Case Interviews: Explained
Posted 10-26-2009 at 06:30 PM by sidgoyal
I explained in my last article about the various formats in which a candidate is tested with case methodologies during his life cycle in an MBA program. Towards the end of it, in most cases, come placements – the happy as well as very anxious times. Here many companies choose Case interviews as a method to interview candidates. This is very popular among consulting companies – Management Consulting, IT Consulting, Strategy Consulting firms or any such Consulting company. The typical idea is to look for a candidate who would be put in front of their clients to understand his problem, and he would be able to figure out a way to solve the problem. The actual solution may take time, but he might be able to comment on aspects to explore about the problem and go about initiating the search for the solution.
Typically a MBA student is expected to be versed with their core concepts on marketing, able to understand the word –Profitability, turnarounds, financial ratios and he is also expected to link the same with the operational goals as well as financial goals of the firm. Complex Modeling skills, excel sheeting, advanced operation concepts like transportation problems, Linear equations etc. are not required or tested in a typical case interview. The most fundamental concepts which can help the candidate to under the clients business and understand the drivers in the business will just do fine.
Types of Case solving
1) New product / Service entry
This type of cases generally talks about a new company starting a business or exploring a business opportunity. This can come also in shades of an existing company starting a new line of business or launching a new product. The key aspect to be handled is to understand the business environment, the product/service, competition, the customer, the strength and weakness of the company etc. Typically this type of cases are marketing intensive and all aspects of Marketing – Product, Price, Place & Promotions needs to be inspected. These 4 Ps can be good initial framework to start solving the problem.
2) Merger & Acquisition
This type of Case interview deals with the Macro understanding of an Industry or a business. In the previous example it was about the microeconomics, products and marketing. Here a typical example would be a decision to acquire a particular Company, forward integration or backward integration. How you can identify the drivers in the industry, which phase the industry is in ( growth , matured, nascent ) ? How you can compare a position of a company not only in the particular industry but also with respect to possible substitutes. Points of investigation would include Market Attractiveness, Company Attractiveness, Company Strength and Weakness, The Investments and the Return on Investments.
3) Estimation case
These are more of Quick cases. Here you are supposed to estimate the value of the key driver in the business scenario like if advertisement revenue is the large source of revenue for a firm, viewership is the driver for this revenue. You might be asked to estimate the number of viewers of a channel at a given time slot. While you will again looked at how you break the problem into solveable smaller parts, you will also be expected to work the numbers along and at the end of it come with a number of the viewers. To work a small thing along, you may start with the total number of television sets sold in a store in city, no. of such stores in the city, no. of cities, thus assume a growth factor , assume that 50% of the televisions in the city were sold in the last 5 years ( so you have to only calculate sales for 5 years ) , so it gives to the total number of televisions. Average number of people in a family is 5, so if its night time slot, assume 4 people watching per TV set, if its day time, assume 1 person per tv set, and you can get the total viewers. Dividing by Channel market share, and amount of promotion you can get to a number of viewers for that show. The key is the put in assumptions; don’t worry about the quantum of the assumption. Once you finally arrive at the number of viewers, this number should come as a rational number. For example, your viewership cannot come in as 5000 or 50 million. It should be a reasonable no. like 0.2 million or 2 million. If the numbers are coming irrational be quick to acknowledge the same and get back to the assumptions, and find where you made the mistake.
Best ways of Go about cases
Best way to go about a case is to divide it into Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive Steps. Like Profit = Revenue – Expenditure. Here all the elements Revenue and Expenditure are two independent items and can be inspected separately, in the same time, they together form the whole of the case. So, if the question if profitability, the issue may be Low revenues or High Costs, which can be found by independently investigating each of the elements.
Typically a MBA student is expected to be versed with their core concepts on marketing, able to understand the word –Profitability, turnarounds, financial ratios and he is also expected to link the same with the operational goals as well as financial goals of the firm. Complex Modeling skills, excel sheeting, advanced operation concepts like transportation problems, Linear equations etc. are not required or tested in a typical case interview. The most fundamental concepts which can help the candidate to under the clients business and understand the drivers in the business will just do fine.
Types of Case solving
1) New product / Service entry
This type of cases generally talks about a new company starting a business or exploring a business opportunity. This can come also in shades of an existing company starting a new line of business or launching a new product. The key aspect to be handled is to understand the business environment, the product/service, competition, the customer, the strength and weakness of the company etc. Typically this type of cases are marketing intensive and all aspects of Marketing – Product, Price, Place & Promotions needs to be inspected. These 4 Ps can be good initial framework to start solving the problem.
2) Merger & Acquisition
This type of Case interview deals with the Macro understanding of an Industry or a business. In the previous example it was about the microeconomics, products and marketing. Here a typical example would be a decision to acquire a particular Company, forward integration or backward integration. How you can identify the drivers in the industry, which phase the industry is in ( growth , matured, nascent ) ? How you can compare a position of a company not only in the particular industry but also with respect to possible substitutes. Points of investigation would include Market Attractiveness, Company Attractiveness, Company Strength and Weakness, The Investments and the Return on Investments.
3) Estimation case
These are more of Quick cases. Here you are supposed to estimate the value of the key driver in the business scenario like if advertisement revenue is the large source of revenue for a firm, viewership is the driver for this revenue. You might be asked to estimate the number of viewers of a channel at a given time slot. While you will again looked at how you break the problem into solveable smaller parts, you will also be expected to work the numbers along and at the end of it come with a number of the viewers. To work a small thing along, you may start with the total number of television sets sold in a store in city, no. of such stores in the city, no. of cities, thus assume a growth factor , assume that 50% of the televisions in the city were sold in the last 5 years ( so you have to only calculate sales for 5 years ) , so it gives to the total number of televisions. Average number of people in a family is 5, so if its night time slot, assume 4 people watching per TV set, if its day time, assume 1 person per tv set, and you can get the total viewers. Dividing by Channel market share, and amount of promotion you can get to a number of viewers for that show. The key is the put in assumptions; don’t worry about the quantum of the assumption. Once you finally arrive at the number of viewers, this number should come as a rational number. For example, your viewership cannot come in as 5000 or 50 million. It should be a reasonable no. like 0.2 million or 2 million. If the numbers are coming irrational be quick to acknowledge the same and get back to the assumptions, and find where you made the mistake.
Best ways of Go about cases
Best way to go about a case is to divide it into Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive Steps. Like Profit = Revenue – Expenditure. Here all the elements Revenue and Expenditure are two independent items and can be inspected separately, in the same time, they together form the whole of the case. So, if the question if profitability, the issue may be Low revenues or High Costs, which can be found by independently investigating each of the elements.
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