Nera Economic Consulting Interview Questions and Answers

Round: HR Interview
Experience: They had 4 interviews.
McK1: Have faint recollections. However I remember I did well on the case and had loadsa HR involved specially in my work on internships and research paper.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: McK2: The interviewer was a PhD in Chem Engg from Stanford followed by an MBA from Harvard. I found this before going in and got real nervous. He started off with some Chemical Engg questions and soon realized it was no use! (He did even comment that I had not learnt anything in Chem engg in the 4 years). We then moved on a case of petrochemical industry where a new player wanted to enter an oversaturated market. I concluded that scale is important and the entry has to be below the existing market price. Some HR including my question to him. Had a long discussion on Foreign MBA vs Indian MBA. At the end of the interview, I guess I had done a good enough job (surprisingly after the start I had) and was called in for the next 2 interviews..

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: McK3: This was a disaster! And a big one. I was given an extremely easy case on nuclear reactor vs coal reactor economics. Simple mathematics which I screwed up because of just 1 simple error. I realized the same pretty late and pointed it out. He said it was ok. No HR

Round: Other Interview
Experience: McK4: The whole interview was a discussion on my BTP and seminar. BTP was related to Phosphoric Acid production. The discussion revolved around whether phosphoric acid should be produced in India or whether we should produce it outside from where we import ore. Then we moved on to my seminar which was related to Kyoto Protocol. Finally I asked question on how different is a foreign MBA vis a vis an Indian one. Very peaceful and fun interview!
Tips: The single biggest mistake I committed was going in a haste into the McK 3rd interview. I got involved in some placement work between the interviews and forgot to carry my folder or even a pen. This is probably why I did not do well on the case (which was probably the easiest of all 8). Its very important that you take 5 minutes off before walking in, get your composure and stop worrying about other things and just attend to the interview on hand. Key learnings included the fact that it is relatively difficult to come back if you don't start well. Thus its is better to take something like 5 seconds before you answer the first 2-3 questions to recollect thoughts, organize them and frame them well. Also that you need to be comfortable with everything on your resume. I appeared for 8 interviews and never mentioned/was asked anything related to MI which I thought was the most important point on my resume. Instead I was questioned on my hobbies. Smallest points on the resume could be the ones you are grilled most on. Another very important thing about case interviews is the fact that the interviewer will be guiding you all through to the final solution. Any thing that he speaks should be heard and taken notice of. Most of the times there will be a small hint given at some point and all you need to do is catch on to it! Structuring your answers is extremely important. One more important thing to keep in mind is that all your answers should kind of show to the company that you can FIT into the company, the job and the culture. It is also important you walk in with the feeling that you can get the job. Specifically in cases, if you get stuck, take some time off to think. Structure your solution well, it carries the maximum weight.

General Tips: Firstly suit up only in case you are comfortable in it. It makes no sense to wear it and be uncomfortable throughout. And in my opinion even if you do not wear one, it never goes against you (at least consulting). For companies like FMCG/Tech its better not to suit up because it doesn't go with the company cultures. If its IBanking, it is good if you wear one. It is very important that you have some questions for the interviewer for any given company. And it is more important that the questions are intelligent and genuine. Attending PPT/ reading up website is a must for the same. Most importantly you should not talk to any other candidate on interview experience before your interview. The interview changes for every candidate. If say for example you hear the case beforehand, the company is bound to find out which would ruin your chances for sure. Further talking to people who have already appeared increases the nervousness. Posture is something that you have to take care of. People have a tendency to relax which should not be the case. You should seem eager for both the interview and the job. While answering any question the most important things to keep in mind are • Take 5 seconds off before venturing into any answer. Compose your thoughts real well. Then start. Its better to get the whole thing in a impactful way then to miss out on certain points. It also doubles up as giving the interview a feel that you are thinking before answering.
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Interview
Experience: There were four interviews, with a case study and some HR questions in each. 
The first interviewer was an IIT Delhi alumnus and asked me a case on whether a telecom company should go for exploring the 3G license option. He provided me with information as and when I asked for it. Later during the interview, I asked him about his experience with McKinsey. 
The second interview involved a case on acquiring land for a B-School. The case was mainly qualitative and the HR questions were also straightforward. Giving a thought to goals and aspirations helped. 
My third interview was with a partner. Again, standard PI questions: something about yourself, why consulting, what if not McKinsey, important attributes of a good leader, why should we hire you etc. The case was on the design on entry and exit gates for Delhi Metro. 
My final interview was again with a partner and there was no HR part. It started with a case, and then there was nothing else to discuss. Anything and everything that could possibly go wrong did. I did badly in the case and towards the end made errors with simple calculations as well.
Tips: It is important to think on your feet even if you are not able to make much headway with the case. This case had sealed my fate.

General Tips: Most of the times, things go on as they are supposed to, we do what we are assigned, meet deadlines and get it over with. Knowing what to do after four or five years of study at IIT is one of those deciding phases where we have to do something out of routine, think about what we actually want, what we can get from where we are. 
Here is an account of how I went about making my decisions and preparing for it. In one of those routine placement talks, a speaker remarked, ‘there are two ways you can choose a career- by extrapolation from what you have right now and by interpolation from your long term goal’. This helps one realize the importance of identification of long term goal. In my opinion, once a person is convinced about that, it is easy to pull off an interview; more importantly, it is easy to identify which options to prepare for. 
I’d eliminated higher studies at around the middle of fourth year and was convinced to sit for McKinsey and core companies. Resume preparation began at around August with the master resume followed by a resume for core electrical companies which come to campus. Later I made a one page resume for McKinsey. Preparing for McKinsey helped a great deal in preparing for the HR section of the interviews. After McKinsey results, I revised the electrical courses required for the companies which were coming to the campus.
The first day was hectic with a whole lot of companies lined up. One had to be prepared for
all the companies because the shortlist came just the night earlier.
College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Identified that the problem could either be surplus or wastage. Understood the inventory procurement and management system. Took a sample fruit for a given week and proceeded with inventory optimization. Developed alternative inventory plans and selected the best one. Then asked to synthesize.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The interviewer didn’t have my CV. He preferred a brief introduction. Probed about other shortlists and interviews I had.
Then opened an elaborate PPT and walked me through the slides. It was a Dairy Farming Corp. based out of western Europe and we looked at acquisition targets across 4 markets. After 10 minutes of running me through a number of tables and graphs, I was given a minute to think and recommend the best option for the client. I Didn’t lose sight of the bigger picture. Concluded with a recommendation and case synthesis.

General Tips: 1. Respond to the tone of the interviewer.
2. Being composed matters.
Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Two things in the problem statement set the path for me.
a. “Phase -1 trials”, so phase -2, so phase-3 etc had to be looked into – basically the whole development stage from a drug in a lab to a drug in the marketplace.
b. “for what amount” – clearly this case demanded working with numbers, because it was not just a yes/no question, but also asked an approximate deal price.

Solving the case.
a) I laid out the value chain in development of a drug.
b) The interviewer on prodding gave me costs involved in the phased clinical trials and their probabilities of success.
c) CATCH: Phase 3 trials success of failures probability does not affect the overall outcome in expenditure, as even if it is a failure, you have spent the money
d) So I have an approximate numbers on cost in different scenarios.
e) Now, I tried to estimate the potential revenue that can be earned from this drug. The interviewer gave the selling price of the drug has been fixed at USD1000. So now its more of a question of market sizing.
f) Since the company is a global pharma giant, it would be selling all over the world.
g) The problem was now reduced to finding the number of potential male bald customers worldwide ready to shell out USD1000 for a cure.
h) The math worked out that there was no way to make money from this drug (It took a little bit of guts to state this conclusion to the interviewer), and the company abandon this project. Or better still, if somebody is ready to buy the right, just sell it for any amount above the costs you have incurred so far.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: First I tried to understand the Nigerian motorcycle market. Also, I tried to understand if there was any possibility of the Indian maker to sell cheap – that possibility was ruled out. So, if cost leadership does not work, product differentiation will. How could we then differentiate our product?

a) CATCH: As it turned out in the course of our discussion, the motorcycles were used as taxis
b) The drivers owned the motorcycles and plied pillions around the city for a fee.
c) I worked out the math for these chinese motorcycles -buying cost, maintenance, life, mileage, etc.
d) If the Indian client could beat that number, we could have a winner - the buying cost was high, but we were better on mileage, on life (3 years vs 2 years for the chinese product) and on maintenance. Still the number was not favourable.
e) Next came the idea, that if we could not reduce the cost for the drivers, can we improve the revenue. An idea that I blurted out, but which turned out to be the one the interviewer was looking for – was to have a longer seat so that a total of three people could ride the motorcycle comfortably.
f) Now the numbers started making sense. Also note that the previous numbers would have changed, because the mileage with 3 people on board will be less than 2 ppl onboard. Also, the amount individual customers are ready to shell out for a shared taxi will be lesser than for a private taxi. All these changes accounted for, the numbers still looked positive.
g) So a go ahead was declared.
h) Now came the second part, given that we decide to enter Nigeria – how do we position ourselves as a brand and convince the locals to tru out our new expensive product –the benefits of which can only be ascertained after a period of one or two years i) The answer came in renting out these bikes to the drivers on a trial basis, and let them appreciate our better bikes and let word of mouth do the rest.

General Tips: a). Be calm, but be enthusiastic in the interview. Enthusiasm shows.
b). Make the interview a two way process. Let the interviewer help you solve the problem. He will drop hints. LISTEN to them.
Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Discussed about the various possibilities of the revenues decline –any particular geography, product or channel. There was a particular region where the sales were declining. The sales in the region primarily consisted of 2 tractor models – 35 and 45 hp.
Tried to approach the problem by dividing the issue areas between Internal and External.
Internal – Company related issues related to 4Ps. External – Competition, Consumer Behaving Pattern or External Environment overall (PESTLE).
The prices of the product w.r.t to competitors was at par. However, the maintenance costs was higher as compared to competitors and hence the sales were going down.

Solution:
Proposed a solution of providing extended warranty. Also the excess costs incurred by the company could be recovered by increasing costs of the other 2 tractors (as its market price was slightly lower than its competitors) compromise on the profits.

General Tips: Just be comprehensive. It does no matter if reach the solution or not. Just be exhaustive and have a structured approach.
Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: If I am an authorized service centre for a mobile company and I want to set up my own mobile service centre to service handsets of products whose warranties have expired, how should I enter the market.
He wasn’t convinced with my why consult answer and coz of that I screwed up my case too. Also, it was the 1st interview for the day and screwed up coz of nervousness. Didn’t ask qualifying questions. Structure was all over the place.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Qualifying questions were perfect. Applied the correct approach. Detected the problem in the after sales service. Perfect recommendations.

Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The first round required a systematic approach and therefore adequate preparation helped to solve this case in a structured manner.
Tips: Overall presenting ideas with logic and structure helped me.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The second round did not go well for me. Here it was easy to get lost in the many levels of the case and therefore it would be useful to attempt some quantitative cases as well. Along with this, it was important to stay calm when solving the case was hard which I was not able to do well enough.

General Tips: Prepare hard and work on exploring all possible options within a case.
Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I took a complete background check with regard to the motivation behind diversifying into IT sector. Also, what kind of IT businesses it wanted to diversify. The interviewer suggested that they want to achieve revenue of USD 5Bn from current USD 4Bn. Also, they want a margin of 12-15% from this new business. Also, the major consumer of IT services are Europe and US.So, I divided the problem into two parts –1. Whether IT business would serve them the purpose for achieving desired revenue. 2. If yes, then what would be the strategy for entering into IT services?I started off with the projected revenue estimates for all types of IT services. However, the interviewer changed the problem statement (due to paucity of time I suppose). He asked what would be the basis for selecting companies from an acquisition standpoint from an initial pool of companies across the globe. I came up with two matrix table wherein I stated what the Indian conglomerate wants from the acquisition (ie Need) and what it can offer to the target company (ie want of target) and tried to match it.The interviewer informed that the Indian conglomerate was cash rich company, stands on its values and has strong client relationship with manufacturing sectors / vendors. So I started linking all of them –
•funding –requirement for cash strapped companies
•Reputation –It can offer brand value to companies not well known
•Client relation to leverage –Companies not present in manufacturing IT services.Also, during discussion, I linked the problem practically to how Mahindra went on to acquire Satyam and what factors it looked before bidding. I think the interviewer was impressed with the linking to case to practical situation.

Round: Problem Statement
Experience: Me: Define market share?
Interviewer: Market share is defined by quantity and sales value.
Me: There could be 3 possible scenarios: Market stagnant, we are losing out to competitors; Market growing but we are not growing as fast as market; market shrinking but we are losing more than our competitors.
Interviewer: Second scenario
Me: Major customers
Interviewer: Real estate companies.
After a brief background question, I started off with the problem analysis.
I broke the problem into Demand and Supply side. Under demand side, I mapped the consumer behaviour analysis of buyer and brought out several points. However, the interviewer was interested in delving into supply side. Anyway, he told me to analyse demand side.Based on our discussion, we realized that pricing and timely delivery was an issue. Pricing is based on cost plus pricing. Cost includes transportation cost which was significantly higher than industry standards. High transportation cost stems from the fact that the factory was located far away from the market. Also, acquisition of lime stone has been a challenge for the company. I think the interviewer was impressed from the fact that the problem was solved from the demand side. Also, I quickly suggested 2 solutions to the problem:
•Short term –Reduce prices and take a hit on profit to regain market share
•Medium term –Follow hub and spoke model to reduce delay in delivery time
•Long term –Acquire a source (may be mine or long term supplier) for lime stone.

Round: Problem Statement
Experience: I took background questions regarding in which circle it operates and its vision in India. I suggested that I would do a Net Present Value analysis and would bench mark against return expected by Norway Head Office. We went into revenue stream like voice and data. Cost included operating, spectrum, license fee etc. He seemed to be satisfied with the response. Also, he asked me why AT&T is not bidding for the spectrum. I explained that Uninor has invested time, effort in understanding Indian market which AT&T has not. I drew learning curve of both Uninor and AT&T. He seemed impressed.
Tips: 1.Be calm and composed. Even if one interview does not go well, one would have another chance to perform.
2.Take good background questions to understand the problem. Dissect the problem and then approach.
3.Structured thinking is very important. Also, explain briefly the broad bucket in the structure.
4.All suggestions should have some basis based on the inputs taken during the interview.
5.Thorough CV and HR preparation are hygiene factors.
6.Always smile!

Skills: Case Analysis, Problem Solving Skills, Problem Solving Abilties
College Name: IIM Lucknow