P.N. International Merchandiser Interview Questions and Answers

Round: HR Interview
Experience: This round was primarily a personal round revolving around the CV. The question broadly covered the various things done at ISB and the extra-
curricular. A lot of expected question were there on the Strengths, weaknesses, successes, Stay at ISB, Comparison with Undergrad education at IIT-B.
The interviewer was insistent that I answer both but I answered the first part and said that there was nothing I could think of for the second part because I just could not relate to such a separation in personal and professional personalities. Of course the answer was detailed and elaborate and ultimately convincing.

The conversation was a very easy one. I think I was able to break ice very early in the discussion and was always conscious for the crispness of my answers. As a result we were able to have a long discussion about a lot of different issues during the 30 minute+ long discussion. I was also trying to build a coherent storyline throughout by citing examples and connecting back to things I had earlier said in the interview.
Tips: Be sure to have a consistent story for all of the above and make sure that you keep corroborating your claims and assertion from time to time. For every aspect I was asked to site an example.
Be very thorough with you CV. Elaborate every point of your CV and prepare answers to the standard expected questions. Make sure you have rehearsed them well enough.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I started by looking at the international retailer (Company) and its Indian partner? Why the venture, what strengths, type of contract, etc. it seems the company had efficient back end operation and the front end expertise was with the Indian partner. They would need 6 months to get out of contractual obligations. The operation is merely breaking even right now. I also looked at the competition and customers buckets and there was not enough information available on this.
After this initial analysis the case question was flipped to find out the drivers of setting up a retail store. Some of the drivers discussed were :
- Geography (decided by regulation, logistics, operations, etc)
- Store format (Departmental, Hypermart, location in city or outside city)
- Product Mix ( What would be item stocked)
- Partnerships (potential allies)
- Competition
- Target Customers (to decide Footfalls X Conversion Rate X Ticket Size)
The next part of the case was that where will I gather information about all these, customers, geographies, etc. I said there could be two ways of collecting information: Primary Research and Secondary Research. Primary we can collected from other stores, scanner data, Pilot study, survey, etc Secondary could be done through industry and analyst reports like Crisil, Datamonitor, ISI Emerging markets, These reports normally give detailed outlook about cities, types of formats, conversion rates, catchment area and other parameters. Given that we had just one monthinformation, Secondary research would be more appropriate.
Tips: Keep your cool

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