BCG Consultant Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

• Q1. Tell me about yourself.
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• Q2. Your client is VC head. You are a BCG partner. He wants to know if he should invest in fire extinguisher equity or not (Guesstimate the market size for fire ext...read more
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• Q3. Ram, let us do a case.
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• Q1. Why you have done CFA?
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• Q2. You have good background in operations, why you want to switch?
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• Q3. Why BCG?
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• Q4. Your client is an automobile OEM. You have to digitalize, automate, and optimize logistics process.
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• Q5. Let us do a case.
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• Q1. Why BCG Nairobi
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• Q2. Tell me about a time you had to deal with ambiguity
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• Q1. Tell me something about yourself.
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• Q2. Why have you done CFA after CA and why MBA now?
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• Q3. Tell me something about your articleship experience.
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• Q4. Difference between a bank and NBFC?
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• Q5. Who regulates banks, who regulates NBFCs?
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• Q6. How do they source funds? Who has cheaper funds?
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• Q7. How is the current scenario for NBFCs and banks?
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I am a UAE based bank. I want to enter the Indian market. Help me in taking this decision.

(This case was completed in <5-7 minutes)
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Surely, as your consultant you want me to assist you in deciding whether the Indian market is good for your business, right?

I: Yes.

C: I would first like to gain a deeper understanding of the business. Since how many years are, we in operation and which geographies do we cater to?

I: We are in business for more than 20 years and are the in the top 5 banks in UAE. We operate in the GCC countries.

C: Is GCC is an alliance of some countries in the Gulf Region?

I: Yes, GCC stands for Gulf cooperation council and has 6 members.

C: What kind of banking services do we offer? How is our portfolio, in terms of book size in retail, corporate, real estate and others? Also, since we are a global bank, we might be having many international transactions, am I right?

I: We provide all sorts of banking services, but we specialize in Transaction banking. Yes, we do have multiple international transactions.

C: What exactly do you mean by transaction banking?

I: We are into trading, exports, imports, and forex. Could you move on to how we will make the decision.

C: Absolutely, give me a few seconds to structure my thoughts.

I: Definitely.

C: I would begin by analyzing the qualitative country and industry level factors, then I would see whether the market size is lucrative…

I: Kushal, let me interrupt you. I do not want you to use this framework. Tell me how we enter the market.

C: Alright, so we could enter the market organically by taking a license from RBI, or maybe look at inorganic modes subject to regulations of RBI.

I: Let us cut to the chase, do you think we can compete with the likes of HDFC.

C: HDFC has a very diversified business all over the country with an exceptionally clean loan book with strict control on bad debts and this enables it to have cheap cost of funds. For a new entrant, competing with HDFC will be exceedingly difficult.

I: So, what do you suggest? Should we not enter.

C: We need to find a niche segment we can cater to.

I: Like?

C: India and UAE have good import export volumes. So, we can start by entering into a state where there are extremely high exports and imports like Gujarat. We can begin our operations there and slowly scale up.

I: Good approach, but why will people come to my bank and not HDFC.

C: We can try to create tech-based solutions to improve the banking experience.

I: Do you think HDFC will not be able to replicate that?

C: Yes, they will be able to replicate it.

I: What do you think our real advantage is?

C: We have a customer in UAE who are interacting with counterparties in India, we can explore to leverage these relations.

I: Correct, go on.

C: We can target the counterparties to our customers and give them a holistic banking experience with priority banking and services related to forex, futures, and forwards.

I: Right, this is the only advantage we have over Indian banks, we can leverage this to enter the Indian market. Thanks a lot, all the best!

We are a tyre manufacturer in Mid-west US. The market for automobiles is growing and we to expand our 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: Surely, I would like to gain a deeper understanding of the company first, where does it sell tyres and how many different SKUs does it sell?

I: Our market is in US only and we have only one variant of our tyre.

C: Could you give me some details about the competitive landscape?

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

C: At what percentage of our capacity we operating at?

I: We are operating at 100% capacity.

C: Do we foresee that there is enough demand to have a good capacity utilization after increasing the capacity? Also, is there any constraint on the capacity with either of the options?

I: Yes, our calculations say that even after increasing the capacity, we will operate at 100% capacity because of the demand. No constraints on capacity, we can cater to the increased demand with either of them.

C: Do we have, or did we have any existing tie-up similar to the one we are evaluating?

I: Yes, in the past we had a tie up with the same Chinese manufacturer for 10 years.

C: What is the size and scale of this manufacturer? What was the reason for discontinuance of the same?

I: The Chinese manufacturer is a market leader in China. There were not enough growth opportunities.

C: Give me a few moments to structure my thoughts.

I: Sure.

C: We can do a qualitative and quantitative analysis to decide which option is better in the long run. Do you want me to proceed with this approach?

I: Yes

C: In qualitative analysis I would like to compare the two options based on certain company level metrics like quality of tyres, speed of the process, nature of contract, chances of shortages, degree of control and then we can evaluate industry and country level factors. I would evaluate the costs in the quantitative analysis. Do you think I am missing anything, or can I proceed?

I: Yes, you can proceed.

C: Will the quality of tyres be same?

I: Yes.

C: If we expect timing of orders to be uncertain then relying on 3rd party would be slightly difficult because time between ordering and receiving the tyres would be long and we might lose out on customers. In our own system we can change production levels as and when required. Also, we might have contracts with tyre manufacturers with terms and conditions w.r.t minimum quantity. These contracts could be detrimental if quantities are uncertain and speed required is high. There could be demand & supply mismatch which could lead to shortages. Another key thing that we should consider is whether this frees up the management bandwidth and management can channelize their energy and efforts to something else.

I: Very good, go ahead.

C: Now looking at the bigger picture, US- china relations are especially important, the tax regulations and tariff barriers should be considered. Considering the current situation where elections are happening there is a lot of political uncertainty. Also, US has imposed multiple tariffs and custom duties on Chinese products. I would also like to know if there are any subsidies, tax advantages for own production.

I: Yes, there is 50% subsidy for which we will be eligible if we do domestic production without China.

C: Hence, looking qualitatively it makes more sense to produce on our own. Just one thing we should consider is what if our competitors tie up with the Chinese manufacturer.

I: Wonderful, move on to the quantitative analysis.

C: We will have to incur fixed cost to either own or lease machinery to increase our capacity. Apart from that we will have to incur Raw material cost on items like rubber. We will consider other elements of the cost sheet like Direct labor, direct expenses, Factory over heads, admin overheads, Selling and Distribution overheads to reach cost of goods sold, to this we will add the duties we have to pay and deduct the benefits of the subsidies. Whichever option has a lower cost will be chosen.

I: Great analysis. Assume that cost of making it ourselves is cheaper and qualitatively also it is a bad decision to tie-up, but the CEO still chose to go ahead with the tie up. Why would he have done so?

C: Could it be because they wanted to outsource this task as far as possible and focus their efforts somewhere else.

I: That is a good reason but that was not the case here.

C: The Chinese manufacturer is the largest player in China, could it be possible that we could leverage this relation to enter into the Chinese market?

I: Yes, that is what the CEO planned. Thanks, Kushal, all the best

• Q1. Tell me about yourself.
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• Q2. How has the journey at IIM Lucknow been until now?
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• Q3. Why Consulting over Finance given your background?
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• Q4. How was your experience while working in Europe?
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The client is a bank in UAE looking to expand to South Asia and seeks your advice on the same.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Asked clarifying questions ranging from the objective, timeline, past experience of expansions, if any, current operations, target audience etc.

I: Briefed about the above, mentioning that the banks major clients in UAE are corporates, dealing in international transactions.

C: Asked if the target audience is to be the same or can be different and proposed to concentrate on India.

I: You may focus on India as the target. What factors would you evaluate for different regions and businesses to be targeted?

C: Since it was established that the Indian market was to be entered, confirmed whether an evaluation of India as a country was required.

I: Assume India is the best possible country to go ahead with. Let us focus on the business plan.

C: Evaluated the banking industry and confirmed if the related regulations and requirements could be met by the client. Inquired regarding competition and the presence in international transactions space.

I: Please consider the actual scenario of banking industry in India and evaluate the competition accordingly.

C: Given the presence of MNCs and the export intensive software & IT industry, concluded existence of aggressive competition. Also, differing nature of transactions compared to Oil and Gas industry would also be a barrier preventing the client from using the expertise gained earlier.

I: Valid point. What could be the other alternatives the client has?

C: Suggested targeting Indian origin employees from the middle east countries with their families in India. As they would require assistance with money transfers, deposits, withdrawals, etc., this space could be the point of focus.

I: Sounds good, Which parts of India do you think should be looked at?

C: Suggested the South-Indian states with special focus on Kerala with reasons for the same.

I: Good case, lets end it here. Can you summarize the case for me?

C: Summarized the case and exchanged pleasantries.

Client is a cloth manufacturer with presence in Europe and South Asia facing growth issues due to the pandemic. Help them.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Confirmed the exact timeline and was told it is a real time scenario. Asked other scoping questions such as the operations, difference in Europe and other regions.

I: Europe is primarily used for high end fabric processing and the Asian manufacturing units are for the medium and low end

C: Inquired regarding competition and was given to understand that the one major competitor was facing similar low growth rates while the other players experienced a fall in revenues.

I: What according to you could be the different strategies to improve revenue numbers?

C: Suggested reduced pricing and entering unexplored geographies considering promotion and marketing actions would not garner additional demand due to the pandemic.

I: Let us explore them further.

C: Initiated with price reduction and suggested parallelly targeting reduction in costs to be able to sustain margins. Discussed how the same could be achieved and I presented a few ideas for the same exploring each section of the production and supply chain.

I: What factors would you consider for choosing a location and the strategy to be adopted for that particular location to increase sales?

C: Bifurcated the solution offered into two using Ansoff matrix i.e. 1) New product in existing markets like Asia and Europe with price/product modifications, 2) Exploring new countries where the client currently does not have any presence.

Discussed briefly on each of the two.

• Q1. Tell me something about yourself.
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• Q2. What did you do at BCG for 36 months? Which team were you a part of?
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• Q3. Tell me 3 good things about your experience at BCG and 3 not-so-good things about your experience at BCG.
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• Q4. A few questions related to basketball and undergrad PCom experience.
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Your client is the CEO of an FMCG company. The profitability of the hair oil product is a problem. Please look into it.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Sure. I have a few clarification questions here. I wanted to understand more about the company and the product. (Asked specific questions here).

I: It is a typical FMCG company with many brands and many products. We are here to study the profitability of the hair old product. The oil is available in 3 SKUs- 50, 100, and 300 ml. (no special trend across the three SKUs)

C: I wanted to understand more about our customers and understand if the product is targeting any particular set of people.

I: Yes, this oil helps in re-growing hair. There is not a lot of competition, but one of our major competitors is priced at 2x. Oil is sold widely across India.

C: Thanks. Now I want to look at the profitability. Since we are talking about profitability and not profit, I would want to look at both revenues as well as costs.

I: Sure. Go ahead.

C: So, looking at the gross margins, first, I want to look at costs. Can we look at optimizing costs by achieving some sort of economies of scale?

I: Costs are optimized, nothing else can be achieved.

C: Okay. Now, looking at the revenues. Looking at it from units x price per unit angle, and since the price has remained constant (confirmed this), units can be increased, but I do not think that will increase the gross margins.

I: That's right. What else?

C: I want to look at the channels via which the product is selling.

I: Great. We sell via 3 channels: general trade, modern trade, and e-com. The percentage distribution of quantity sold is 50%, 30%, and 20% respectively. And the margins in the 3 channels are 70%, 50% and 20%.

C: Thank you for sharing the data. It seems that general trade is best for business. If the sole focus is on increasing the profitability, maybe we can think of selling even more volume via general trade channels, considering e-com has considerably lower margins.

I: That's great. I think we are done here. Asked few more questions from CV.

Your client is trying to create a logistics company, which will use something like a TATA Ace to deliver materials from one place to the other, and they plan to use EVs to do this. However, to make it commercially viable, the client realizes that they will have to run the EV almost 16 hours each day, which seems unrealistic. What can be done?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Sure. Could you help me understand who exactly the client wishes to serve?

I: It will basically transport standard FMCG stuff to kirana stores, retailers etc.

C: Okay, I want to clarify the question. What exactly does the client need help with?

I: Oh. So, during the normal delivery process using a diesel-based vehicle, it used to run for about 7-8 hours each day and be commercially viable within a certain time period. However, if we switch to EVs, even if we work for about 16 hours each day, it will still take us more time than before to be commercially viable. What can the client do about this?

C: Thanks for explaining. I want to understand what a typical day looks like for the vehicle, as in, how many clients are supposed to be touched, any quality checks, any mandatory factory visits etc. Where and how much does a vehicle travel each day?

I: Okay. Why don't you prepare a detailed travel route for the vehicle? Make it as detailed as possible, think about everything from the start to end of day.

C: Tried to create a typical day for the vehicle including loading, unloading, maintenance, sign-off during delivery, mealtimes, travel paths, etc.

I: Now just tell me, where all can you cut time and how?

C: Gave some ideas to cut down time at each step.

• Q1. Tell me about yourself in short.
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• Q2. Why consulting (and not finance)?
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• Q3. Which practice areas you are interested in?
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• Q4. Tell me about your work experience.
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The Government of Delhi is looking to outsource the operations and management of Qutab Minar as they are running in losses. Your client is a Global company, should they bid on this or not?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: (reiterated the problem statement) Okay I would like to understand more about the situation. Can you tell me a bit more about this company? Where is it based? What is the competitive scenario for it?

I: There are 3 companies worldwide that do this. We are a US company and have the largest market share. Others are European companies.

C: Okay. And what sort of monuments/sites have they managed before?

I: They have managed sites in US and Europe both. They have the capabilities to manage Qutab Minar as well.

C: Who usually manages the monument sites in India? Are there any domestic players or just managed by government?

I: Managed by Archaeological Survey of India, which comes under the Government.

C: What is the duration of the contract for managing Qutab Minar?

I: 30-year contract.

C: And the ticket price mentioned, Rs.2, is it the same for all visitors or does Qutab Minar follow differential pricing for foreign tourists?

I: Same price for all

C: Okay so we can probably evaluate India as a whole, the market attractiveness, and then specifically the revenues and costs associated with this contract and sort of understand if this will be a profitable venture for us to bid on. Does that sound alright?

I: We do not need to look at the market. We can look at the contract specifically. You can assume we would have the same costs.

C: Okay so Rs. 150 cr for 30 years. That’s Rs. 4500 cr. We can look at the revenue then. Which can be further divided into Ticketing and non-ticketing revenue. Should I look at ticketing revenue first?

I: Yes

C: Since currently the ticket revenue from Rs. 2 is too low to cover the costs incurred, can we explore the idea of differential pricing for foreign tourists? That we can look at in terms of price, then we can also look at trying to increase footfall to the monument.

I: We can look at differential pricing. Assume we are already getting the maximum footfall.

C: Do we know the split of the footfall in terms of domestic and foreign tourists?

I: 80L domestic, 20L foreign

C: To look at the price to be charged to the foreign tourists, we can look at the 3 broad pricing strategies – cost based, competitive pricing and value-based pricing. Looking at cost based, we can divide 150 cr by (paused here). Ok we cannot determine for domestic and foreign tourists separately from this. But we know average would be minimum of Rs. 150.

I: Yup. Does that help?

C: Not much. I will move on to competitive pricing then.

I: Sure.

C: Okay so we can look at the prices charged for domestic and foreign tourists at other key monuments in Delhi such as Red Fort. Do we have any information around that?

I: You can assume the maximum charged for domestic tourists is Rs. 5, and there is a cap on that by the state government.

C: (conversation about if monuments come under state or central government) We can also compare with monuments in other states of India.

I: We can charge Rs.10 at the maximum let us say.

C: Sure, so revenue from that would be Rs. 8 cr. The rest of Rs. 142 cr also has to be recovered. So, 142 cr/20L = Rs. 710 per foreign tourist. But this does not include any margin we would want to make.

I: Do you think that is a reasonable price to charge them?

C: As per my experience, since my Father has been mistaken for a foreigner a couple of times, around Rs. 500 is charged for foreign tourists. We can also see in comparison to ticket prices for monuments in other countries. I have been only to the US and there at Empire State the ticket price was more than $30. Rs. 710 at the current exchange rate is just about $10. So as per me that should be fine.

I: Fair enough. Let us say we can only charge maximum of Rs. 10 for domestic and Rs. 500 for foreign tourists. Should we bid on the contract?

C: There is a gap of 42 cr still. To bridge that we can look at non-ticketing sources of revenue sources, if we are allowed, such as parking.

I: But do you think that will cover up the gap plus the amount we bid on the contract?

C: Most likely not.

I: So then should we bid on the contract?

C: Since the contract is not profitable, we should not bid on the contract.

Since we have both worked in the energy sector, let us look at the launch of a new alternate fuel. A green Hydrogen based fuel, created using electrolysis and does not use any fossil fuel. I want you to estimate the market for it in India and tell me what factors should be considered to arrive on an investment decision. Does India make sense for such a fuel?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: We want to evaluate how suitable India is for the launch of a new Hydrogen based fuel – the factors to look at and the market size. To do so, can you tell me what sort of uses are we looking at for this fuel?

I: What uses do you think there could be? So mainly it can be used in Transportation and as an input into refinery/chemical processes, hence industrial demand.

C: Sure. Is there any segment I should try to look at first?

I: In terms of transportation what all segments can we look at?

C: Road, rail, air, and water transport. And within that public/commercial and private vehicles would be there?

I: Okay, let us focus on road transport first. Within that what all would come?

C: Commercial and personal vehicles – cars, 2 wheelers, buses, trucks…

I: Okay what all factors should we be looking at for a Passenger car owner?

C: Okay so 5 main factors as per me would be – current fuel mix in the category, cost associated, availability, safety, and utilization (mileage). Is there anything I should focus on first or anything else I should look at?

I: Let us compare these factors for this Hydrogen fuel vs electric car and discuss them further. (Discussed on the different factors and whether EV or Hydrogen fuel fared better, and if it made sense).

I: Let us discuss the factors that should be looked at for Commercial vehicles – trucks.

C: Some factors that would be more key in case of trucks would be Utilization/time, infrastructure, and safety. (Discussed on these, interviewer mentioned a couple of other factors such as cost and asked if clean quotient mattered here. Ruled out commercial vehicles as a good market.)

I: Let us look at the chemical industry and the market size there.

C: Could you tell me a bit more where exactly it is used in the refining process?

I: It is used to remove sulfur from crude oil.

C: We need to find the market size and its growth, for which we can look at the demand side from the refinery sector or the supply side. Supply side as per me would involve more assumptions.

I: We can look at demand side as supply is not a problem since it is formed from electrolysis.

I will tell you this that for 15 MN tons capacity, 1 MN ton of Hydrogen is required in a year. Fuel demand is growing at 3-4% every year.

C: So, if we know the number of refineries and their capacity, we can calculate the demand.

I: If there is a capacity of 300mn tons then what is the market?

C: 20mn tons.

I: Yes. What all factors will these refineries look at while switching to a clean and green hydrogen?

C: They will probably look at cost, contract and its terms, reliability of supply, differentiation (clean), volume incentives and ease of use. (Further discussion on these – determined additional capex costs would be the biggest hindrance in adoption.)

I: How would we persuade the refineries to switch to this?

C: (asked a little more about how exactly hydrogen is used and refinery process) We can construct the necessary pipelines, provide the convertor from our own expenses so that they do not have to make those capital expenditures. Use the clean quotient as a differentiator.

I: Fair enough. We could also look at making the capex costs variable or payable over time. Thank you.

• Q1. Tell me something about yourself.
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• Q2. Share instances demonstrating your strengths and weaknesses.
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Your client is a non-profit organization that hires young graduates to teach in local schools is not able to meet their recruitment needs i.e., hire enough numbers. Can you help them chart out an effective strategy?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: Asked scoping questions (how established is the organization, where are we based out of, profiles & number of hires; how and where we currently hire from, expectations from hires, how long have we been facing this problem and any major increases in hiring needs etc.).

I: We are a well-known organization, 12+ years since establishment. Tied up with schools across the country, across multiple cities: both Tier 1 & Tier 2. We hire fresh undergraduate students from diverse academic backgrounds, the expectation is that they are required to teach for 2 years, a post which they will have to move on to other career prospects.

The pay is at par with their peers who work in the industry. We have a grassroots approach to hiring; we engage in physical outreach; our team has tied up with multiple campuses. There has been no major jump in hiring needs, steady increase but we have been increasingly lagging in fulfilling requirements over the last 2 years.

C: I’ll divide the recruitment funnel into 4 broad buckets: number of candidates we reach out to, number of applications we receive, number of selections made, number of final joiners. Do you want me to focus on any specific bucket?

I: These are exhaustive, let’s explore each of these factors and figure out what are possible problems and recommendations could be under each of them.

C: I’ll start with the first bucket. I’m assuming there have been no major demographics and psychographics of our target segments. Number of students made aware through.

1. Campus relations- target more universities/ change the portfolio mix based on the application to engagement ratio: determine which segments are performing better basis discipline (science, arts, engineering colleges) or city (metro, tier 1, tier 2 cities) / increase frequency of engagements

2. PR activities to improve awareness in the larger student population: such as webinars with alums, news reports etc.

I: We don’t want to target more universities, but the portfolio mix makes sense. We are also lagging on PR. We can explore the next bucket.

C: Number of applications we receive will depend on willingness of those who are aware about the join program and the ease of application.

I: Can you explore what can be done to have more people interested?

C: Given that the participants in the program will be expected to find other opportunities in the future, they’ll either work in the industry, pursue higher education or start up. So, promotional material should involve messaging catering to these three segments, leveraging the alumni network providing information and alumni who have gone on any of these paths.

1. Industries looking for candidates with this background

2. Higher education prospects

3. Access to a network for those interested in starting up.

I: Yes, messaging is a major area we’ll have to work on, are there any other factors outside these you want to explore that may affect willingness?

C: (Thinking out aloud for other factors to improve number of applications).

I: (Cue from the interviewer) I didn’t say that number of applications is the problem.

C: Can we explore the other factors like improving acceptance % among those selected: reducing those dropping off by ensuring selection happens early on: before application cycle for master’s programs/ negotiating exclusivity in acceptance of offers with the campus/ letting them know of location mapping early on, so drop offs can be covered with buffer offers early on.

A&B are two cities at 30 Kms distance from each other. An established structure player wants to see if we can build a bridge over the river reducing the distance to 7 Kms. What are the factors you'll consider while evaluating this proposal?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: Can I have more information on the type of cities, purpose of travel to these cities, both number of vehicles passing: passengers and commercial vehicles; model used: BOT?

I: 100,000 vehicles pass through the road each day, 60% passenger & 40% commercial, passenger travel mostly involves travelling to workplaces and visiting friends & family, model is Build Operate Transfer, for the first 30 years the company will receive toll revenue, post which it will be transferred to the government.

C: We’ll have to analyze this both from a financial as well as qualitative.

I: Let’s start with financials.

C: Do we have a target rate of return in mind?

I: Assume 12% hurdle rate.

C: We’ll need a fixed investment and operating costs, and we will have to project cash flow for the 30 years.

I: What are the different revenue streams?

C: Tolls, rent from petrol pump, commissions from shopping and retail establishments: restaurants, bars, advertisements billboards, signage by the government.

I: How will you price tolls?

C: We could use value-based pricing

i) using fuel costs saved from travelling 23 kms less each
way.

ii) Time value of money saved: assuming that average speed is 60 kmph, a person would save 40 minutes both ways (since most of them travel for work) and this would improve their productivity by a certain %.

So, if an average employee is billed Rs. 2000 per hour, we can calculate the costs saved due to improved productivity.

I: Fuel costs are easy to calculate, but time value of money will be difficult. Now let’s say we’ve priced toll; is there any important consideration you want to make while projecting revenue?

C: Due to reduced distance (from 30 km to 7 km), this will lead to increased economic activity, we may have to revisit our initial assumption about the number of vehicles: it could be much higher, a multiple of the current figure: 100,000.

I: True, I don’t know what that figure will be, but it'll be much higher now that they won’t behave like two different cities. That’ll be it. Do you have any questions for me?

We are a large pharmaceutical company, into innovative large molecule drugs for cancer, arthritis, nephron-disorders. Our drug can cure a certain type of breast cancer but is not patented in India. So far, we have enjoyed a monopoly, but our competitor has managed to copy the formulation in Phase 2 of trials and will launch in 3 months. What should our defense strategy be?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

I: We don’t have much time (courtesy zoom link expiring), I just want to see your approach to the problem.

C: How is our competitor’s product priced, and does the drug differ in anyway with respect to efficacy and side effects, and how is our product sold and how is it paid for?

I: Competitor is pricing at 30% discount, the drug is exactly like ours. Sold through oncologists’ prescriptions in hospitals. It could be subsidized by the government or self-funded.

C: Since the competitor has priced this at a 30% discount, we will have to find ways to reduce switching:

1. Not altering product mix: leverage existing salesforce' existing relationship with oncologists to incentivise doctors to continue prescribing our drug: sponsoring conferences etc.

2. Value added services: We could explore adding new services such as tying up with hospitals for all round comprehensive cancer care: the disease influences multiple systems, and patients also suffer from psychological effects of the disease.

This will allow us to continue charging a premium. In the long run: we could invest into differentiate our product through innovations- improve potency, reduce frequency of use and side-effects further.

3. Do we know what our current margins are, is price reduction an option?

I: Comprehensive services with premium pricing is a good point. Reducing prices is not an option as it may lead to a price war. Anything else you’d want to add since we’re almost out of time?

C: Improve accessibility for the existing drug by obtaining insurance covers that can cover at least part of costs.

• Q1. Quickly run me through your CV.
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• Q2. Where did you intern? What kind of work did you do? What were your deliverables? Why did you reject the PPO from Goldman Sachs?
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• Q3. In Round 2: How was your previous case? Did you sleep well? Do you want to directly get into a case or care for some chit chat?
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What is going to be the size of the OTT Video market in India by 2025?

(From my Summer Internship, OTT Video in India was my area of research).

Interview 1 (25 mins)
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

I: Introduced himself, told me about his practice at BCG, how long he had worked. Later found out he was an IIML alum. Asked me to introduce myself and quickly run him through my CV.

I: I see some people have mentioned their CGPA whereas yours is not mentioned.

C: Yes, it's usually the IR (Institute Rankers) who chose to disclose their CGPA, I was part of PlaceCom and managing 14 hours of work with Academics and Campus life I feel, a 6.84 was a decent CGPA, considering also that I was specializing in Finance.

I: Tell me more about your Summer Internship with Goldman Sachs. Why did you reject the PPO?

C: Described how the role was not good enough, compensation was on the lower end and already had a job offer in undergrad with similar pay. Described my deliverables during the internship as 2 research reports on Mobile Gaming in India & OTT Video in India.

I: What do you think has been the reason for the boom in OTT Video in India?

C: Reduced handset rates, reduced data charges (entry of Jio in 2016), Rise of Local/regional content & developers are the fundamental drivers.

I: Let’s jump into a case then, “Your client is Media Conglomerate, they want to expand their digital presence, they want you to size the Digital Market, primarily the OTT Video market by 2025.”

C: Asked clarifying questions regarding the Company (found out to be Zee Network), country of operations, current online/digital presence, any segment to focus on for sizing, whether or not should we be looking at a roadmap, constraints w.r.t time and investment.

I: Zee Network has 1% revenues currently from their online/digital operations. Consider all segments (age), forget the roadmap, give me a ballpark revenue figure for the CEO to chase or benchmark by 2025.

C: Discussed my initial approach, Started with Indian Population, split it by Urban & Rural. Next filter of Income (Low, Middle, High), Next filter of Age 0-15 yrs., 15-25 yrs., 25-35 yrs., 35-55 yrs., 55+ yrs. Choose the middle 3 for consideration. Next filter how many would own Smartphones, Next filter of those how many would have active data packages to support Streaming services, of those how many would actually subscribe to Streaming Services.

Now midway realized that OTT Video is not just streamed on Phones but also on Laptops & Smart TVs. Quickly moved to augment my approach by saying that for the purposes of Guesstimate and my previous work with Goldman, our primary research revolved around smartphone users.

Asked whether I should include the Laptop & Smart TV users, but the interviewer urged me to continue having acknowledged the missing customer segments.After arriving at the number of people who would actually subscribe to the services, I mentioned that subscription revenues contributed to almost 20% of total revenues.

OTT Video monetizes primarily by 3 methods SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand), TVOD (Transaction Video on Demand) & AVOD (Advertisement Video on Demand).

AVOD makes about 80% of revenues whereas SVOD (Netflix, Prime Video, Hotstar) make up about 20%. Assumed annual premium of INR 1000 per person and took 30-40% haircut on total revenues due to account sharing practices to arrive at revenue estimates.

I: This seems like a fair approach, what do you think could be a major roadblock to achieving these projected revenues.

C: Investment by Govt, Rollout of 5G, Growth of Local Content. Couldn’t think of more.

I: Data rates cost are decreasing but they still will factor into adoption behavior, data rates would be the bottleneck for the projected growth for the industry.

C: Agreed, that would alter my percentage factors in my guesstimate driving down revenues as people with internet connections may not subscribe to Streaming Apps as their data plans may not be able to service the data requirements in terms of free data, bandwidth, etc.

Your client is Global Pharmaceutical Company, they have come up with a treatment for breast cancer which cures the disease completely. The Company has been in the global market for 10 but recently a local competitor has come up with a knock off and is planning to price it at a discount of 40%. We are tasked to come up with a defense strategy for the client.

Interview 2 (25 min)
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

I: Hi Shivam, how are you doing? Introduced herself and asked me how did my previous interview go?

C: Told her, I was feeling a little anxious and was surprised how quickly the previous interview ended. Hoping that I could keep up the same in this one.

I: Smiled and asked me to calm down, said I’d been going well and to keep up the same. Asked whether I wanted to talk initially or directly jump into the case.

C: (Obviously I wanted to talk) Could you tell me a little bit more your time with BCG and what practice you were a part of.

I: Described her practice, how she coped with work with a 2-year-old kid. Firm was very supportive, in laws also helped out. Now managing work and spending time with family became easier with time.

C: Tried to relate with her, how important spending time with a newborn child could be for a new mom. Talked about how even my mother’s in-laws helped out during her surgery when I was small. Tried to engage in small talk, constantly listening, engaging and empathizing. (Spent almost 10 mins)

I: Okay quickly run me through your CV.

C: Placecom, IIT Delhi, Football, Reading (Fiction/Non-Fiction), Summer Internship from Finance to Consulting.

I: Rejecting a PPO isn’t easy, hopefully you wouldn’t regret it. Okay so let’s jump into the case. “Your client is Global Pharmaceutical Company; they have come up with a treatment for breast cancer which cures the disease completely (I was very happy assuming that it would be a pricing case).

The Company has been in the global market for 10 but recently a local competitor has come up with a knock off and is planning to price it at a discount of 40%. We are tasked to come up with a defense strategy for the client.”

C: Scoped with CPCC. Tried to identify all stakeholders in the procedure. Hospitals, Doctors, Patients & Insurance Providers. Initiated to approach each factor. Misidentified the treatment as a pill, was corrected 10 mins into the case that the treatment was an IV (intra-vein drip) taken at Hospitals. Tried to adopt the customer journey approach to identify areas of disparity for the
client & competitors.

I: Can you stop with this approach and list down the factors, let’s identify the levers and then work toward the solution.

C: Hospitals (Location, Type, Treatments offered, Size, Beds), Doctors (Compensation, Incentives, Relationships with Big Pharma), Patients (Pre-Diagnosis, Diagnosis, Post-Diagnosis phases) to analyse different factors to touch upon & Insurance Companies (Medical Insurance, Terms, Tie-Ups, etc.)

I: Why would Location of Hospitals be of importance?

C: It would be important as even for medical tourism, I would want to maintain & develop relationships with hospitals in major metros (due to density of operations and adjacent auxiliary services).

I: How would existing treatments offered be of relevance while deciding target hospitals?

C: Most major treatments also require pre-operative and post-operative procedures which tie in the entire experience. Customers may need to visit different outlets/hospitals to get necessary pre/post procedures, but if we could somehow include them as a one-stop-shop, this would certainly be able to justify the 40% premium over the local knock-off.

I: You mentioned incentives for doctors, our competitors may indulge in passing on commissions for treatment recommendations, but firm-policy is to not give unethical/morally ambiguous recommendations.

C: We could work to highlight how the competitor is using the same and instead focus on organically retaining relationships by incentivizing Doctors using non-monetary factors.

I: Can you think of any other recommendations which might be helpful in either defending or justifying the price premium for the client since reducing treatment costs isn’t viable?

C: I am not able think of any more suggestions, if you could give me a minute to think.

I: No that’s okay, do you have any questions for me?

C: Was this a real case, and if yes, what were your recommendations?

I: Yes, this was a real case, we went with somewhat similar recommendations where we tried to justify the price premium by making the whole treatment as an integrated experience. This was very helpful. You’ll be hearing from us shortly. Feel free to reach out to me!

• Q1. Are you in Lucknow right now? Tell me more about Manipur (I was in Manipur on the interview day).
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• Q2. Tell me about yourself.
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• Q3. How was your experience working at ZS Associates?
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Our client is a big FMCG player. Their salesforce productivity has been stagnant. The client has come to us to understand if this is good or bad?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

C: (Repeated the question to make sure I understood it correctly) Before I dive into the case, can you help me understand a few things about the client?

I: Ask what you need but let’s get quickly into the case, rest can be answered during the case solving.

C: Can you please help me understand what the client means when it says salesforce productivity. Is it Sales/Number of people in sales force?

I: You can take it to be Sales/ Cost of the sales force.

C: Okay. Since when has the productivity been stagnant? Also, have competitors also seen this?

I: Since last year. We don’t know about competitors.

C: Can you tell me a little more about the company? How old are we? How do we sell our products and to whom?

I: We are a very old company; the largest player in the market. We sell our products directly to retailers in the market who sell them to end consumers.

C: What is the work of the people we employ in the salesforce? Visit stores or calls or…?

I: The work of the sales force is to visit stores and get orders from the retailers. I think you have got all the right questions. Let’s get into the case now.

C: I would like to look at two things here: total sales and cost of sales force. Do we have something specific in mind to start with or can we go one by one through both?

I: In the interest of time let us look at the cost of sales force only. We can assume that the total sales and number of retailers have increased over the years.

C: Sure. Since the total sales have increased and productivity has remained stagnant, the cost of the sales force must also have increased. We can look at the number of people in our sales force and how much we pay each employee.

I: Correct. Let’s assume that the number of people has remained the same.

C: Okay. So, are we spending more per employee now?

I: Yes exactly.

C: I would break down how much we spend on a person into Salary, Extras, Commissions & Training Cost.

I: That is fine. Tell me if the increase is a good or bad thing?

C: With time the cost we must spend on employees might have increased. What we can do is increase our sales.

I: Why do you think our costs increased per employee?

C: Promotion of existing employees, people becoming expert in understanding the compensation scheme and earning more, training cost increases, market correction (Based on competitors & inflation rate).

I: What can you compare the increase to in order to check if the increase is justified?

C: Competitor compensation, Inflation Rate, Wage rate in the country, Index representing amount required to lead a life with good standard of living.

Your client is a glass bottle manufacturer in Germany. They manufacture bottles for juices & alcohol. The market is growing at a rapid pace and the client wants to expand its capacity. Three options are available setup plant in Germany, import goods from India, or import goods from China. What should the client do?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: (Repeated the question to make sure I understood it correctly) Before I dive into the case, can you help me understand a few things about the client?

I: Let’s take them up during the case. First start with things you will look at to come to the decision.

C: We can do a qualitative and quantitative analysis to decide which option is better in the long run. Do you want me to proceed with this approach?

I: Go ahead.

C: For the qualitative side of things, I will look at two things: Micro Factors & Macro Factors involved. Under micro factors I will look Cost (Both initial one time & landed cost per unit including transport & duties), Quality of bottle, Turnaround time, and Freedom (risk & independence).

Under macro factors I will look at Legal aspect & country relations. Does this look comprehensive, or should I add more factors?

I: Looks good. What is the most important factor while deciding?

C: Cost would be important.

I: Yes, for initial investment government is giving us some subsidy to set up so we will add a cost of USD 0.5 per bottle for those manufactured in Germany; others don’t have any initial cost. Let’s look at the cost per unit in detail.

C: Sure, apart from the initial investment the per unit cost will have components of raw material, labor, transport, taxes & duties, utilities/overheads.

I: Can you tell me which country will have an advantage in each of the factors you just mentioned above?

C: Sure, material will be available in cheap in China & India; cheaper labor will be available in India; transportation cost of goods from China and India to Germany will be high while if manufactured in Germany the transport cost will be low.

I: Right, say if the cost of making a bottle in Germany in USD 2.5, landed cost of bottle from India is also USD 2.5 & landed cost of bottle from China is USD 2.2. For China & India, the order will have to be placed at least 4 weeks in advance. What should the client do?

C: Does the Germany cost include USD 0.5 we decided to include earlier?

I: No, including that per bottle cost will be USD 3 in Germany.

C: The difference is not much and is of fixed cost which will not be relevant in long term, and we are also getting support from government. If we go ahead with our own plant we will have lower risk, better quality & better turnaround time. The client should go ahead with setting up the factory in Germany.

I: Right, but the CEO went ahead and partnered with India. Can you tell me a few reasons why he would have done that?

C: Few reasons might be:

a) Market expansion to India in long run

b) Technology learning to reduce bottle cost (India can supply at USD 2.5 despite high transport cost)

c) Earlier relation with the company

d) Government support from India

I: Yes, market expansion is what the CEO was thinking about. Let’s end the case here, all the
best!

• Q1. How has your IIM Lucknow experience been so far?
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• Q2. Tell me something about yourself.
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• Q3. Why did you join IIM Lucknow?
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Your client is a bank based out of India and wants to explore "Buy now Pay later" model (e.g., EMI). Explore this opportunity for the bank.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

I: Your client is a bank based out of India and wants to get into "Buy now Pay later" model.

Explore this opportunity for the bank.

C: Asked more about the problem statement, objective and about the bank.

I: The client is a large private sector bank. The objective is to explore this opportunity in the e-commerce space as the industry has grown at a fast pace, especially due to Covid-19.

All the banks and fintech companies are competitors and the end user would be a normal e-commerce customer. The products of the bank are like a large commercial bank.

C: Are there any constraints in terms of time frame or money?

I: Must be done in timeframe like 6 months.

C: We can start evaluating the decision by exploring the market attractiveness of the buy now pay later industry.

I: (Interrupts) No that is fine. The bank has done that already and wants to enter this market.

Let's look at the ways to enter this market.

C: To enter the market we can investigate the following options:

1. Acquire a Fintech company already in this space

2. JV with Fintech companies

3. Direct Tie-up with E-commerce websites

Mentioned ways to evaluate each of these options and gave suggestions.

I: Okay, this is fine. Let's say that the bank decides to go with the 3rd option of "Tie-up with E-commerce websites".

How will you assess the customer coming on the E-commerce website in terms of credit risk?

C: Mentioned credit risk modelling and the machine learning models being used by some banks and FinTech's.

Discussed about the various metrics that can be used to evaluate customer's credit risk e.g., buying behavior on the e-commerce platform, payment methods used, frequency of buying/cancellations, credit history, credit score etc.

A global tools manufacturing company wants to become one of the top 3 players in India in the next 18 months. What will be your strategy for the same?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate] 

I: (Gave all the case information in one go in the initial 2 minutes)A global tools manufacturing company wants to become one of the top 3 players in the next 12 months. What will be your growth strategy for the same?

Currently the company has 1.5% market share, whereas the top 3 players have 60% market share in total (35%, 15% and 10% market share). The company has a national presence with 100 + dealers/hardware stores. The company has been in the country for more than 5 years.

There are no constraints in terms of budget.

C: Mentioned the various growth levels a company generally has on the organic and inorganic front. Since such a steep growth was required in a shorter period, it suggested that using inorganic growth levers seemed appropriate here.

I: How can the company grow inorganically?

C: Briefly discussed about M&A, JV, partnership.

I: What factors would you consider while deciding which company to acquire?

C: Mentioned the various pre-merger and post-merger factors that should be considered. There was a discussion around which of the top 3 companies should be acquired basis the above factors and synergies. There was also a discussion around how the client should rebrand itself after acquiring one of the top players.

• Q1. Tell me something about yourself.
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• Q2. (Among other points, mentioned travelling as a hobby) Any particular place/incident that is your favorite?
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• Q3. (Mentioned Sweden) Do you know how Sweden has handled the pandemic situation?
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Client is an IT major in India. They are doing well but have sub optimal top line growth compared to their peers. The sales force productivity is declining. Help them increase the same.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: I wanted to ask some questions to get a better understanding. When you mention IT major, can I assume a company like TCS? What exactly do you mean by top line growth?

I: Yes, assume a company like TCS or Infosys. Top line is revenue growth.

C: What are the revenue streams for the company? What is the role of the sales force?

I: The company provides IT services to other firms (B2B). The salespeople are linked to accounts verticals. For large accounts, there is one person who acts as the single point of contact. The more junior salespeople are mapped to verticals like banking etc. The sales force is divided into hunters and farmers. Hunters are responsible for bringing in new clients while farmers are responsible for handling existing clients. They manage to bring in a revenue of 8-10 million a year. Productivity is measured as the amount of revenue per salesperson.

C: Thank you. Now that I have a fair understanding of the situation I would like to jump into the case. Since the revenue per salesperson is decreasing, this could be due to 2 reasons: we are not getting new clients (hunters), or we are not engaging well with or enough with our existing clients due to which they are leaving us.

I: The hunters are producing okay but there are too many hunters which is leading to lesser revenue per person (1-2 million per year). Farmers have low productivity.

C: If we were to focus on farmers, there could be two reasons why their productivity is low. Either the existing clients are leaving us (account churn rate is high) or they are unable to expand the existing accounts.

I: Right, they are unable to expand existing accounts. Why do you think this is happening and what can be done?

C: They can keep track of any new opportunities within their existing clients, expanding into other areas not already covered by the firm. The SPOC must keep track of any such opportunities that might come up.

I: Anything else?

C: The salespeople must pitch the value proposition of the firm and their USP in order to encourage the clients to give more business to the firm. They can give incentives to the clients in terms of monetary or other means as well. They should reach out to the right people within their client firms in order to land the message well.

The client is a petrochemicals company. The promoter is involved in the exploration and production of oil and produces around 200,000 barrels of oil a day (a sizeable amount - about 25% of India's production). The oil he produces is significantly discounted. Help him add value to his oil.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

I: Let us do a case. The client is a petrochemicals company. The promoter is involved in the exploration and production of oil and produces around 200,000 barrels of oil a day (a sizeable amount - about 25% of India's production). The oil he produces is significantly discounted. Help him add value to his oil.

C: Sure. I wanted to ask a few questions to understand this better. Where is our client based out of? What does the value chain of his business look like?

I: The client is India based. He is involved in the production of crude oil in India and transferring it to 4-5 refineries. His production facility is present in Rajasthan and he delivers oil to one refinery in Mathura, two in Gujarat, and one in the coastal area in Mumbai.

C: In this case, is there a way to set up a production facility closer to these refineries?

I: This process has a long lifecycle wherein it takes 3-4 years to find the oil and then a few more years to start the drilling process. Hence, this is a process of 3-7 years and not very feasible.

C: Alright understood. Next, I want to understand, when you mentioned that the is oil is discounted, how much is it discounted?

I: The known price of Brent crude is $55 per barrel and producers can sell their oil at either a premium or discount to Brent. Our client sells at a discount of $10 a barrel. This is not acceptable to him and he wants to know how to monetize his oil better.

C: Is there a particular reason for why his oil is being discounted?

I: The oil that our client transports are heavy or medium oil. It is a waxy oil which makes the transportation and receiving process cumbersome. There is also a high presence of Sulphur content.

C: Thank you. I think I have a broad understanding now and would like to dive into the case. In this situation, I think there are two areas we can broadly focus on: looking at the current refineries that the client is delivering to and how the transportation process can be improved or looking at identifying and delivering to newer refineries.

I: Identifying new refineries will be tough to make practical. Is there anything else he can focus on?

C: He can expand his business into setting up his own refinery.

I: Yes, that is an option he can explore. In terms of the yield of the crude slate, 45% is petrol and 20% is diesel. There is an additional realization of $20 for petrol and $30 for diesel. For example, for a crack of $20 he will realize $75. What is the return per year the client can hope to get? Assume the plant is closed for 15 days a year.

C: Performed calculations. Total amount = $1.05 billion/year.

I: Great. What are some other options the client can explore in his existing setup?

C: There are two issues with the transportation as you mentioned. The first one was excess wax. Can we somehow modify the way we transport the oil to fix this?

I: We deliver the oil through pipelines. What can we do to reduce the wax?

C: We can maintain the oil at a certain temperature so as to prevent wax from forming.

I: Right, so we can have heated or insulated pipes. What else?

C: Can we use the sulfur content in the oil?

I: We can also create naphtha from the crude. We will get 10% yield regularly. This can increase to 20% but will reduce the yield of petrol and diesel by 5%. Each ton would cost $145. Would this be a feasible option? I started calculating but the interviewer stopped me in between.