support to the core teams involved directly with the clients’ deliverables. Such as delivering laptop services, IT security team, so on and so forth.

C: Majorly, the cost would comprise of salary: perks and benefits, employee mix, and the number of employees supported per support staff.

Q1. Tell me about yourself.
Add your answer
Q2. Why consulting?
Add your answer

You have been hired as an advisor to the Climate Resilience Officer (CRO), Mumbai. Your first task is to create a vision for the next couple of years for the CRO. How will you go about this?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Could you please explain to me the exact mandate of the CRO? Is this in line with the BMC?

I: You can say that the CRO is an officer of the BMC. The CRO is responsible on two fronts. Firstly, he is responsible for building climate resilience which means preparing the city of Mumbai to absorb stresses imposed by climate change (rising sea levels, increased temperatures). Secondly, he is responsible for climate adaptability. The weather patterns are constantly changing and the CRO is responsible for building any infrastructure that may be necessary for coping with changing weather patterns. You can imagine building ridges along the sea banks as in The Netherlands.

C: Understood. For the next couple of years, I think we can prioritize the action keeping in mind the following two objectives:

a. Saving lives of the population, particularly the vulnerable segment living near the sea. Focus should also be on a large section of the population living in slums like Dharavi who do not have the means to support rehabilitation in case need be.

b. Minimizing disruptions when creating climate resilience infrastructure in the city for corporations and general population as well.

I: Alright. How would you categorize your response to meet these objectives?

C: I would like to break the response into two aspects, a couple of initiatives which are fairly long-term and can be started now, such as pushing corporations to build sustainable infrastructure and moving to renewable energy. We can look at introducing legislations in this regard over the next couple of years. In the short-term, we can create ridges along the sea banks to prevent any immediate mishap that may happen due to rising sea levels. We can also look at rehabilitation options for slum dwellers in the short-term.

I: Okay. What is the kind of resources that you would need to implement these points? Think in terms of competencies.

C: Maybe technical and budgetary support. Technical staff would include scientists, technology staff to monitor climate patterns, knowledge transfer from international locations. Budgetary support can be sourced from government funds, international agencies like World Bank, UN, International Solar Alliance etc.

Your client is a fuel retail company. The revenues have not been growing since the last 3 years. The client has hired BCG to look at revenue generating options outside the fuel and energy space. How should we go about this?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Could you please elaborate on the scale of business of our client here? Where do they operate?

I: Sure, the client is a major fuel retailer in India. It distributes petrol, diesel and CNG through its network of 13,000 pumps spread across the country. It is among the top 3-4 players in the market.

C: Understood. How does the client segregate these 13,000 pumps? By geography, products supplied, any other way?

I: By geography. You can assume that the pumps are segregated into three categories: urban, rural and highways. All three segments are facing this issue. The products supplied across these pumps are fairly standard.

C: How is the industry fairing at this time? Are the competitors also facing this issue?

I: Yes, so what has happened is that a number of competitors have entered the fuel distribution ecosystem in the country in the last 5 years. Some of them have adopted deep discounting policies as well. As a result, the overall revenue growth has become stagnant. The client, thus, wants to diversify its business.

C: I see. One last question on the nature of business of our client, they are not into crude oil extraction?

I: No, they just pick oil up from the refineries and use their distribution network to sell fuel.

C: Understood. Since fuel is heavily government regulated, making changes in the price is something we cannot look at. However, we can explore promotional tie-ups with financial institutions for discounts. We can look at a combination of making modifications in the existing product portfolio and the geographies we are catering to. Maybe tap into new geographies and cater to B2B segments.

I: Makes sense. But for now, let us focus on non-fuel segment. Can you list down a few factors and maybe come up with a model to decide which businesses to enter?

C: Sure, on a preliminary level, I would look at factors like revenue/profit maximization, ease of business expansion, competition in allied sectors etc. All these factors would differ in their importance depending on the geography.

I: Alright. Can you list down a couple of ideas by which the client can increase his revenues?

C: In the urban areas, we can look at monetizing options by selling a couple of fuel stations which do not contribute enough to our revenues. Urban stations will command a higher land price. We can also look at integrating with allied services such as vehicle repairs, retail stores and shopping centers wherever feasible. In the rural areas, the customer segments will naturally be different so we will have to look at revenue generating options for rural population. We can leverage our distribution networks and create rural mandis and service centers for trucks and tractors. For highways, the main customers would be trucking and logistics companies. We can look at creating motels for them. Large retail outlets can also be opened in busy routes. Service centers can also be opened for vehicles.

I: Makes sense. In addition to this, the client is also looking at tapping into other allied services like insurance for vehicles and drivers.

Q1. Tell me about yourself.
Add your answer
Q2. Why do you want to pursue consulting?
Add your answer

Client is US based archeological site management company. They are entering India and the first site they want to evaluate is Victoria memorial Kolkata. Every year 1 cr. people visit the Victoria memorial. Currently the entry ticket is 1Rs/person and annual operational cost is 150 Cr. Shall we bid for the property or not for 30-year lease period?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Tell me more about the Victoria memorial property.

I: a. Garden b. Lake c. Museum. Garden is 40 acre and has walking and jogging paths. Lake has boating facility. Museum is 3 stories and contains Victorian era artifacts.

C: What is our objective?

I: Primarily Profits. Secondarily, enter Indian market.

C: I would use the following structure for the case. Analyze the investment financially (Revenue streams, Profits, Investments, exit barriers) and operationally (Autonomy, Risks involved).

I: Let us start with revenue stream analysis. Assume lake is not in our control we can only generate revenue from Museum and Garden. How will we price the tickets?

C: What type of people come to visit the Victoria memorial?

I: There are domestic (80%) and foreign tourists (20%).

C: For garden to roam around 40 acre one will spend 1 hour maximum. We can use the value-based approach to price its ticket. Proxies for garden visit can be having a cup of tea, watching movie, visiting a mall or just time-value of 1 hour. Minimum one will be willing to pay is Rs 10 (for cup of tea).

I: Okay. What about the Museum?

C: We can do value based or competitor-based analysis to price the ticket.

I: Okay, let us assume ticket price for domestic tourist is 10 Rs. How much shall we take from Foreigners?

C: We can take a fixed percentage from their expense. Or we can see how much they are spending on similar attractions (like Taj Mahal, Gateway of India).

I: Okay. Let us assume we take 500 Rs from foreigner. Now do you think we can make profits.

C: Let us see how many people will visit garden and museum. Garden is more suitable for generic purpose; hence 75% people will visit it. Museums require specific interest in art and history, hence only 25% people will visit them.

I: Okay, calculate the revenue generated.

C: With the assumed information we will make around 110Cr from the tourist tickets.

I: We need at least 40 Cr more. That means 40 Rs per customer. How will you generate it?

C: We can look into food and catering services, tour guides, photography, transport services. The revenue generation might not be 40 Rs per person it can be more from foreigner and less from domestic tourists.

I: Okay. So, we shall make the bid? What about operational aspect?

C: Financially it looks profitable, as over the year we can look into increasing the tourist volume and reducing costs. We should look at risk factors such as what will be the response of locals staying near Victoria memorial when we implement the tickets, as they might protest to that.

I: Okay, that is all from my side.

Give revenue increasing solutions only to a paints company CEO.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

I: Give me only revenue increasing recommendation for a paints company.

C: I would like to know more about the company, its product and competition.

I: It is India's second largest paints company, and it is growing very fast. They have already done their cost analysis and they are competitive. They make decorative paints. The largest player is 2 times their size.

C: Can I get to know what is their product mix?

I: They make 3 types of paints. Luxury, Premium and Mass. Luxury is for high-end customer and is price competitive with other companies and has 70% margin. Premium is for middle class customer and has lower price than luxury and has 60% margin. Mass is for general purpose and is price competitive with other companies and low price and has 45% margin.

C: Can you tell me about the company’s value chain? And to whom do we sell it to?

I: The paints company manufactures, then send it to depot from where it goes to retailers. The company has around 50K retailers. From there we sell it to contractors and painters.

C: Structure of the case. We can increase profit margins by increasing the price, changing the product mix and by product innovation. We cannot increase sales by volume because that will lead to increase in cost also. To increase the price, we must look at the price elasticity of each product (in our case premium product's price can be increased little bit to match its competitions price). We can promote more of luxury products because they have more margin. We can try to come up with new types of paints for wider range of application and newer technologies.

I: Okay now let us have a look at cost side also once. Where can we try to reduce cost?

C: We can divide it into raw material, manufacturing, logistics/transportation, and retailer’s margin.

I: Look into the raw material cost as it accounts for 70% of the total cost.

C: We can break it down into Commercial cost + procurement cost + accounting cost.

I: Give me suggestion to lower down the raw material cost.

C: We can make contracts with multiple raw material suppliers to reduce cost. Improve logistical efficiency. Automate accounting processes through inventory management software.

Q1. Talk about 3 highlights from your CV.
Add your answer
Q2. How is Ola doing right now? What do you think is the way forward for Ola?
Add your answer

Client is a tyre manufacturer in Mid-west US. Market is growing for automobiles and client wants to expand capacity. Two options are available with the client, either expand in the US or tie up with a Chinese manufacturer. Analyze the options and recommend the solution.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: To understand more about the company, where does it sell tyres and how many different types of tyre does it sell?

I: Its market is in the US itself and has only one single type of tyre.

C: Is the client the leading manufacturer in the market?

I: Yes, it is the leading player across US.

C: Is there any constraint on the capacity with either of the options?

I: No, we can cater to the increased demand with either of them.

C: I would now like to delve deeper into the available options. First, I would like to proceed with expansion in the US market. I would break down the different costs and then look at each of them. Setup of plant (land and equipment), procurement of raw materials, manufacturing operations, distribution network. Should I go ahead with these heads or am I missing something?

I: Sure, go ahead.

C: Are we planning to setup a new unit or acquire an existing unit in the mid-west? If we plan to set up a new unit, what will be the cost of land and equipment?

I: We want to setup a new unit. The government is supporting local manufacturers and we will be able to purchase land at subsidized rates with a tax holiday for 5 years. Machines will be of better technology and will also be subsidized.

C: Understood, there is a clear benefit in terms of acquiring land and purchasing equipment. Now I would like to know more about the procurement and manufacturing costs. Will we be procuring from same suppliers? Will there be any reduction in costs of manufacturing like manpower due to better automation?

I: Yes, cost of raw materials would be same and labor costs will go down due to advancement in technology.

C: Moving on, how will our distribution costs change if we open a new plant? Will the overall logistics cost increase?

I: No, so there is a mother warehouse in mid-west US from where we deliver across the country.

C: Right. So, I have covered the costs for new set up in US and would now like to move on to the tie up with Chinese player.

I: Sure, go ahead.

C: Since the player is already manufacturing tyres, I would like to understand what the nature of the deal and the overall cost will be associated with tyre. This would include margins of the Chinese player, import duty and shipping costs.

I: Right, so the margin of the player is 10% over the price of the tyre, import duty is 20% and shipping cost is additional 5%.

C: So, assuming base price of manufacturing to be same, it is 1.35x of current price, but China has lower manufacturing rates compared to others and thus, the cost would be lower.

I: What is your final recommendation for the client?

C: From the data we have analyzed, it seems that with the subsidy of the US government, the new setup seems to be a more beneficial option and would recommend setting up own plant.

A new hotel has opened up in a metro city in India. What would be the number of water bottles consumed annually in the hotel?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

I: Let us do a quick guesstimate. A new hotel has opened up in a metro city in India. What would be the number of water bottles consumed annually in the hotel?

C: What kind of hotel is this and where is it located in the city?

I: It is a regular business hotel with rooms, restaurant and a business center located in the city center.

C: I would like to break the calculation into 3 parts, the calculation for rooms, the restaurant, and the business center. To start with the rooms, I would calculate it using the formula, Rooms*average occupancy of rooms*no. of people in a room*bottles consumed per person per day*365.

Is it correct or am I missing anything?

I: Let us talk about factors affecting occupancy of rooms and consumption per person.

C: The occupancy would depend on the type of rooms, day of the week, the seasonality (March might have higher no. of customers compared to October which is a festive month). The consumption of bottles would depend on size of bottles.

I: Correct, the bottle is a 500ml bottle. Let us move to restaurant now.

C: For calculating no. of bottles for the restaurant, I will use, working hours of restaurant, split it into peak and lean, multiplied by avg no. of people visiting in an hour*bottles used per person* %people using bottled water.

I: This is alright, could you think of another approach to calculate people visiting the restaurant?

C: We can take a supply side approach b calculating customers through number of tables. Tables*per table seating*%occupancy*bottles per person.

I: How will you break down occupancy?

C: The occupancy would be influenced by factors including meal of the day and average time spent per person in the restaurant.

I: Right, I think we can end here. Thank you.

Q1. Tell anything from your life so far which you are extremely proud of?
Add your answer
Q2. I see you have worked quite a lot on coal industry, can you categorize what are the challenges faced by the industry in India?
Add your answer

Our client is an NBFC and they want to reduce their loan turnaround time to 1/10 of existing so that they can match the best in industry. Identify the levers through which it can be done.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Explained him about my understanding of NBFC. So, our client is an NBFC and they want to reduce their loan TAT to 1/10. Is there any other objective? Also, in order to achieve the same do we have some constraints on time and investment?

I: No constraints on investment. We want to see the result within 1 year.

C: Asked about the company, the type of loan in case, target customer segments and strategies used by the competition.

I: Bangalore based NBFC. 4th largest player in the market. We are looking into home loan segment for the case.

C: Told and confirmed on my understanding of TAT in loan disbursal i.e., starting from enquiry of loan, to loan disbursal by bank. Laid out the value chain of the process.

Need of getting home loan > consideration set of all banks (based on brokers, online search, and marketing by bank) > Going to the bank’s site to put request > Submit documents > Property Verification > Approval and Loan Disbursal.

Asked questions and suggested recommendations which could lead to increase in TAT because of each block in the value chain. E.g., Online submission of documents, document handling (physical/digital), e-verification, verification of property via government registry, automated approval based on past sanctioned loans based on Machine Learning Algorithms etc.

Our client is an IT firm based out of Bangalore. They are looking for international expansion. Suggest ways and tell whether the firm should go for it or not.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Reiterated the case. Applied CPCC framework to know about the firm, its existing customers, kind of services provided, presence of Indian IT players overseas. Asked about monetary and timeframe constraints. Laid out the framework of case.

International presence could be done in 3 ways: Inorganic (acquiring overseas players), Organic 1 (Opening a branch over there to attract foreign customers), Organic 2 (Marketing and get overseas customer and function from India).

I: Asked about what key cost drivers for an IT firm are.

C: Human Resource, Infrastructure, Sales and Marketing etc.

I: What are the key risks associated with setting up industry by the organic 1 way which you mentioned?

C: Customized Porter’s 5 forces and PESTER to identify risks. Classified them to Industry and Macro Risks. Included government norms, growth in IT industry, availability of skilled human resource, response from local players etc.

I: What would be the major components of your pitch to any major IT foreign client.

C: Impact created on other clients, service time compared to other players, skilled workforce and support provided post implementation.