Persistence Market Research Senior Associate Consultant Interview Questions and Answers

Q1. Tell me about yourself.
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Q2. What were your roles and responsibilities during your job?
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Q3. If PPO is given, would you be interested in working full time for Everest group?
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Government of India wants to promote the adoption of e-vehicles by customers in the Indian market. Mention key challenges and factors to achieve the same.
This was not a regular case but more of a conversation. Key parameters which I mentioned were reducing the tax rate e-vehicles, availability of raw materials, awareness among middle class as a lot of people are not aware about it, developing trust, and setting up of charging stations.ge, duration, procurement from etc.

A supermarket client having stores in India is facing 20% decline in profits. What could be the reason for the same?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

I: A supermarket client with stores across India is facing 20% decline in profits and wants to figure out reasons for the same.

C: Before I begin, I would like to understand a little more about the company and products. Are these normal grocery stores?

I: Yes, grocery stores.

C: How long the client is facing this issue?

I: Revenues are falling for the past month.

C: What kind of geography in which the client is operating?

I: The stores are present in all the tier 1 cities.

C: I would like to divide the profits into revenue - cost. Since profits are declining, there can be multiple scenarios, decrease in revenue, increase in costs or both.

I: The cost is more or less the same, but the revenue has declined.

C: I would write revenue as avg spending by a customer*footfall of each store * no of stores. Is it okay?

I: Sure, go-ahead.

C: Any of these parameters can lead to a decrease in revenue. Do you want me to look at a specific parameter?

I: Footfall has reduced while other parameters are the same. Can you think of reasons which can cause this decline?

C: Yes, there could be multiple reasons for the same.

1. New stores might have been launched by the competitor in the nearby locations.

2. Either people are not able to come to the store because of some accessibility issue or there might be a change in the store locations.

3. It might be because some stores are not able to meet the demand of the customers.

4. It might be because of change in the current policy that might have backfired.

5. Since our stores are in tier 1 cities, people might be preferring online platforms like Big Basket etc.

I: Do you have any other factor in your mind?

C: Considering the COVID-19 situation, it might be because of social distancing or some payment-related problems like online/offline payment.

Q1. Tell me something about yourself.
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Q2. Tell me more about your work experience.
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Q3. What have you done in your domain and how did it help your company?
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The CEO of client firm has reported that there has been increase in number of applicants for job at their firm by 50% but the growth in new hires has decreased by 15%. You need to help him/her investigate the cause.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: I would like to know more about the product the firm sells.

I: Firm is like TCS services and has similar operations.

C: How have the profits and sales grown in the said period?

I: The firm is doing well. There is in fact, an increase in the profits.

C: Has the competition also faced a similar issue related to hiring?

I: We do not know about the competitors and their hire growth-rates.

C: There can be two approaches to the problem. The reason could be because of either external or internal factors. Do you want me to look at any one of these first?

I: I would like you to tell me how it could be external and how could it be internal.

C: It can be external in terms of the macro effects such as general outlook of the service, technology needed by the employees in the domain, etc. It can be internal in terms of factors such as product outlook in market, promotions made for the work environment, place - work place (infrastructure) employee satisfaction, employee wages, company requirement of employees etc. Do you want me to take any one of these?

I: Yes. Please go ahead with internal factors.

C: Considering the increase in job applications we can look at promotions, salaries, place. Has there been any change in type of employees that are required for services that the client provides?

I: No, there has been no change.

C: Considering the increase in job applications again we can rule out employee satisfaction process, then we would be left with hiring process, has there been any changes in structure of hiring process, the panel, number of rounds, etc.?

I: No, there has not been any change in structure of hiring process.

C: Despite the increase in the number of applications the hiring process has not changed. This might have led to a situation where due to large volume of applications there is a delay in hiring process. Is the hiring process on first come first serve bases or best of interviewees model?

I: Yes, there has been increase in delay time because the company follows best of interviewees model. That would be it. Thankyou.

Your client is a lemonade seller in Lucknow, and he wants you to provide a strategy to expand his reach in entire UP.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: What type of lemonade is the client selling and are there any constraints that my client wants me to take care of?

I: It is a regular lemonade available in 2 variants, soda, and non-soda. No, you do not have any constraints and assume there is no investment restriction.

C: First, I would like to look at the factors that affect my strategy. From supply side would look at the raw materials, infrastructural cost, production process cost and distribution/logistics cost. From demand side, the reach of customers towards the shop, the competitors, etc.

I: Good, now how will you choose the locations(cities) for your expansion in UP.

C: Since we are not restricted on the investment that we get, we can think in terms of demand, first in short run I would be looking into metro and tier-1 cities like Noida and Kanpur. In the long term, would focus on tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

I: Well, now considering that you have a lemonade in Lucknow how would you price your lemonade?

C: The pricing can be done in 3 ways, cost based, competition based, and value based. Since we are having no investment restriction, I would go ahead with competition and value based. First, I would like to consider an additional value of the lemonade to be Rs 3. Given high investment, I would like to assume that we are using high quality raw material and equipment and thus, producing high quality lemonade. With the cost assumptions that paper cup costs Rs 2, Rs 2 for raw materials, Rs 3 for processing and a margin of Rs 2, the lemonade for competitors is priced at Rs 9. Adding the value to this, we can say that the price of lemonade should be Rs 12 for our client.

I: Good, I think that sums up the case.

Q1. Tell me something about yourself.
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Q2. Tell me more about your work experience.
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A niche tech company based out of Gurgaon has been growing at a CAGR of 20-25% for the past five years. For the last year, they are struggling to fill the positions in the company. It is taking more time to fill the positions as compared to earlier. Please help them.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: May I know what technology does the company operates?

I: The company is a software developing company. It also develops android apps for its client.

C: May I know from which country do we have our majority client base?

I: How does that matter?

C: I would like to know whether the employees have to take night shifts if our client base is from the USA or European countries.

I: Our clients are majorly from the US. But we do not have to take shifts. Just weekly calls.

C: Thank you. And may I know which companies are our competitors?

I: No companies. Since we work on niche technology.

C: Should I include the COVID-19 scenario?

I: No. This is happening in 2017.

C: Okay. I would like to approach this case in the following formats— internal and external factors.

I: Okay, go ahead.

C: In the internal factors, I would like to consider factors such as work culture, work-life balance, HR, facilities, Talent acquisition team, Training, and recent changes.

I: Alright.

C: In the external factors, I will include the overall economy, skills required, and Rules and regulations from the govt.

I: Okay, please go ahead.

C: What is the culture of the company? Is it still working as a startup or matured into a big company?

I: It is in the transition phase.

C: Okay, thank you. May I know on average how many hours employees have to work in the company per day?

I: It depends. Sometimes less. When there are project deadlines, employees may have to chip in some additional work hours as it is for every other organization.

C: Okay, thank you. May I know about the HR regulations on a team outing, bonding, or any other cultural events? Also, may I know the facilities offered by us to employees such as gym, swimming pool, etc.?

I: All of it is the same as any other software company, like Infosys.

C: I believe we have two types of employee intake - freshers from universities as well as Lateral entries from other companies.

I: Yes, that is correct.

C: Are we seeing any drop in any of them? Also, may I know some details about the talent acquisition team? Are they well trained for this activity?

I: Drop in both of them. And yes, they are qualified.

C: Do we have enough universities that teach our required skill set? Do we visit all of them?

I: Yes, to both the questions.

C: Okay. Did we witness any change in the leadership of the company recently?

I: No.

C: I believe this is not due to internal factors. Can I move ahead to external factors?

I: Vaisakh, I think we are wasting a lot of time. Just tell me what all are the things (metrics/ numbers) you look at initially when you hear such a problem?

C: I would look into the difference of the days required to fill the positions now compared to one year before.

I: Now it takes 70 days to fill up a position. It was 50 days earlier.

C: Thank you. Now I would take each step in the hiring process and analyze each step. Let me go through each. When we have a talent requirement, I believe the team manager will reach out to the talent management team. Now, if there are employees available inside the company, they will be allotted. Else, they will notify the talent acquisition team. Then the company would post the required notice on their website and shortlist candidates. Then interviews will happen, selected candidates are put into training/KT and then allotted to respective teams. Should I look into any step in particular? Or go through the entire process?

I: Okay. Take steps from the interview.

C: There are two departments - management and technical. Is this problem only for one section?

I: Yeah, consider only managers for now.

C: Okay. Who takes the interview of a candidate? As per my understanding, senior level managers take middle-level and middle level managers to interview junior levels.

I: That's correct.

C: Which level is experiencing this issue?

I: Middle and junior levels. Senior level will anyhow take a longer period.

C: Do we have any shortage of interviewers?

I: No.

C: Okay. Can I move on to the next step?

I: Yes.

C: After making an offer, are we seeing any delays? In giving out offer letters or in training?

I: No, we are not witnessing anything. Due to the interest of time, let us go to next case, Vaisakh.

C: Sure, thank you.

I am the CEO of a hospitality chain based in India. I want to build another hotel in a tier 2 city. I have narrowed it down to 5 different cities. What all different factors would I consider for choosing one amongst them?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: I would consider the following factors.

1. Is it a tourist center?
2. The average income of regional people.
3. Presence of business centers such as IT parks.
4. Presence of cricket, football, tennis, or any other stadiums
5. Presence of Railways/Airports/ NH.

I : Vaisakh, you have only considered demand-side factors. Please check supply-side factors too. Also, while you are at it. Please consider the general factors that could affect this decision.

C: Sorry. Please give me a minute to note down the factors. Supply-side factors could be -

1. Availability of labor. (For building the hotel)
2. Availability of water and other natural resources.
3. Well-connected logistics.
4. Ease of finding employees.

General factors could be –

1. Ease of doing business in that state.
2. Govt regulations.
3. Environmental laws.
4. Socio-cultural aspects of the region.
5. Legal issues.

I: Okay. Good. Now tell me at what number I should consider building it in one city.

C: Did a guestimate on breakeven taking parameters such as population, no. of tourists visited per year, the number of professionals/companies, rooms in the hotel, restaurant seats, and timings and slots.

Logical reasoning and Essay writing as well as some comprehension based.

Estimate revenue of Haldirams of C.P outlet