BCG Summer Intern Analyst Interview Questions and Answers

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Learn in advance how to complete these tasks.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Nokia is currently the leader in the market for mobile phones in India. Motorola is far behind it and wants to increase its market share by around 10%. Give three suggestions for doing the same.

I started off by asking about the price segments in which the mobile phones are sold. These were sold in all categories from low price to the very expensive ones. Then I inquired if the features available in similarly priced models of other cos differed but the answer was no.
So basically price was not the issue.
Then i inquired if the expenditure on advertising was comparable to the other cos to which the answer was yes..
I suggested that probably the people were skeptical about certain features of the mobile sets, like their durability wtc. upon which the company never focused in advertisements. So probably a survey could be conducted to find if there is anything particular that the people are skeptical about.
Also the company could have a tie-up with CDMA vendors like reliance or TATA Indicom, where the mobile sets are provided along with the connection.
Tips: You should be thorough with your resume and study the sectors related to your past projects pretty well.

Skills:
Duration: 2
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Prepare case well and about yourself. Be confident and clear about what you say.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case: Estimate the demand for treadmills in India. You can assume that there is only one variety of treadmill costing 20k.
Tips: guestimates have some standard ways to proceed and are easily crackable.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: -A PE firm wants to evaluate an opportunity for online DVD rental market in India. Advise them. I looked at all possible dimensions, took care of issues like privacy, demand drivers, possible business model, segmented the customers, estimated annual sales and costs. Told that returns would be much lesser than what a PE firm demands on an investment.

- The sales cost/ acquisition of a certain credit card sales company has suddenly increased. The number of conversations per employee though remains the same. What can be the possible reasons. Gave a broad set of possibilities like inflation, market saturation, new product arrival, competition etc. Divided into fixed and variable costs and indicated that employee cost would have increased in variable cost.
Tips: Be confident, take your time and try to gauge the problem correctly before giving answers.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: SBI has 150 branches and ICICI has 50 in Mumbai. The home loan sales for the two are though 50 cr and 150 cr respectively. What are the possible reasons.
Initially checked whether there was a real problem for SBI by identifying no. of employees in the home loan department for both, company focus and years since in the market.
Identified the following reasons:
1. Marketing effort by ICICI
2. Word of mouth approach to home loans
3. Tie ups with Real estate guys
4. Lower home loan rates; less diligence
5. Customer friendly staff; Possible use of technology
6. Consumer profile incline towards private banking
7. Other VAS provided by ICICI.

Skills:
Duration: 3 months
College Name: IIM Lucknow