BCG Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Q1. Casual conversation about myself, under-graduation and my experience at IIM L.
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Q2. Explain internship project. (Case 2 was created out of my answer to this)
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Client in a global pharma company. It is an innovative company manufacturing biologic. It has a one-of-a-kind cancer medicine that has been available since a decade. The company has patents on this product elsewhere, and not in India. A pharma company in India will be
launching a local copy of the same drug. Design defense strategy
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: Reiterated my understanding of the problem statement. (This was very important since the
statement was very big with lot of details).

What is the time available before the drug is launched by the Indian company?

I: 3 months.

C: We have to design a defense strategy in the sense that the client’s market share must be protected. Is that correct?

I: Yes.

C: How old is this global pharma company? Where is it located? What are its other products?

I: Established firm in US, leading player. Other products include medication for arthritis etc.

C: Can you explain more about the particular drug in case?

I: One-of-a-kind drugs curing a specific kind of breast cancer.

C: Can I get more details about the Indian company and its drug?

I: Large global player. The local drug is 30% cheaper than the current drug.

C: Is only the price a point of distinction here? Is the API, formulation, administration, and efficacy of both the drugs same?

I: Yes, that’s correct.

C: I can primarily divide the defense strategy into two:

1) if we can stop the launch of the local product

2) If not, what should be our steps post launch.

I: Launch cannot be stopped since there is no patent or any other legal right available in India.

C: In that case, I’d like to delve deeper in the second bucket of post launch actions.

I: Sure.

C: I can primarily think of 4 strategies. I’d like to explore each of them sequentially.

I: Go ahead.

C: I’m assuming that this is primarily a B2B sales scenario wherein our customers are hospitals.

I: That’s correct.

C: In that case, doctors would be the influencers of purchase decision of the product. The end users (patients) would have little say. So, we can create customer lock-in with the doctors by say, demonstrating value addition provided by the product or incentivizing the doctors to procure our products.

I: Good. How would you demonstrate the value addition here?

C: Tried giving examples but interviewer kept cross questioning and dismissing all my ideas. So, moved on to next strategy.

C: Since price is the problem here, can we bring down our price by rationalizing cost structure and/or reducing margins?

I: Not possible to reduce price since the medicine is priced at the same level in all other countries. If price is reduced in India, other countries can leverage on this arbitrage opportunity.

C: Is there any way to create barriers to avoid exploiting this arbitrage opportunity? For example, in India, certain products are priced at a particular price if sold in certain states and higher price if sold in other states.

I: Doesn’t seem feasible. Move on.

C: My third idea was to explore if we can acquire the Indian company. This would avoid all the complications and competition. This would however be subject to not being anti-competitive according to the Competition Act.

I: Not possible to acquire. The Indian company too is a large established global player.

C: In that case, can we get into some kind of agreement with the Indian player with regards to the drug, in exchange of probably something else that’s attractive to the Indian company?

I: Doesn’t sound feasible.

C: Okay. So, my last strategy would be somewhat similar to the 1st strategy but create lockins with the supply chain players/distribution network.

Again, we’ll have to ensure that Competition Act is not contravened with respect bro these exclusive supply and tie in arrangements.

Company X is looking to enter India. It manufactures baby foods. Evaluate if it should enter India.
Calculated the market size to assess the attractiveness of the expansion opportunity

Q1. Questions on my background, work-ex and some discussion about the payments industry.
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Q2. Introduce yourself.
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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.
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Q2. What motivates you in life?
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Q3. Describe one of the best projects you have done in Deloitte USI.
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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 anything from your life so far which you are extremely proud of?
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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?
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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.

Q1. Talk about 3 highlights from your CV.
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Q2. How is Ola doing right now? What do you think is the way forward for Ola?
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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 me about yourself.
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Q2. Why do you want to pursue consulting?
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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. Tell me about yourself.
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Q2. Why consulting?
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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. Introduce yourself.
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Q2. Walk me through your work experience.
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Q3. Couple of questions related to GST policy as they were relevant to work experience.
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Our client is a large infrastructure player, who wants to build a 10km-long tollway bridge connecting 2 cities divided by a river. Please advise them on its profitability.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

I: The cities are currently connected by a 30km-long 4-lane bridge (no toll). Our client wants to shorten this distance to 10 km with a new 8-lane bridge, with a profitability objective.

Major use cases of the bridge users: work, education, personal/leisure activities.

C: Noted. My approach to this problem would be first doing a qualitative check for size of opportunity & risks, followed by a quantitative approach where we can calculate the NPV to check if it is positive.

I: Works. Let’s start with the Qualitative part.

C: Great. Here, I want to break it down into 2 parts: opportunity & risk. By opportunity, I want to look at what will be the traffic between the cities across the 2 bridges and its spread across each bridge. And in risk, I will have a look at major sources of risks such as Political risk, Regulatory risk and Relocation & rehabilitation risks.

I: Great. You already know the reasons why people travel between the 2 cities. What are your thoughts on the Opportunity bit?

C: Given that the distance between the 2 cities has reduced by 20 km (30-10), I would imagine a lot more people would be interested in travelling between the cities now, despite the additional toll to be paid.

I: Definitely. Let’s assume that qualitatively the risks don’t seem major as well. Let’s move onto the quantitative part of it.

C: Alright. Here, I want to estimate the NPV of the project and if positive, compare that with the infra company’s existing profits: if it is significant in comparison, only then will we go ahead with the project.

I: Perfect. Let’s begin.

C: I want to first look at the major revenue segments: toll, proceeds from rent & sale of real estate assets on the bridge, advertisements, tourism opportunities and parking. Fair to assume to these heads would encapsulate most of the revenue earned, am I missing something?

I: No. How will you estimate the revenue earned from toll, say in a day?

C: To estimate the revenue earned from toll in a day, I would first guesstimate the number of vehicles travelling between the 2 cities in a day and estimate what will be our bridge’s share of the traffic. After that, I would estimate a fair price of a toll ticket.

I: Great. Please lay down your approaches for each estimate.

C: Number of vehicles guesstimate: Used the Supply side: divided a day into Low/Medium/High traffic hours. Low traffic: one vehicle passes the tollgate every 20 seconds, medium: 10 seconds, high: 4 seconds. From the number of hours in each L/M/H traffic segments, will guesstimate the number of vehicles in each lane.

Multiply by 8 lanes. Toll Pricing: Used value-based pricing (alternate: cost-based, but the interviewer asked for value-based); By using our bridge as opposed to the existing bridge, each commuter saves time and petrol (thanks to lesser distance).

Petrol saved = 20 km worth of petrol, if the average vehicle’s mileage is 20 km, then we save 1 liter of petrol each way (~Rs. 70).

To calculate the monetary value of time saved (45 mins. (10 km at 40 kmph vs 30 km at 30 kmph average): we can multiply 45 minutes with the hourly salary of the commuter of the bridge with the minimum earnings/car owner. This way we can ensure affordability for all.

Final toll price (one way) = value added due to time saved + value-added due to petrol saved (Rs. 70). This can then be further discounted for monthly pass or return passes.

I: Great. Your thoughts on using the demand side approach for calculating traffic volume?

C: We can do that by estimating how many people would want to travel to the other city for each use case, despite the distance. For example, we need to estimate the number of school students for which the following equation is true ->[Value (Schooling in same city) < {Value (Schooling in other city): Cost (Monetary & Hedonic) of travelling to the other city}]

However, this is a difficult estimate with a lot of room for error. Hence, I would prefer the supply side calculation.

I: Great. Your thoughts on the cost side of NPV?

C: There will be a large capital expenditure, followed by periodic maintenance expenses.

I: Okay. How will you estimate the NPV from these?

C: Subtract costs from the revenue estimates over time, & discount it by the COC of the project.

I: Okay. Thoughts on the cost of capital of such projects?

C: Mostly high. These projects are mostly financed via non-recourse loans, with lenders having first claim to the cash flows emanating from the project till such time the project is paid for. Since this is a risky proposition for the lender, the cost of capital is usually high.

I: Great. Let’s do some calculations for the NPV and wind up.

Q1. What kind of products did you build and work on?
Add your answer

Consider any app that you use frequently, what, according to you, are some of the major pain-points and what would you have done differently?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: Okay, let’s take LinkedIn as the app for our discussion.

I touched upon the basic and advanced features that have been introduced to the LinkedIn app, comparison with respect to its previous versions and after its acquisition by Microsoft.

I outlined the metrics that I as a Product Manager would want to keep a track of, while parallelly going through the user’s perspective and how the features suffice their requirements.

The focus was towards achieving a balance between improving user experience, creating user delight as well as maintaining the user engagement metrics on the platform.

I: Since you have worked and built fintech products, lets discuss about an initiative that I am working on, I am currently working on building a digital bank from the ground up in India.

(This was not a case discussion and the conversation revolved around the different aspects of the bank and how a digital setup would look like. The partner mentioned the different initiatives he had planned for setting up the bank).

Your client is a refrigerator manufacturer, who is recently facing a decline in their profits.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: I would like to understand more about the client. (I asked the initial clarifying questions including base of operations, manufacturing facilities, value chain, product mix, market position, current industry scenario etc.)

The decline in profits can be an outcome of either an increase in costs or a decline in revenues or both, should I start from any of these parts?

I: There is neither a decline in revenues nor an increase in costs.

C: Okay, understood. Please allow me a minute to gather my thoughts.

C: I would want to understand the profit margins across the types of refrigerators we have and the market demand for the same. Also, how do they compare with the industry’s trend?

I: We have higher margins on double-door refrigerators, but they currently constitute 20% of our portfolio. For our competitors, about 40% of their sales come from double-door refrigerators.

C: We can try to optimize our product portfolio so as to maximize our profit margins.

Q1. Tell me something about yourself.
Add your answer

Our client is a home appliance manufacturer. For their refrigerator vertical they want to improve their profit margin which is currently around 13-15% (this is lower than their competitors).
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: Confirmed the problem statement, applied the CPCC framework.

I: Client has been established in India for a very long time. The client operates throughout the value chain. There are 3 major market players which retain roughly 70-80% of the market share, our client is one of them. Refrigerators can be classified into 3 broad
categories:

(a) Single Door

(b) Double Door

(c) Premium.

The client also manufactures spare parts for refrigerators. Growth has not been a problem for the client.

C: To improve revenue, I laid down 3 options that the company can explore:

(1) Number of Retailers we are dealing with

(2) Average Quantity we are selling per retailer

(3) Price.

I: The client is doing well in all these 3 dimensions. What else can we do to improve the margin?

C: We can analyze the cost side and identify areas where we can reduce costs to improve the overall margin.

I: Costs cannot be reduced further, anything else you can think of?

C: We can look at the other revenue streams such as spare parts and installation services.

I: Let’s focus on refrigerators.

C: Confirmed if I can explore the competitive landscape and further questioned the difference between the client and competitor’s product offerings and price.

I: Go ahead.

C: Asked the profit margin per category for our client and the competitors.

I: The client was earning a profit margin of 10%, 14% and 19% respectively for single door, double door and premium respectively. Competitors were earning 10%, 15% and 20% for these categories.

C: Asked if there was a difference in the sales mix? If the competitor was selling more of one category than our client?

I: Yes, the competitor is selling more Premium refrigerators which is driving up their overall margin.

The client is a global tools manufacturer and has two product lines- hand tools (hammers, pliers etc.) and power tools (drill machines etc.) with limited differentiation. They launched their hand tools business in India 3 years back with 100+ dealers across the country but have only been able to achieve 1.5% market share even after conducting numerous marketing initiatives. The global management has asked them to get into the top 3 in 18 months or exit the market. How should the client proceed?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: Reiterated the problem statement and the given information. I’d like to understand more about the competitive landscape. How many players operate in the market and their respective market shares?

I: The top 3 players in the branded tools market hold 60% of the market. Player 1 :35%, Player 2: 15% and Player 3: 10%.

C: Does the client have any budgetary constraints for this expansion in India?

I: No, the client doesn't have any budgetary constraints.

C: The client can grow in India through Organic or Inorganic routes. Under organic routes as you mentioned earlier the client has tested a lot of marketing initiatives and has struck enough deals with retailers across the country. Therefore, we can explore pricing. We can dilute our profit margin and decrease the price of the product, but it might lead to a price war.

I: The company wants to maintain its current pricing strategy.

C: Then we should consider inorganic options which include JVs and M&As. Since we plan on staying here long term, I don't see JV as viable. So, I think we should look at M&A.

I: Great. Whom would you merge with or acquire and why?

C: Since our aim is top 3. I would look at the firms on rank 2 and 3.

I: Why not rank 1?

C: With 35% market share, they seem to be way ahead of the other competition and striking a deal with them might be difficult as compared to the rank 2 or 3 players who'd be more interested in associating with a global giant.

I: After we merge, would you want to launch a separate brand for the recently acquired company or sell it under the client’s name?

C: We can enjoy the brand recognition the company we acquired possesses and further improve our market share. Associating the client’s name with an Indian Manufacturer will further improve the client’s sale as well. Therefore, I recommend co-branding/ joint branding.