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McKinsey & Company Manager Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Updated 24 Dec 2015

Top McKinsey & Company Manager Interview Questions and Answers

  • Q1. There is a chairman of a conglomerate. He has been on the post for 10 years, and is extremely dominating. He treats the various business heads like children, not letting ...read more
  • Q2. There is a steel company with 2 plants in India. Now it has done recent acquisitions abroad. What should be the organizational structure that it should put in place in th ...read more
  • Q3. A client wants to start retailing business. He intends to attract as many people as possible, to his stores. How would you go about advising the client.

McKinsey & Company Manager Interview Experiences

2 interviews found

Manager Interview Questions & Answers

user image Varun Khullar

posted on 24 Dec 2015

I applied via Walk-in

Interview Questionnaire 

4 Questions

  • Q1. There is a steel company with 2 plants in India. Now it has done recent acquisitions abroad. What should be the organizational structure that it should put in place in these places, and what are the pros a...
  • Ans. 

    The organizational structure for the steel company's international plants should be a combination of centralized and decentralized structure.

    • Centralized structure: The company can have a centralized structure where decision-making and control are concentrated at the headquarters in India. This allows for consistency in operations, standardization of processes, and efficient resource allocation.

    • Decentralized structure: ...

  • Answered by AI
  • Q2. The IPL is a 20-20 league of cricket. It consists of city teams, with players from within the city, <21 years old, or players ‘bought’ via an auction process. Celebrities like Shah rukh khan own these team...
  • Q3. There is a consumer finance company that is thinking of starting a unsecured loan at the point of sale in large retailers like Tesco, for consumers who want to buy white goods like TVs, fridges etc. Does s...
  • Q4. There is a chairman of a conglomerate. He has been on the post for 10 years, and is extremely dominating. He treats the various business heads like children, not letting them take any major decision. While...
  • Ans. 

    Identify 5 questions to address the dominating behavior of the chairman in a conglomerate.

    • Ask the business heads about their level of decision-making authority

    • Inquire about the chairman's communication style and interaction with the business heads

    • Gather feedback on the effectiveness of the performance management system

    • Assess the impact of the chairman's behavior on employee morale and motivation

    • Explore alternative lead

  • Answered by AI

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I asked him some clarificatory questions on where all in the world have the plants to get an idea of the kind of local areas. He replied in US, Indonesia, Trinidad etc. I then proceeded to succinctly put the problem statement to he and he was ok with it. Then I asked for “some time to structure my thoughts” ☺. The structure I laid out was: 1. What is meant by ‘organizational structure’? Is our end goal to figure out the number of levels in an organization, the number of people at each level and the skill they require? 2. Understand the goal of the organization: a cost focus or a responsiveness focus, whats important in this industry? 3. Map the existing processes that the company is involved in (value chain) and look at how best the goal of the organization can be served with: a. Existing company people redeployed to the new countries b. People from the acquired companies to continue working c. New people to be hired It seemed that he was looking for something else in the structure that I missed as indicated by his body language. However, he answered my queries – For point 1 he said I should look at a broader picture of what an organizational structure means. What I had defined was a very micro view. For point 2 he said I can assume an undifferentiated product market and that cost is the main focus. Here I pointed out that since we are acquiring he plants, the main concern in the short term maybe quick ramp up of the plant. He liked that and said that there are actually 3 measures that we will rate our structure on: - Ramp up time - Cost - Accountability of the plant employees of its performance For point 3 he said it might not be so relevant to our discussion!! Clearly I was in a situation where I didn’t know what hit me since I thought I completely missed what he wanted on 2 of my three points. However I kept calm and asked him what is the way to understand the org structure? He said think about how it was organized in ITC. So I said: 1. Since ITC is a conglomerate, it has a structure of various businesses or divisions which function independently. A ‘Corporate’ division is common to all. 2. Within each division there are functional verticals like the Marketing function, Technical function, HR, Finance functions. Shirish liked the way I described the structures in ITC so he said good. He said that that is a macro ‘Product’ structure of businesses around products like cigarettes, paperboards, clothes. Then he probed me on what could be other structures? I replied that the sub-structure of ‘Functions’ like marketing, HR etc could be the macro structure itself. He said that’s the 2nd, what else? Then we had a discussion on other kind of structures and he led me to two other kinds – ‘Geographical’ and ‘Type of Customer’. Then I started to list of pros and cons of each structure. However he said are you missing the criteria, so I quickly referred my notes and realized that he had given the 3 measures to rate each structure earlier – ramp up time, cost and accountability. I then ranked each on the above and after a discussion with him concluded that we should start with a functional set up to ensure quick ramp up and then move towards a geographical set up to ensure the local accountability, and minimization of costs. He was happy with the way I recovered and synthesized. He then went on to explain that actually they went in with the geographical setup directly, and the functional setup was a pseudo layer on top, as there were ‘functional specialists’ that traveled to a location to ensure quick ramp up. Then He said is there anything else I wanted to know from him. Then I told him that in our previous meeting we had not talked about the challenges of working with the govt sector. So he talked on that for around 5 mins.
Tips: 1. Proceed in the interview the way the interviewer wants you to. If he wants a free-flowing discussion, which was the case here once I laid out my structure, be flexible to do so. However, keep a track of open ends on your structure.
2. Don’t hesitate to ask the interviewer for help in case you are stuck. In my case it helped me a lot.
3. Don’t get flustered if stuck. Persevere and be calm.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Clarificatory questions from my side helped me understand what happens when a company sponsors the tournament. He replied that the tournaments might be branded like “Gold Flake Open”, and the company gets rights like logos on uniforms and on the cricket grounds, title rights etc. I asked about the duration of the tournament etc. Then I took time and laid out the valuation framework. Discounted cash flow analysis and NPV calculation, for which we will discuss the revenues, costs, and the discount rate. I gave details of revenue sources, cost heads. He said lets focus on the revenue sources. Here my proposition was that there could be an increase in the number of people (Users) or the number of times existing users smoke (Usage) due to the advertising in the IPL. He seemed satisfied with this hypothesis and asked me to go on. So I sought to define first the target segments. There was a simple quant test here. I used the urban Indian population (since rural people smoke bidis predominantly) of 30% of 1B, and assuming a life expectancy of 60 years and that smokers start from the age of 20 years got a figure of 200M smokers in India. Out of this assuming 1:1 male-female ratio, we arrived at 100M male smokers (assumed females don’t smoke). He now told me that actually there are only 10M smokers in India. So then I discussed that now we have to delineate the factors why people take up smoking (purchase drivers), and clearly figure out those people who took up smoking by seeing the IPL advertisements or related promotions. Also I mentioned that this would be a challenge to do practically on the ground. So how does the 10M number change (market expansion or increase in users) was part 1, and how much more do the 10M smoke (usage) was the other effect we need to consider. Then heasked me how we can make sure that we convert the advertising into sales. I knew he wanted to get some creative answers, so I said maybe stock up in the shops outside the stadiums, or mobile vendors (and more suggestions I don’t remember now). I did mention that advertising is banned in India for cigarettes and we would have to be careful in the suggestions. He was happy with the discussion on the revenues part. He asked me where would the new smokers come from? Would they be new or would they come from competition brands? Then we discussed a lot on the kind of up-trading that happens in cigarettes, namely, people who smoke bidis move onto cigarettes, and people who smoke small length cigarettes move up and start smoking ‘kings’ type cigarettes. Finally we came onto the valuations part to understand what should be the money ITC should be willing to pay. I explained the free cash flow formula, and how we would use it over the years to calculate the NPV. We had a small summary discussion here. Then he asked me if he had any question for me. I asked him does he feel the urge to do more ‘implementation’ work in McK since he is a doctor, and that I feel that I might get bored of doing only ‘strategy’ kind of work. He resonated the feeling and explained in depth what projects he had done and that a large % is implementation.
Tips: Here he clearly told me that he was not interested in too much structuring, so I reduced my writing but continued to speak all my answers in a structured manner. The interviewer felt nice that I responded to his style. So point is, adapt yourself to the situation, yet maintain the poise in your answers, don’t completely relax. Also please use the opportunity in the end to ask questions that you really want to get answers of. Link them up with the background of the interviewer. This shows commitment and preparation, and builds a last minute connection with the interviewer. Also be clear of the intricacies of the business you came from, it helps a lot if the case dwells on a similar topic.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Clarificatory questions included understanding the types of products sold in the point of sale, the various stakeholders involved in the transaction. The 2nd question hit a chord with , he smiled and said that there are three stakeholders, the Retailer (Tesco or someone else), the Consumer Finance Company, and the Consumer. I knew at this point that I had to concentrate on each one separately. I laid out a simple structure of looking at the costs and benefits (or positives and negatives) for each stakeholder by getting into the scheme. He was ok with this, in fact he said this is exactly how it should be looked at. I started with the Retailer and said that there are only benefits since they get the sales revenues that earlier were not got since the consumers did not have funds. So the Retailer clearly wanted the scheme. For the Consumer Finance company I said that the cost would be the cost of raising the money to fund the loans which would depend on the default rate of these consumers. The benefit would be the interest that the consumer would pay on the loan. Then we had a discussion on how to estimate this default rate. Here I said we could use data from similar loan schemes in other countries since the type of product and the cost of the white goods (20-40K in this case) plays a role, or default rates on loans on other products in the particular region, since location and local demography also plays a role. Another benefit could be that a consumer finance company could occupy mind space with the consumers who might buy other products like home loans, car loans etc from the company in future. Overall, a consumer finance company might be keen to enter into this loan. For the consumers, He asked why would a consumer buy a loan from this company and not go the branch elsewhere and take a loan. I said that the convenience of getting the loan at the point of purchase was the single largest factor for the consumers. Also I added that now they would be able to purchase high value items higher in prestige value that they could not afford earlier, so impulse purchase might increase.On the whole, based on a discussion with he, I concluded that the consumer finance company would need to be cautious in proceeding with the loan since the default rates are not predictable. He inquired a way to solve this problem and I suggested that the loans be launched for selected products and consumer segments to start with as a pilot, and then expanded to other products and consumers.
Tips: Asking relevant questions in the beginning of the cases really helps as the interviewer starts helping you more, or will reveal information that would be critical in the case. Prepare the basic questions on leadership and teamwork well. This means they should be personalized, not the typical definitions. The examples should be crisp and explain the point well. Showing energy and impact during such answers is crucial otherwise they might appear faffy. At times when he was having a stone expression, I tried to smile and break him out of that mould.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Since this was not a typical case, I broke out of the case mould and immediately asked for some time to think of the questions. I told him that I would follow a predecessor-based questioning model, simply put, subsequent questions would depend on the answers of the previous questions. He liked this approach. My 5 questions were as follows:
1. Select the business which has a large contribution to the conglomerate’s overall revenues, and ask the business head (who reports to the chairman): How many decisions has he independently taken in the last 12 months vs how many has he just implemented decisions of the chairman?
2. Based on the response of the first question, ask the business head what has been the impact both: a. On the individual business (to the company) performance: Company is not doing well, and the situation needs to be corrected/company is doing average/company is doing good. b. On the business head himself (to the individual) morale: He is thinking of quitting immediately/in some time/not at all. Based on these questions we would come to know the real impact of the chairman’s behavior on the company and the immediate reportees.
3. If the problem is serious, ask the business head which section of the employees are affected the most by the chairman’s decisions, say, mid level and shop floor level
4. and 5. Ask the mid level and shop floor level employees the same two sub-points as in question 2.
The questions should seek to address: - Verify whether there is a problem at all - Verify the extent of the problem - Verify the seriousness of the problem.
He seemed satisfied by the questions and the summary. That’s all he wanted to hear in the case, and I was also relieved☺.
Tips: here will always be cases you have not prepared for. Use common sense, and try to use your work experience to think of substance, and then put it in an easy to understand structure to communicate to the interviewer. Also try to enjoy the process. After multiple rounds of interviews, I had gotten over the fear of cases, and was smiling a lot and enjoying the process. Spend time with the alums from the various firms who would be coordinating the process, they will help calm nerves and give a good perspective on the proceedings.

Skills: Case Solving Ability, Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)

Manager Interview Questions & Answers

user image Pankaj Gupta

posted on 24 Dec 2015

I applied via Walk-in

Interview Questionnaire 

4 Questions

  • Q1. A client wants to start retailing business. He intends to attract as many people as possible, to his stores. How would you go about advising the client.
  • Ans. 

    Advise the client on how to attract as many people as possible to his retail stores.

    • Create an attractive storefront and window display

    • Offer promotions and discounts to attract customers

    • Utilize social media and online advertising to reach a wider audience

    • Provide excellent customer service to encourage repeat business

    • Partner with other local businesses to cross-promote each other

    • Host events and workshops to draw in poten

  • Answered by AI
  • Q2. ‘How would you commercialize poetry”
  • Ans. 

    Commercializing poetry involves creating a market for it and promoting it through various channels.

    • Create a platform for poets to showcase their work and sell it online

    • Organize poetry events and competitions to attract a wider audience

    • Collaborate with brands to create poetry-based advertising campaigns

    • Offer poetry workshops and classes to schools and organizations

    • Publish poetry collections and anthologies to reach a la

  • Answered by AI
  • Q3. A steel company wants to increase it’s Market Capitalization. How would you go about it.
  • Ans. 

    To increase a steel company's market capitalization, focus on improving financial performance, expanding market share, and enhancing brand image.

    • Improve financial performance through cost-cutting measures and increasing revenue streams

    • Expand market share by entering new markets or acquiring competitors

    • Enhance brand image through marketing campaigns and improving customer satisfaction

    • Invest in research and development t...

  • Answered by AI
  • Q4. The client is a Financial service distributor. It currently sells only Fixed deposits (FD) and is considering selling of two new type of products –Life Insurance (LI) and Mutual Funds (MF). It has sales fo...

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I started by asking clarifying questions : 1) The purpose + Does client have anything specific in mind (wrt retail format, target segment, products to be sold, location etc) 2) What exactly is meant by attracting maximum number of people (footfalls? Purchase conversion?) At this stage itself I got information about the target segment : It is primarily income based and Delhi and Mumbai are two cities which have large % of population as set of people who can be attracted. Then I split the issue in two aspects that could attract/ bring people to store: a) Awareness b) the in-store experience/ value from shopping He said awareness is not an issue. Hence, I looked at experience aspects – (1) Proximity (2) product mix available (3) Value for Money in shopping (low price vs product differentiation) He told me to look at it as a case of Food Retailing. During this conversation the scope boiled down to identifying the parameters to maximize profits. I started considering Revenue and Cost as two aspects of profit. Revenue is driven from Quantity (Footfalls* conversion) and Price. Price dint come out as something to be considered as fixed. Hence quantity was to be maximized. Considering that Mumbai and Delhi were target cities, I asked if I needed to estimate the revenue. He told me to proceed and I estimated revenue using population -. Households (HH) -> HH greater than and less than 2 lpa of income (more than 2 lpa expected to visit stores). I asked about average usage of food by such a HH and Kaustub gave me certain numbers. He then asked me to proceed to other parameters in Food Retail. Having covered Revenue as the first part, I moved to Cost. He directly asked me to focus on location/ proximity. I said food retail (especially in Indian context, considering the mobility issue, vehicle ownership, road infra etc) is something that needs to have close proximity. The areas to be focused on would however be determined by per square foot cost. The high-end areas may not be a feasible option. However, emerging areas present a case to be considered. I asked if there was any data available on property rates. He told the rates were 200/sqft/month in high-end areas vs 100/sqft/month in emerging areas. Hence client should focus on Profit/sqft/month as primary metric for deciding where and how many stores to open. He asked me to end the case here. In the end (time for me to ask questions) I asked him about his views of Reliance’s strategy in retailing (they are entering many formats in retailing) and had a discussion around certain viewpoints.
Tips: Be confident and persistent even though the cases may seem kind of undefined or large in scope.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I started by asking clarifying questions : 1) What is exactly meant by commercialization – business/ profits/ practical usage 2) Is it general poetry or my poetry 3) Is there any time frame I need to consider for this. He said the purpose would be to make money from my own poetry and there is no specific time frame. I took a customary minute to think. I used MECE classification to consider two aspects of poetry usage/applications: (1) Academic usage (in text books etc) (2) Non Academic (NA) usage. I further classified NA usage into three areas – NGOs, Corporate(s) and Other commercial applications (namely lyrics for movie songs, advertisements etc. I told him that I had written a poem taking inspiration from a Cadbury’s advertisement) At this stage I said that for any further consideration one important parameter is the FIT of the product (my poetry) to these application areas. I defined FIT in terms of language (I write in Hindi, at time English) and content vs the actual need in respective areas (I gave a coupel of examples – my poems published in magazine by an NGO, couple of Hindi ads etc). I also said I can write for all of the identified application areas. In order to commercialize I assessed each usage area in terms of following parameters (a) Profit Margin (I stated here that the cost = my effort would be nearly same for all kinds of poetry) (b) Capability (FIT) c) Market Size (d) Access (my access to identified market) I made a matrix for assessment along these parameters and rated each on scale of Low, Medium and High. He asked me to focus on How to go about commercializing Other commercial applications. I said our of two areas - namely movie songs and advertisement, I should focus first on Advertisements first (as I have better access to this market). I also looked at another metric - % of advertisements/songs needing my poetry while defining the approach. I further looked at Access to Advertisements in terms of existing and New 148i.e. existing is through my past organizations and through my friends’ network. New means developing contacts through mails and agencies. He asked me to stop at this point and said ‘why don’t you start it right away’. In the end I asked him about his experience at McKinsey and his happiest moment while working there.
Tips: Be prepared to solve such cases based/ customized to your personal interest areas. I got two such cases (one in McKinsey and another one, related to Ball Dancing, in some other interview)

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Asked some questions to understand the problem better: 1) Something more about the client- location, which part of value chain does it operate in? 2) Is there any time frame in mind 3) By what magnitude does the client want market capitalization to increase He said time frame would be 4- 5 years. I drew the value chain of steel industry: RM (Iron ore, coal etc) -> Manufacturing of steel -> Distribution. He said client is currently operating in all. He also provided some information on location – the client had made acquisitions for Iron ore (worth 3 million USD) in US. I said that Market Capitalization would be essentially a multiple of Operating income and hence we should see the problem in two aspects – increasing Revenue and decreasing Cost. I asked him if this approach was fine. He told me to proceed. I said revenue was determined as Price* Output. I asked if price could be increased, which he told me to park aside. Then I discussed output: one way to increase would be through M&A. Other ways would be through Greenfield, Brownfield projects of Joint Venture. He asked me what should be done even before M&A and then dropped a hint about current operations. I immediately said ‘that is something to be looked at first’. Any excess capacity may be utilized to raise output. Further more, the aspects to be looked at would be (1) efficiency (2) RM (biggest chunk of cost) He told me to look at RM. I asked the need vs capacity of the acquisitions done by client in US (3 million tones of output). RM need was not satisfied. Hence more RM sourcing should be ensured through either contracts, locating close to RM sources, acquisitions as RM is biggest part of cost and would help increase the margins and hence market cap also. At this point he asked me about other possibilities of increasing the market cap. I said some ways of indicating god future growth (investments, strategic tie ups) would increase the market cap. He asked me what else could be done and indicated spin offs. I said there could be alternative to float a new firm (separate venture for RM) or sell shares as different types – Type A and Type B while keeping the firm as one entity. He was fine with that. He stopped the case here and said I I wanted to ask anything. I asked him if this was a real case and what had they done in this situation. Then I said that I have wondered what has prohibited systems such as Social Security from being implemented in India and how does he see that coming in future? We had a discussion around the same for about 5-7 minutes and the interview ended.
Tips: Does not matter much even if your case is not going exactly how you want it but don’t hesitate to take a step back and to make efforts while solving. Do keep interviewer involved in the case (Think aloud – may be ask the interviewer at times...if the approach is fair/ assumptions are fair) Prepare intelligent questions (which you have to ask to the interviewer). These could be either based on the case, interviewer’s field of work (typically they introduce themselves at the start of the interview) or relevant to PI in respective interviews. ‘and don’t worry, you can practice drafting good questions while the interview is going on’

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I started by asking clarifying questions : 1) Tell some more about the client – are they only a distributor? Answer was Yes. 2) Is profit the criteria to be looked at for feasibility/ Sales Force allocation The structure that I made considered three aspects of the problem.
• Customers – are we targeting the same customers, how much of cannibalization (Share of wallet aspect) can we expect if same products are sold to same set of customers?
• Feasibility – in terms of skills (different selling skills for different products) Need/ demand in the market, training issues (all sales people selling all products?) Amount of investment required.
• Incentive alignment – He gave me information about prices of different products and clients margin (basis points). Target customers were same. As product type and related needs are different, cannibalization was not taken as an issue. Feasibility parameters were also fine. I calculated absolute margin (which is Revenue for our client) on each product. Then I said, for financial feasibility, Cash Flows need to be calculated and hence Revenue and cost need to be found. Hence Profit is a function of product Mix: Profit = Sum (Pi-Ci) And we know the values of Pi. I identified the possible costs as the commission to sales agents + The cost of channel (for each product). He was fine with this. He told me to focus on revenues only. He further gave me the capacity of Sales person (while selling only FDs, each person sells 10 FDs per month and if all products are sold the mix (4,8 and1 FD, MF and LI respectively). I calculated the as is case revenue (selling FD alone). I also found the profit (revenue for our client) in each category of products (as per the new mix) by existing sales force. (There were indeed a lot of calculations) The incremental profit was around 170 % more and I said on the basis of calculations, the model seems feasible but there are other parameters to be taken care – how to align incentives. Some part of incentives needs to be pegged to the number of products sold else higher margin products likely to be sold more (moreover there could be strategic reasons for selling even low margin products to customers – acquisition, customers may prefer to buy a basket of products from a single contact point/ sales person). He asked what would I say on basis of intuition ie, Should the client proceed with this. I thought and said Yes because the incremental impact is very high and even if some contingencies arise, the proposition is highly likely to be profitable. He agreed and seemed to be happy with this.
Tips: Try to present your opinion beyond the direct (numerical, as case may be) solution. It does help.

Skills: Basic Knowledge Of How The Products In The Case Studies Work, Guesstimation Cases, Case Solving Ability, Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)

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Consultant Interview Questions & Answers

BCG user image Neha Kalra

posted on 21 Dec 2015

I applied via Walk-in

Interview Questionnaire 

7 Questions

  • Q1. Girls on the manufacturing floor”
  • Q2. Manufacturing as a career
  • Ans. 

    Manufacturing offers diverse career opportunities in various industries.

    • Manufacturing provides a wide range of job roles, from production line workers to engineers and managers.

    • It offers opportunities to work in different industries such as automotive, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and more.

    • Manufacturing careers often involve problem-solving, innovation, and continuous improvement.

    • There are various specializations with...

  • Answered by AI
  • Q3. Why MBA?
  • Ans. 

    An MBA will provide me with the necessary skills, knowledge, and network to excel in the business world.

    • Acquire essential business knowledge and skills such as finance, marketing, and strategy

    • Develop leadership and management abilities through practical projects and case studies

    • Expand professional network through interactions with classmates, alumni, and industry professionals

    • Enhance career opportunities and earning po

  • Answered by AI
  • Q4. Why ISB?
  • Ans. 

    ISB offers a diverse and rigorous curriculum, top-notch faculty, strong alumni network, and excellent career opportunities.

    • ISB's diverse student body and faculty bring a global perspective to the learning experience.

    • The school's rigorous curriculum ensures students are well-prepared for the challenges of the business world.

    • ISB's strong alumni network provides valuable connections and support for career advancement.

    • The ...

  • Answered by AI
  • Q5. “there is a company in the telecom sector and has a product “X” – this X is a necessity in telecom and the company has been making good profits for the last 4 years – like 40% gross margin.. and now sudden...
  • Ans. 

    The CEO should diversify the company's product portfolio and explore new markets to overcome the stagnant revenue and profits in the telecom sector.

    • Diversify the product portfolio to reduce reliance on a single product

    • Explore new markets and industries where the product can be applicable

    • Invest in research and development to innovate and create new products

    • Improve marketing and sales strategies to reach a wider customer...

  • Answered by AI
  • Q6. “”Our client is in telecom, profitability is at 10% and they want 25%.. what should they do? ”
  • Ans. 

    To increase profitability from 10% to 25%, the telecom client should focus on cost reduction, revenue growth, and operational efficiency.

    • Identify and reduce unnecessary costs and expenses

    • Increase pricing or introduce new revenue streams

    • Improve customer retention and acquisition

    • Optimize operational processes and streamline workflows

    • Invest in technology and innovation to drive efficiency

    • Explore partnerships or mergers to...

  • Answered by AI
  • Q7. “Tata is coming with nano, what do you think it’s a threat or an opportunity for other players in the market..”
  • Ans. 

    The Tata Nano can be seen as both a threat and an opportunity for other players in the market.

    • Threat: The Tata Nano's low price and affordability may attract customers away from other players in the market.

    • Opportunity: The introduction of the Tata Nano may stimulate overall demand for small, affordable cars, benefiting all players in the market.

    • Threat: Other players may need to lower their prices or introduce competiti...

  • Answered by AI

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I asked him about the product X? and how important it is for the telecom service providers? is it a big part of their costs ? – he said some arbit stuff – this was a hint that it was a bigger overall strategy case and not into details – so I defined the case as – the CEO wants to know, what to do to increase the profits both in short and long term – he said yes - I immediately moved to the standard profit loss framework and started looking at revenue first - he said OK – I said profit = Price* Quantity and went to pricing... he had said that the telecom service providers were not very sensitive to pricing in the business.. so I dint come to reducing the pricing... I asked about the competitive landscape – our client is 35% business... it went on and on an on ..... could not reach anywhere.. so we went to costs... discussed everything.. excess capacity.. joint ventures.. MnA,..still nothing..so he said.(the discussion was a very intelligent substance discussion.. not general profit loss cases.). – we had a great discussion on both prices and quantity,, why don’t u see decreasing the price – I said.. “ooooooo I thot of it, but then u said that the players are insensitive to price “ - he said “ they WERE, the whole industry as I told u is seeing some problems” – PICK UP THE HINTS... -- once he said this I went to the cost structure of the firm again – I said that our client can play price war only if a) his variable costs are lower than competitors variable costs and he is playing on high investment low variable cost model (reliance model) – he said YES it is exactly this way – I said OK , then let him price X above his variable cost but below the others variable costs and drive the competition away. – I also said, to speeden this up he should in fact price it lower than his variable costs also (extremely low and he can afford it because he has cash with him as he has been on 40% profits for the last 4 – 5 years.. so there should not be an issue on the working capital side – he sair “great” .. he wanted to stop and asked me to summarize the case.. – I summarized the case, and also gave some more ideas like .. seeing the cost and benefit of doing away with excess capacity rite now and adding again when the market is doing good, buying high fixed cost players in the sector.. etcc etc.. a lot more.. – he patiently listened to everything Then he asked me if I had anything to ask him? I asked similar question as I asked in Mck – “ has India become a net contributor to the knowledge base..- he told me about low cost Indian manufacturing.. I said cool... and he said super cool!
Tips: a) work on your resume b) Make the resume in such a way that irrespective of whatever – the you are able to guide the interviewer to THE thing you want to talk about – link all answers to that DO NOT OVERPREPARE – DON’T LOOSE YOUR NATURAL SELF

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Upfront questions – where in the value chain? – ans.. they make towers and maintain them .. and into providing services too.—so I asked details on the portfolio of services and portfolio of work of tower etc. – he gave me everything including margins.. so margins in tower making etc were low – I asked him if he is sure that its not just an accounting issue.—he appreciated the point and said .. no, they do ABC and might be small accounting issues but not really one—I said ok.. and moved on to profitability framework .. revenue – costs --- so I said we will look at the tower making etc.. (pareto) – he said perfect.. – went to revenue... he hinted therez nothing there , I said great! Jumped to costs (didn’t waste time at all) - asked him costs heads .. he gave the following .. – a) Tower making, b) people c) administration (I don’t remember the terminology correctly but the remember the discussion) Discussion on tower making – I said “ so Navneet, what does it include” – he said making and servicing and maintaining and some back office work – so I said following can be wrong (BE CREATIVE, I started throwing solutions/ideas) (i) are the people skilled? Know how much material are they using (extra material = extra cost) (ii) is the quality of material too high (more than required quality increases the costs) (iii) is there rework happening? – are people good?(iv) What kind of designs are there – he said there are various different types of designs – I asked why? – he said no one knows – I said .. are they required? – he said , no – I said then standardize the design! He looked happy – so I started throwing more ! – he said no, lets move on to other ones Discussion on people – people cost = wage * numbera) are outsourced people expensive – yes they are – are they doing some specialized job? – not really, they can be replaced – then replace them b) can we multiskill people – yeah we can – then do that! c) Can we move our service centers to low cost destinations – yes we can d) Can we reallocate people to reduce number of people – yes we can – but can we fire them? – are they unionized? – yes they are and he appreciated the point that I touched upon the fact that the unions are tough to handle ( learning : know your industry, small things can make you win the case Discussion on administration a) planning happening ok? – no – so scheduling, audits have to be done again and again (I did not come up with this point alone. It was a result of a thorough discussion .

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: i said – its an opportunity (no structure , we were taking a walk after all) because it opens up a full market – he said ‘ what shud the competitors do” – I kept on saying a lot of things... - they should lobby with government to stop this .. bla bla bla bla – the discussion was round and round and round.. I was tired with my high heels—then suddenly I said – Arvind can you tell me if I am on the right track ? , am little tired – he smiled and said, ok I again ask you “ what can they do to stop the nano or get ready for the market” – this statement gave me clarity and I said “ ok we can stop nano from coming, or do some other stuff” – he said great , so lets discuss both one by one – (remember that once you asked for clarity then you have to crack the rest of the case, else you are dead) –so I picked up stopping nano to hit the market discussion on stopping Nano to hit the market –
(i) demand side hit – lobby with the activists and say that the infrastructure isn’t ready and hence nano should not be allowed ( he liked it)
(ii) demand side hit -Increase the advertisements on how “Indians have to be sensitive about infrastructure” ( he liked it)
(iii) supply side hit – can we buy out the suppliers? – can we promise them some other meat? – like get them under long term agreements etc
(iv) Supply side hit – can we buy out the low cost suppliers to tatas ( I told them, that my thinking was to stop providing necessary materil that gets into nana
(v) Supply side – can we buy their engineers
(vi) And some more discussion, I don’t quite remember .but ya on similar lines What else they can do till they develop their own low cost (i) can they give fire to second hand car market ( as this is the immediate competition to nano) (ii) he kept on probing me on public transport till I said – why cant they collaborate with the government and make the public transport so easy and good and safe that people don’t need nano! BINGO.. ( he loved it- tho he only got that in my head – amazing guide he is) he still looked dissatisfied and asked me there is something else that is missing.. – something that is a real threat to the competitors of tatas. – we kept on discussing, till I suddenly remembered the team that made the engine is of 30 years average age (READ THE CURRENT ISSUES, IT HELPS BUILD PERSPECTIVE) – so I said “ they have the engineering skills, which can be used to enter other segments (like they can make cheaper engines for indigo .. or come up with new car in ford Ikon category etc).. and this resource is just too good! – BINGO
Tips: a) Be genuine b) Be grounded c) Be yourself d) Be confident e) Be transparent f) Be blunt (but carry it ) g) Connect with the interviewer – genuinely h) Be aware of the current issues

Skills: Case Solving Ability, Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)

Consultant Interview Questions & Answers

BCG user image Ritesh Nandwani

posted on 24 Dec 2015

I applied via Campus Placement

Interview Questionnaire 

2 Questions

  • Q1. Why consulting?
  • Ans. 

    I chose consulting for the opportunity to work on diverse projects, solve complex problems, and collaborate with talented professionals.

    • Opportunity to work on diverse projects

    • Solving complex problems

    • Collaborating with talented professionals

  • Answered by AI
  • Q2. Why this company?
  • Ans. 

    I chose this company for its innovative approach to consulting and strong reputation in the industry.

    • Strong reputation in the industry

    • Innovative approach to consulting

    • Positive company culture and values

    • Opportunities for growth and development

    • Impressive client portfolio

  • Answered by AI

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: After some general questions related to my profile, academic background, work-experience and interests they moved to cases.
1. Your client wants to establish a cement factory. How would you approach and what all factors would affect the location decision?
2.Your client has developed an eye solution, using which a customer can do without spectacles. However, one unit works only for one day. So, an user will have to consume fresh unit everyday for solving same problem. Assume that the cost of producing these units is negligible. The cost incurred so far is on Research and Development which is substantial amount. How should they market and price the products?
3. Estimate the market for second hand cars in India?
4. Moser bear has launched DVD range at affordable prices of Rs. 30-40. a MUSIC COMPANY, x has been in the market for last few years and has been selling DVD's for Rs. 250-300. How should they react to the situation of continuously falling demand?
5. Estimate the demand for cricket bats in India
6. Estimate the size of surat textile Industry?
Tips: Don't focus on getting the right solution as cases don't have just one solution. The interviewer is interested in seeing your approach not the result.

General Tips: Focus and pick up the cues from the interviewer.
Skills:
Duration: 2
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Consultant Interview Questions & Answers

BCG user image Ankush Jain

posted on 24 Dec 2015

I applied via Campus Placement

Interview Questionnaire 

4 Questions

  • Q1. Would you like to introduce yourself?
  • Ans. 

    I am a seasoned consultant with over 10 years of experience in various industries, specializing in strategy and operations.

    • Over 10 years of experience in consulting

    • Specialize in strategy and operations

    • Worked with clients in various industries

  • Answered by AI
  • Q2. What are your hobbies?(watching F1)
  • Ans. 

    I enjoy watching Formula 1 races as a hobby.

    • I follow the F1 season closely and keep up with the latest news and updates.

    • I enjoy analyzing race strategies and performances of different teams and drivers.

    • Attending live races or watching them with friends adds to the excitement of the hobby.

  • Answered by AI
  • Q3. What/how would you advice Ronn Dennis, the Mclaren F1 cheif, to go about resolving the differences between his team and Alonso?
  • Ans. 

    I would advise Ron Dennis to facilitate open communication, address underlying issues, and focus on team building.

    • Encourage open and honest communication between the team members and Alonso to address any misunderstandings or grievances

    • Identify and address any underlying issues causing tension between the team and Alonso, such as conflicting goals or communication styles

    • Organize team building activities and workshops t...

  • Answered by AI
  • Q4. How has your stay in IIM been?
  • Ans. 

    My stay in IIM has been incredibly enriching and transformative.

    • IIM provided a rigorous academic curriculum that challenged me to think critically and analytically.

    • The diverse student body and faculty members helped me broaden my perspectives and learn from different viewpoints.

    • Participating in various extracurricular activities and events enhanced my leadership and teamwork skills.

    • The networking opportunities at IIM a...

  • Answered by AI

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case: A manufacturing Co. produces three products: A,B and c cost of production of each is Rs 20. The SP of A= Rs60, B=Rs 80 and C= Rs100. The company produces the same amount of all the three products. In order to earn more profits, the CEO of the company feels that the company should concentrate on producing C, while the CA says that they should go for product A. The CEO a friend of yours comes to you for consultation. Can you help him out?
Profit per unit is ficed; hence the number of units is the variable part.
Thus the important factor is the time required for the production of each unit of product A, B and c. In this case, the interviewer told me that the time of production for C is 1 hr while for A its 15 min and for B 30 min. Thus, the profit from A will be larger compared to B and c.
Other options explored :
- The market growth rate of the products
-The taxes on individual products, in case there are any(because of the CA factor)
-Competitors for the given products.
Tips: As with me, many people, or at least some, tend to give importance to a particular thing on which the interviewer would have stressed on. While this may be so, but its also possible that he's trying to mislead you or give you a broader option. I believe the appropriate approach would be to take a two way approach which in this case would have been an accounting approach and other an operational approach.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case1: There is XYZ refrigerator manufacturing co. The company has only one factory in the centre of the country. From there, it distributes its products throughout the country and hence incurs some transportation costs. There is a competitor situated only about a km away. The management of the company comes to know that the transportation costs of the competitor are considerably less than theirs. In order to find out the reason they have hired you. so How will you go about it?

Analysis: The total transportation costs of the company will depend on three factors.
These include:
- distance travelled per trip
- costs per km of distance
-no. of trips

Since the competitor was also located in the same area, the distance traveled per trip and the cost of trip per Km would have been same. This gets us to the point of no.of trips. It might have been possible that the XYZ company might not be fully utilizing the capacity of the truck and hence required more number of trips to transport the same number of refrigerators as the competitors. Thus, they should be concentrating at maximum utilization of the capacity.

Case 2- Estimation
You are the head of ESPN-STAR. Formula 1 is coming to India and you aim at bidding for the television rights of the same. How would you go about doing it?

The estimation can be fairly carried out by structuring the population in 2 ways:
-one the basis of cities: Divide into urban cities, satellite towns and villages
-on the basis of age: Divide into 3 groups 0-15, 15-20 and above 50

For each city based on population divide it into the three age groups. Now in cities, people in the age group 15-50 are most likely to watch formula 1. let the number be 30% of them. For below and above this age group, let the number be 10%.
In case of satellite towns, the percentage of people in 15-50 age group can be assumed to be 15% and 2-3% for people above and below this age group.
while in villages it can be safely assumed that nobody watches F1. Thus estimation can be carried out in this way.


Tips: being a fresher and not being used to interacting with high profile people was at the back of my mind. Hence, I had a very cautious approach to my interview and probably hampered my natural thinking and flow. So for probable interviewees who feel the same , it is advisable to be as natural as possible.

General Tips: Be as natural as possible
Structure the case properly.
Aim for a good interaction by asking them questions.
Skills:
Duration: 3
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Consultant Interview Questions & Answers

BCG user image Arjun Bhaduri

posted on 22 Dec 2015

I applied via Referral

Interview Questionnaire 

2 Questions

  • Q1. Why should BCG select you?
  • Ans. 

    BCG should select me because of my strong analytical skills, proven track record of delivering results, and ability to work well in teams.

    • Strong analytical skills demonstrated through successful completion of complex projects

    • Proven track record of delivering results, such as increasing revenue by 20% in my previous role

    • Ability to work well in teams, shown through successful collaboration with colleagues on various proj

  • Answered by AI
  • Q2. My tastes in food?
  • Ans. 

    I have a diverse palate and enjoy trying new cuisines from around the world.

    • I enjoy trying new cuisines and dishes

    • I appreciate a balance of flavors and textures in a meal

    • I am open to vegetarian, vegan, and meat-based options

    • I enjoy cooking and experimenting with different ingredients

  • Answered by AI

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case:A cement manufacturer based out of East India has been seeing his prices in east India dip heavily in the past few months. Despite being the market leader, he seems to be unable to arrest the fall in prices. The aim as a consultant lies to raise the prices by 10% and find a strategy to make sure the prices do not fall so easily again.
Case analysis:
This was a very complex case with multiple problems and solutions with each having a different set of pros and cons. He wanted me to see the case from a simple
demand and supply point of view.
Structure:
The supply was overshooting demand in the market as a result of the actions of competitors. So the issue was also to do with the distributors in the middle and how brand consciousness would come into the scene. The structure could be simplified to a 2*2 matrix with price elasticity of demand and brand consciousness on the axes. The issue could be then simplified on the basis of the quadrant in focus.
Summary:

Overall, the issue was embedded in being able to use game theory with the distributor and play prices up and down at regular intervals. Another strategy was to enter into forward contracts.



Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The interviewer was very calm and reassuring and that helped me build the conversation.
Case: A local taxi driver in Delhi wants to explore the possibility of signing a contract with a radio taxi service. Help him with his dilemma.
Analysis: This was a case that really tested your ability to think far and wide because the math was simple but the underlying logic could have been missed very easily.
Structure:
Used a simple revenue-cost structure for the pre and post radio taxi phase. Then tried to see if any of the key variables could be modified to come up with a different result.
Summary:
The case had two parts- one was the initial decision and the decision after changing a key variable.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The interview took off with a general discussion on football and tennis and we spoke about our favorite stars from each of them. More than anything else, this was an amazing conversation where I could speak without any fears and inhibitions.
Case: A life insurance company in Sri Lanka is losing out on market share. Where does the problem lie?
Analysis:
The case was a test of structure to see if you could create one with all the levers enlisted.
Structure:
The market share could be seen as a function of number of policies sold and the revenue per policy. The discussion would then carry on the aspect of number of policies. The number of policies itself would be a function of a number of factors, out of which one of them was creating an issue.
Summary:
The toxic area was something to do with the insurance policy salesman and the entire structure had to be panned out so as to get to that

Tips: Be calm, logical and energetic. That is all you need to impress the interviewer.

General Tips: Be energetic.
Calmness and common sense are the key.
Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Consultant Interview Questions & Answers

BCG user image Mustafa Rangwala

posted on 23 Dec 2015

I applied via Referral

Interview Questionnaire 

2 Questions

  • Q1. Why I wanted to join Consulting?
  • Ans. 

    I am passionate about problem-solving and enjoy working with diverse clients to help them achieve their goals.

    • Enjoy problem-solving and finding creative solutions

    • Excited about working with diverse clients and industries

    • Opportunity to continuously learn and grow in a fast-paced environment

  • Answered by AI
  • Q2. Whether I would join McKinsey or BCG?

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case:The client is a financial services company. It has started a wealth management business five years earlier. The business is not performing nicely. Should the company keep on making on investments in this or exit.
Structure:
First asked about the industry. The industry was growing but the company was losing share. This meant that the problem was with the company. Structured to find about the revenue and cost structures of the industry and the firm in particular. Tried to gather as much background information on this as possible. Talked about training the employees, any new adverse regulations, competitor offerings, etc. In short covered a lot of different angles.
Finally he asked me to give 10 recommendations to solve the problem. This was difficult as we had barely discussed the case for 10 minutes. Took 5 minutes to write down my suggestions.
Structured my answer in three areas: Customers, employees and business improvement. Gave 3-4 suggestions in each bucket.

Tips: Idea generation requires a lot of practice. Make sure you do abstract cases which involve idea generation. Also have questions for the interviewer ready for at least 3 rounds of the process.

Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Associate Interview Questions & Answers

PwC user image Anonymous

posted on 13 May 2018

Interview Questionnaire 

1 Question

  • Q1. Normally they asked from CMA Syllabus

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Test
Experience: Syllabus for written test is CMA Syllabus, general knowledge in Computer.

I was interviewed in Aug 2017.

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Test
Experience: Offline test. Mostly concerned with data sufficiency, geometry and age relations and such apti questions. In verbal part there was sentence equivalence and completion questions. Small RC passages were as well.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: I was mostly asked some problems and approaches of mathematics and I had been asked about an algorithm I implemented in one of my research project.

College Name: Jadavpur University, Kolkata

Associate Interview Questions & Answers

PwC user image Anonymous

posted on 10 May 2018

I applied via Approached by Company and was interviewed in Aug 2017. There were 5 interview rounds.

Interview Questionnaire 

2 Questions

  • Q1. Solve few SQL joins.
  • Q2. .Net developer profile and the technologies I can get, everything was eye wash post joining

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Manager + Lead round (not sure what kind of round is this)
Experience: details about the work profile, most of which never happened post joining.

General Tips: If you come from technical background, please do not join PwC SDC and jeopardize our career. There is no technical setup, neither any infrastructure, technical work wont just happen except for few bits n pieces UI work here n there. This is not a company for technical people.
Skills: Communication
Duration: 1-4 weeks
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