FTI Consulting Engagement Manager Interview Questions and Answers

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Do some problem solving of quant before interview

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Don't be afraid of answering freely show your thinking behind your answers

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Take a structured problem solving approach - I can help in that coaching
Gain control of the interview
Believe in yourself - Anything is possible

Topics to prepare for Deloitte Engagement Financial Advisor interview:

• Budgeting
• Forecasting
• fpna

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: In the Personal Interview, I was asked about my leadership experiences. My experience of factory start-up with HLL helped my case. Further I was asked why I could not make it through with McK the previous time (I had interviewed while at IITK in 2002 for analyst post). Here I pointed out to the way I have changed in the last 3 years both while working with HLL and by doing my MBA (focusing on peer learning). I gave an example of the way I currently understand the position of HLL, with specific mention to its annual result (had been announced just 3 days back ); I had done some basic numbers (ratios) and could easily comment on the performance with a mention of the way ahead as it should be for HLL.
I was given two cases by the interviewer for my first round.
For case 1, I was given this: SAP India has not been able to expand its operations as it has not been able to hire the right number of people, so ramp up was not possible, help out its HR dept. I did some checks with simple questions to understand the situation better. Then I drew a funnel (which represents the hiring process), input to which is applicants and output is selected candidates. Understood the drop outs (people eliminated) at various stages. Concluded that the process can not be made less stringent, so the only way out is to increase the input to the funnel.
Looked at input as market share of a product (dependent on 3 factors, Awareness, Availability and Purchase intention, MARKSTRAT funda). Checked if it’s a fair way to look at it. The interviewer was pretty satisfied with it.
Awareness: 2 segments, fresh college grads and IT professionals working in other firms who might like to apply to SAP. Realized that awareness level is low on campuses and the IT Pros of other firms are not being targeted at all.
Remedy: Campus promotion events, tie ups with schools the way Infy et al are having, start a referral programme, start blogs, etc.
Availability: Very poor interface to apply on, extremely low bandwidth of HR dept. takes a month to process applications and by that time the applicants are no longer interested or already have jobs. Measures suggested here.
Purchase Intention: No problem here. The quality of work is great and the brand name of SAP is great.
In the end, synthesized the case.
I believe I was able to structure the case very well and that really helped a lot.

2nd Case: Tata 1 lakh car, need to lower the cost of parts in car to less than 75 K.
Structure made, being from a manufacturing background I tried to leverage on my wok knowledge and presented my analysis:
• Might have to use an alternate MoC (Material of construction), think plastics/composites.
• Tie up with a global vendor like GE to get the MoC
• Have all yr auto ancillary suppliers gear up to the challenge of using the MoC
• Centralized purchasing done by Tata Motors for all ancillary suppliers so as to get economies of scale
• Rationalize the components being used, get rid of useless components used in the car (I missed out this point and was driven towards it)

My energy level created very positive vibes from the very beginning
The structuring of the cases was good.
The way I could point out the change (for the better) that I have undergone since the time I last interviewed with McK.
My leadership examples was pretty strong
In the end I asked him about the Mck NASSCOM report (I had read it cover to cover) and wanted to know his views on Indian top 5 IT cos becoming USD 10 Bn firms.
He was happy with the question and gave his views.
Tips: Personal Questions: Prepare very well. The way I see it, write a 10-12 page essay about yourself which really is a representation of your true self. It should not be swayed by the firm or the kind of job you are interviewing for.
It helps to serve as a key for all personal questions and having it all together ensures that there is no contradiction in any answer. It worked very well in my case.


Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: There were no personal questions in this round and it was pointed out that only 1 case will be administered. I was asked to ask him questions about work/McK. I asked him about his failures at McK.
For case I was presented with this: Client is India’s largest PSU bank (Client name cant be disclosed ☺) Due to recent RBI strictures, cheque can’t be delivered physically to a clearing house, so an alternative scheme is to be drawn up. I some how confused this whole system with RTGS and started blabbering out of that when I was checked by Nigel. (Lesson: Never ever assume anything, if you do, make sure you check it with the interviewer).
There were basically 2 schemes which were drawn up with regards to cheque processing and movement of information/data. They were to be compared, a result had to be arrived at and an optimal one (possibly a third one was to be suggested).

I went about drawing the 2 schemes (what appeared to be child’s play initially was extremely tough). By the end I was thoroughly confused between the schemes as they had so many elements to them. I requested for more time and drew them neatly (that is something not very natural to me) and on different sheets of paper. Then I concluded that we need to do a cost benefit analysis (with the constraint of acceptable service level) and I went on to identify the cost drivers. They included manpower cost, cost of hardware like scanners, bandwidth cost (for electronic flow of images), cost of courier and the constraint of service level. At this stage I was getting lost due to excess information and was asked to stop and synthesize the discussion we had had till that time before proceeding further.

Then we did establish the merits of one network structure over the other and I was then asked to arrive at an even better network. The interviewer left me alone in he room for some time to help me think and I could arrive at an alternate network. Upon discussion it was found that I had not taken care of the service level and my design was not feasible.

Tips: Never crack in a pressure interviewer, if the case is difficult and the interviewer is asking you to speed up and move when you are not really done with an issue, DO take your time.

General Tips: Maintain positive energy from the beginning of the interview.
Focus on the way you structure the cases.
Be as succinct and creative as possible while solving the cases.



Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The case started on a very generic note and on the outset seemed like a standard profitability case. I started with some clarifying questions such as
: What does the company do? The company is into magazine publishing (2nd highest selling weekly magazine, in addition to
few other magazines.
: Who are the competitors? There are a few other competitors. 2 other large competitors, 1 larger and another smaller than our
company and the segment is dominated by these 3. There are a few other smaller players too.
: How long have they been facing the problem? Facing it for the past few years.
: How are the competitors doing? Doing fine. Have been more or less constant.
I started with structuring the problem in a standard profitability problem (profit = revenue – cost). He told me that the revenues have been fine and they have actually seen an increase in revenue over the past few years (he threw some numbers here such as % increase in revenue etc). Then I told him that I would focus on the costs. In order to handle the costs part, I created a value chain of the complete process from the time of collection of news and articles (reporting) editing printing distribution. Here he asked me to think if there could be something else also in the value chain. I realized that after distribution there should be something related to ‘returns’ also. He was expecting the same answer. Then I went through the various parts of the value chain to understand
the costs involved in each part and if something had changed or could be improved there, but there were no major issues. Since he had asked me specifically for the returns part, I asked him a little more about the returns policy and what happens if the vendor/retailer has overstocked the magazines. He told me that the company takes them back and the value is practically zero for those magazines. (Throughout the discussion he was giving me numbers on how much it costs per magazine at each part of the value chain).). At this point, I asked him if there had been an increase in the number of returns (overstocking at the retailer’s end and he gave me some data which indicated that was the case). I told him that at this point, we can evaluate the implications of
both under-stocking and overstocking at the vendor’s end and find if the company is supplying the optimal quantity. This was basically an application of the ‘newsvendor problem’ we studied in the basic operations course. Post this it was simple, I completed the calculations and he looked satisfied.

It’s very important to listen carefully during a case interview. Most interviewers will give away hints and will try to help you solve a case. Catching those hints and solving the case together with the interviewer is the key. Another thing that I think went right was the conversations before and after the case interview. I was done with the interview in 12-15 minutes. For the remaining time, I chatted with him about his experience interviewing at ISB and how he found it different from interviewing at the IIMs. And then we went on to talk about the different models that the schools operate on and how the education sector in India has evolved
etc etc. All of this helped me strike a note with the interviewer. Finally the fact that I could remember what the newsvendor problem was


Tips: Listening skills are very important. Go through the core term concepts. The ability to apply concepts studied in the various subjects to your case interviews give that ‘wow’ factor.


Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: A majority of this interview was PI. He asked me a lot of questions about my work experience and about my company (Trilogy). He then asked me about what I thought was the best way to encourage innovation in a technology company. Although this was a PI, I tried to put a structure to my answer. I basically divided the reforms into a few buckets, like organizational changes (incentive structures), employee focus, customer focus etc. And then elaborated under each of the sub- headings. There were also other questions related to the biggest challenges at work etc.

This was a very small and simple case. He was primarily looking for ways to not just reduce cost but how to approach a radically different problem. I went through the standard set of cost reduction measures throughout the value chain but told him that this would only achieve only so much cost reduction. In order to create a one lakh car, they need to look at something from the scratch. It needs to be a fresh design (not just of the engine, but also design of how the various processes work today, including where the assembly happens, how distribution works etc).

Most of this interview was about my work experience (Software product development and technology consulting), and my views on the technology sector. It helped to have researched the various trends in the sector and having an opinion on the various things.

Nothing much, though it may have helped to go through the casebooks from earlier years in detail, because this case was very similar to something that was asked in one of the previous years, but I heard it for the first time in the interview.


Tips: : Be very thorough with your work experience related topics
: Do research on the trends etc in the relevant sector.
: Try and structure your responses even in a PI.


Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: This was again a small case, where interviewer did most of the talking. I started with telling him that there would be two key aspects to this project, the first being the financing (sources, procedures) and the second being the revenue generation, and both of these together need to contribute to a self financed metro project. I started with the revenue part first. I approached this through an asset monetization approach (basically analyze the various assets that the project would own and look at ways to monetize each of them). Here I talked about the train, the tracks, the land near the tracks and the stations etc and suggested ways to monetize these. The most important thing that came out was the land that is allocated to the metro project, and which is not used directly for
the project and can be developed as a commercial property to monetize the project. Once we reached this stage, interviewer talked at length about how this worked at the Mumbai metro project where he was involved and how they were able to collect many times more revenue than the amount needed for the project. Then I talked about the financing part. Here I basically started with the
pecking order and suggested ways to finance. I told him that given that government guarantees could be explored and this could lead to ways of reducing the cost of financing. This turned more into a conversation, where interviewer talked about the various kinds of securities that could be used and how the government often provides sops in the form of tax breaks etc.

Again, listening helped. He kept giving me hints and helped me progress through the case. Also, during the case prep sessions, we had touched upon the asset monetization strategy, which helped here.

Nothing really went wrong. It would have been nice to know about the various securities that interviewer mentioned could be used for financing such a project


Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)