Case in point - prepare for consulting style interview

The First Five Steps

• summarize the question

• verify the objective

  • make sure there is no hidden objective

• ask the clarifying question

  • this is particular important in the beginning.
    • collect more information
    • ask open-end, broad questions
    • show your confidence
    • let interviewer help you narrow down possible directions and scenarios

• label the case and lay out your structure

  • once draw/outline your structure, show it to interviewer and walk him through the structure
  • talk to interviewer about how you prepare to proceed

• state the hypothesis

  • not necessary for all cases
  • better to state in the beginning

The Four Key Case Scenarios

• profit and loss
• entering a new market
• pricing
• growth and increasing sales

profit and loss

** E(P=R-C)M **

look at external factor fast, to see if this is macro economics problem, market/industry problem, or company problem.

** Questions to think about **

• Revenues:

  • what are major revenue streams?
  • Any change or unusual happen to these revenue streams?

• Costs:

  • major costs?
  • major shifts in costs?
  • how is our costs compared with competitors or industrial standard ?

• New product:

  • make sure to discuss both advantages and disadvantages.

Entering a new market

• there are multiple form of this question, like:

  • straight forward entering
  • merger / acquisition
  • start a new business line /product

• Start with questions about the company

  • current revenue stream composition?
  • cost structure
  • what constitute success for company

• Determine the state of the current and future market

  • size of current market and growth rate
  • industry life circle: emerging? mature? decline ?
  • who are customers and how are they segmented?

• investigate the market to determine if entry make good business sense

  • entry barrier? how will competitor response ?
  • entering cost, development cost ?
  • law, regularization ? other risk?

• decide the best way to enter:

  • start from scratch
  • acquisition
  • form a joint venture / alliance

• Merge & Acquisition

  • maximize shareholder's value
  • consider culture mismatch
  • reason to purchase (a lot)

Pricing Strategy

• Can be either stand alone question or part of a larger question

• what's object?

  • profit?
  • market share?
  • brand positioning?

• competitive analysis: how is our product compare with others?

• cost based pricing

• price based costing

Growth and increase sales