iiml casebook 2014-15

The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

No part of this casebook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without prior consent from The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow.


Foreword

As companies worldwide get more and more concerned about hiring the right

talent for their key positions, candidate evaluation during interviews has become all

the more sophisticated. The case interview is unique in the sense that it presents

the candidate with a problem to be solved in the context of real-world business

situations and seeks solutions that tests both logical reasoning and creativity. It

allows the interviewer to evaluate the candidate’s skills in deconstructing a problem

and communicating their thought process, the ability to think on their feet, handle

ambiguity and assess their comfort with numbers. Although, traditionally used by

consulting firms in their recruiting processes, the case method is now increasingly

used for jobs across functions whether general management or investment

banking.

The casebook by The Consulting & Strategy Club of IIM Lucknow documents

candidates’ interview experiences by different firms that have been hiring from the

IIM Lucknow campus over the years. The ideal way to use this book would be for

the candidate to first arrive at a case solution employing his own approach and

then enhance his learning through comparison with the approaches documented in

the casebook.

The Consul t ing & Strategy Club

Anmol | Ankit | Devanshu | Rahul | Prince | Suraj

Amit | Arushi | Devika | Jyothirmayi | Riya | Saksham


Table of Contents

Foreword ........................................................................................................................................... 1

About Case Interviews ...................................................................................................................... 7

Skills Tested ........................................................................................................................................ 7

Types of Cases Encountered ........................................................................................................... 7

To-do List for a Case Interview ...................................................................................................... 8

Frameworks ........................................................................................................................................ 8

Some Important Frameworks ..................................................................................................... 9

Summer Internship Experiences 2014 ................................................................................ 14

Accenture Management Consulting……………………………………………..…………………………………15 Interview Experience 1 ........................................................................................................................ 16 Interview Experience 2 ........................................................................................................................ 17 Interview Experience 3 ........................................................................................................................ 18 Interview Experience 4 ........................................................................................................................ 19 Interview Experience 5 ........................................................................................................................ 26 Interview Experience 6 ........................................................................................................................ 27 Interview Experience 7 ........................................................................................................................ 28

Altisource and Ocwen.……………………………………………………………………………………………………30 Interview Experience 8 ........................................................................................................................ 31 Interview Experience 9 ...................................................................................................................... 171 Interview Experience 10 .................................................................................................................... 182 Interview Experience 11 .................................................................................................................... 193 Interview Experience 12 .................................................................................................................... 264

Alvarez and Marsal …………………………………………………………………………………….………….………36 Interview Experience 13 ...................................................................................................................... 37 Interview Experience 14 ...................................................................................................................... 38 Interview Experience 15 ...................................................................................................................... 38

A T Kearney…………. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..…40 Interview Experience 16 ...................................................................................................................... 41 Interview Experience 17 ...................................................................................................................... 42 Interview Experience 18 ...................................................................................................................... 43 Interview Experience 19 ...................................................................................................................... 44 Interview Experience 20 ...................................................................................................................... 46

Auctus……………………..…………………………………………………………………………….………………………47 Interview Experience 21 ...................................................................................................................... 48 Interview Experience 22 ...................................................................................................................... 50


Boston Consulting Group……………..……………………….……………………………………………….………52 Interview Experience 23 ...................................................................................................................... 53 Interview Experience 24 ...................................................................................................................... 55 Interview Experience 25 ...................................................................................................................... 56 Interview Experience 26 ...................................................................................................................... 57 Interview Experience 27 ...................................................................................................................... 60 Interview Experience 28 ...................................................................................................................... 62 Interview Experience 29 ...................................................................................................................... 63

Deloitte US Strategy & Operations……………..……………………………………………………….…………65 Interview Experience 30 ...................................................................................................................... 66 Interview Experience 31 ...................................................................................................................... 67 Interview Experience 32 ...................................................................................................................... 69 Interview Experience 33 ...................................................................................................................... 70

KPMG…………………………………………….…………..………………………………………………………….………74 Interview Experience 34 ...................................................................................................................... 75 Interview Experience 35 ...................................................................................................................... 75 Interview Experience 36 ...................................................................................................................... 76

McKinsey & Co. …………………………………………….…………..…………………………………..………………77 Interview Experience 37 ...................................................................................................................... 78 Interview Experience 38 ...................................................................................................................... 79 Interview Experience 39 ...................................................................................................................... 80 Interview Experience 40 ...................................................................................................................... 81 Interview Experience 41 ...................................................................................................................... 82 Interview Experience 42 ...................................................................................................................... 83 Interview Experience 43 ...................................................................................................................... 84 Interview Experience 44 ...................................................................................................................... 85 Interview Experience 45 ...................................................................................................................... 87 Interview Experience 46 ...................................................................................................................... 88

Summer Internship Experiences 2013 ................................................................................. 91

Accenture Management Consulting ............................................................................................. 92 Interview Experience 1 ........................................................................................................................ 93 Interview Experience 2 ........................................................................................................................ 94 Interview Experience 3 ........................................................................................................................ 95 Interview Experience 4 ........................................................................................................................ 97 Interview Experience 5 ........................................................................................................................ 98 Interview Experience 6 ...................................................................................................................... 100 Interview Experience 7 ...................................................................................................................... 101 Interview Experience 8 ...................................................................................................................... 103

A T Kearney ................................................................................................................................... 105 Interview Experience 9 ...................................................................................................................... 106

Boston Consulting Group ............................................................................................................ 108


Interview Experience 10 .................................................................................................................... 109 Interview Experience 11 .................................................................................................................... 110

Deloitte US Strategy & Operations ...................................................................................... 113 Interview Experience 12 .................................................................................................................... 114 Interview Experience 13 .................................................................................................................... 115 Interview Experience 14 .................................................................................................................... 117

KPMG .............................................................................................................................................. 119 Interview Experience 15 .................................................................................................................... 120

McKinsey & Co .............................................................................................................................. 121 Interview Experience 16 .................................................................................................................... 122 Interview Experience 17 .................................................................................................................... 123 Interview Experience 18 .................................................................................................................... 124 Interview Experience 19 .................................................................................................................... 126 Interview Experience 20 .................................................................................................................... 129 Interview Experience 21 .................................................................................................................... 130 Interview Experience 22 .................................................................................................................... 131

Summer Internship Experiences 2012 .............................................................................. 133

Accenture Management Consulting………………………………………………………………………………134 Interview Experience 1 ...................................................................................................................... 135 Interview Experience 2 ...................................................................................................................... 135 Interview Experience 3 ...................................................................................................................... 136 Interview Experience 4 ...................................................................................................................... 138 Interview Experience 5 ...................................................................................................................... 140 Interview Experience 6 ...................................................................................................................... 141 Interview Experience 7 ...................................................................................................................... 142 Interview Experience 8 ...................................................................................................................... 144 Interview Experience 9 ...................................................................................................................... 147

A T Kearney…………..………………………………………………………………………………….………….………149 Interview Experience 10 .................................................................................................................... 150

Boston Consulting Group……………..……………………….…………………………………….…………….…152 Interview Experience 11 .................................................................................................................... 153 Interview Experience 12 .................................................................................................................... 156 Interview Experience 13 .................................................................................................................... 157

Deloitte US Strategy & Operations……………..………………………………………………………….…….159 Interview Experience 14 .................................................................................................................... 160

McKinsey & Co. …………………………………………….…………..…………………..……………….……………162 Interview Experience 15 .................................................................................................................... 163 Interview Experience 16 .................................................................................................................... 164 Interview Experience 17 .................................................................................................................... 166 Interview Experience 18 .................................................................................................................... 167


Summer Internship Experiences 2011 .............................................................................. 169

Accenture Management Consulting………………………………………………………………………………170 Interview Experience 1 ...................................................................................................................... 171 Interview Experience 2 ...................................................................................................................... 172 Interview Experience 3 ...................................................................................................................... 176

Boston Consulting Group……………..……………………….……………………………….………………….…179 Interview Experience 4 ...................................................................................................................... 180 Interview Experience 5 ...................................................................................................................... 186 Interview Experience 6 ...................................................................................................................... 189 Interview Experience 7 ...................................................................................................................... 191 Interview Experience 8 ...................................................................................................................... 192

KPMG…………………………………………..……………………….……………………………………….………….…196 Interview Experience 9 ...................................................................................................................... 197 Interview Experience 10 .................................................................................................................... 198

McKinsey & Co………………..…………..……………………….………………………….……………………….…196 Interview Experience 11 .................................................................................................................... 203 Interview Experience 12 .................................................................................................................... 204 Interview Experience 13 .................................................................................................................... 205 Interview Experience 14 .................................................................................................................... 207 Interview Experience 15 .................................................................................................................... 212


About Case Interviews

Case interviews are usually based on real problems which interviewers themselves have encountered in the course of their client engagements. They usually last for about 20 minutes and seek to test the candidate’s problem solving skills. In a typical case interview, the interviewer states a problem and the interviewee goes about tackling the problem by asking a series of questions. The interviewer answers these questions based on how he wishes to direct the interview. The candidate must put forth a logical framework for solving the problem after having understood the key issues and must ideally make some recommendations/conclusions towards the end of a case.

Skills Tested

Ø Problem solving skills Ø Quantitative skills Ø Communication skills Ø Poise and professionalism Ø Firm fit

Types of Cases Encountered

Ø Estimation cases–Determine something by making reasonable assumptions about critical variables. For example: How many golf balls fit into a 747, or how many pens are sold every month on the IIM Lucknow campus?

Ø Market Sizing & Entry/Expansion Ø Profit/Losses – Analyze changes in profitability, revenues and costs Ø Industry Analysis Ø Product Launch – Help a client gauge if and how to launch a product Ø Mergers & Acquisitions Ø Competition Handling


To-do List for a Case Interview

Ø Take notes Ø Do not make any assumptions Ø Ask questions Ø Take your time before responding Ø Lay out a structure for the interviewer Ø Summarize at regular intervals

Frameworks

Ø Knowledge of basic types of frameworks is helpful in case interviews Ø Helps in structuring the case analysis especially complex cases Ø Attention should be paid to minute details of the case Ø Identify the most critical issue and try to find solution for it Ø All the frameworks are very well-known and just using them won’t help you

in cracking the interview Ø Don’t fit a framework forcefully. Use it as a checklist to be exhaustive in

case you are stuck Ø Try mixing and matching frameworks with different types of cases Ø Try to form your own effective framework


Some Important Frameworks


SUPPLY AND DEMAND:

The market-clearing price and quantity is determined by the intersection of demand curve and the supply curve.

PROFITABILITY:

Try to find out the reason for change in profitability.

Profit = P * Q - ((VC * Q) + FC)

Profits are defined as total revenue minus total cost. Changes in revenue are due to a change in quantity, price or both. Total cost is the sum of variable plus fixed costs. Variable costs vary directly with quantity while fixed costs are set for a given period.

3Cs:

It is one of the most widely used frameworks and one can differentiate their analysis by not using it. Still, a quick and effective framework for industry analysis!


PORTER’S 5 FORCES MODEL:

It is usually the first step in industry analysis and should be followed by further analysis. This makes it very time consuming in nature. Analysts use it for qualitative evaluation of a firm’s strategic position.

VALUE AND SUPPLY CHAIN:

It can be used to examine an industry’s depth.


PORTER’S GENERIC STRATEGIES:

It is a very effective tool in analysis of the cases.

SWOT:

In a full case analysis, this framework leads to time wastage and should be avoided. It can be used as a presentation framework.


MARKETING FRAMEWORKS:

These frameworks are very helpful in analysing marketing cases in consulting interviews.

STP:

Segmentation:

• Consider variables for segmenting markets • Analyse the profile of emerging segments • Validate emerging segments

Targeting:

• Formulate a targeting strategy • Decision on which segments should be targeted

Positioning:

• Understand the perception of the customers • Position products in the minds of the consumers

4Ps:

• Product – Functionality, brand, packaging and services • Price- Absolute and relative price • Place- Channel, inventory, logistics and distribution • Promotion- advertising, publicity, sales force, sales promotion


Summer Internship Experiences 2014


Accenture Management Consulting


Interview Experience 1 Name: Arushi Agarwal Company: Accenture Strategy Name of interviewer and designation

R3- Jayesh Pandey, Partner R1, R2- Don’t remember

Round (First/Second/third) All Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)

IIT Delhi, B. Tech (Textile Technology) 1 year experience at KPMG in Shared Services and Outsourcing Advisory (Strategy Consulting)

Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Round 1: General HR, followed by Case involving numbers. Round 2: Pure HR Round 3: General HR, followed by an abstract case

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 1: Interview started with ‘Tell me about yourself’. It went straightway to a case from the FMCG sector. Problem was about the falling market share of an FMCG company. Interviewer was looking for a structure to the problem and the various factors that I can come up specific to the FMCG sector. He gave me some numbers, which had to be traced backwards to get the company’s profits. A little tricky but doable. The company’s profit margin had to be compared to the industry average and some knowledge of various ratios of this industry, helped me give valuable insights. Round 2: This was taken by the company HR. The various questions asked were- How was my last interview? What could I have done better? Why Consulting? Why not go into my field of engineering? Why did I leave KPMG? What can I do to motivate a team? Who has a greater influence in my life- school or parents. Why? Why Accenture? Any questions you would like to ask? Round 3: It was taken by someone in senior position. It started with tell me about yourself? Revolved around the work I did at KPMG and why I left it? My biggest learning out of my job? Then he moved on the case. The case was about a magician who was controlling the supply of food that was eventually going in the well. I had to determine the speed of conveyer belt, that would help in transfering the food. He asked me to list the questions I would like to ask him. He had made a confusing diagram. I didn’t not get into the mathematics, and asked basic questions about the motive of the magician. Why is the food going inside the well etc. I also listed down the questions related to mathematics on a piece of paper.


What do you think went right in this interview?

My approach to the case in the last round. Rather than solving the problem, I stressed more on what was the problem and what exactly was happening. I had also prepared my HR answers well in advance, which helped me on the final day. I was confident throughout all the rounds

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

In Round-1, I was in a hurry to do the numbers, which led to some error. I realised it early and immediately corrected it.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Prepare HR answers well in advance. Prepare “Do you have any question for me?”

Interview Experience 2 Name: Himani Anand Company: Accenture Strategy Name of interviewer and designation

Round 1- HR

Round 2 – Head, AsiaPac

Round 3- Partner

Round (First/Second/third) Three rounds

Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)

B.Com(Honours), SRCC, Fresher


Round 1: Round 1 was the HR Interview with questions covering the following- Tell me about yourself Why Consulting? What have you done in IIM Lucknow all this while? Favourite subjects- Questions covering accounts, ratios, interpretation of financial statements Round 2: The round with Asia Pac head started with him asking me which horizontal or Vertical I see myself in. On mentioning Finance, the whole interview revolved around Financial Management and Investment concepts besides basic FRA. Questions on Capital Asset Pricing model Other models to measure risk ( Harry Markovitz model) Which one is better?


NPV vs IRR My stand on US- Syria war, Hong Kong protests Why consulting How has the journey been so far in IIM Lucknow? Round 3: The partner wanted to testify the claims made by the second round interviewer about my inclination towards Finance. He gave me situations and asked me what impact each event or transaction will have on Profit and loss statement, Balance sheet and Cash flow statement. Questions about companies preferring lower profit or higher profit ( Shareholder confidence vs tax evasion) Questions on Income tax provisions, indirect tax provisions



Clarity of thought in talking about my area of interest Structure, coherence in HR Answers



Know your CV really well Maintain your calm, it shows. Enjoy the process

Interview Experience 3 Name: Karthick Nivas Company: Accenture Strategy Name of interviewer and designation

NA

Round (First/Second/third) First - HR Second - Case


IIT Kanpur Civil Engineering (B.Tech.) Work Ex 22 months (Flipkart, Aspect Ratio)



Round 1: HR interview only Tell me about yourself. Why consulting Questions on my CV - Long discussion on projects that I did at Flipkart No cases Some discussion on the “Digital” focus area of Accenture. I asked the interviewer about his experience at operations projects at the company. (Operations was his area of specialization) Round 2: Case only


A marketing strategy case. Client is a perfume seller in Jaipur. The perfumes he sells are not to be found anywhere else in the world. The product has not been tried by people elsewhere apart from the city. Tourists to the city have been intrigued by its flowery smell and usually buy some to take back home. How to go about increasing the business? The case was very interactive. The interviewer expected me to frame a structure and ask the right questions. There was a lengthy discussion at the end about pricing and the right marketing campaign to be chosen.


I was able to hold onto my point albeit minor modifications in light of continuous questions and interruptions by the interviewer. Some of my answers were made fun of by the interviewer but he was generally very cheery. I believe he was trying to test my composure and I think I did well by sharing with him the logic of my answers.


I was unsure about some of my points after being mocked by the interviewer. My lack of knowledge of perfumes was a bit of a problem.


Be cool and logical in your thinking. The interviewer looks for gaps in your thought process. So, list out any assumptions that you take inadvertently in your mind.

Interview Experience 4 Name: Neha Agarwal Company: Accenture Strategy R2- Mr. Jayesh Pandey, Partner at AMC

came for the PPT, and a lady interviewer (probably HR), but did not talk. Before I left the room, she told me about the various teams at Accenture and asked me for location preference. R1-Mr. Akash Kedia, Principle

Round (First/Second/third) 2 Rounds (long interviews, 35-40 mins each)



BITS-Pilani-2012. MSc. Economics & B.E. Mechanical 1 Year internship at Morgan Stanley Capital Intl prior graduation-(2011-12) 2 years as Research Analyst at Corporate Executive Board (consulting/research)


Round 1: long and conversational, asked one case. Overall interview was CV heavy. Q1- Tell me something about yourself (During my introduction, I mentioned that I did M.Sc. Eco in UG, so he started asking questions on the Indian Economy) Q2- What do you think about the current macro-economic condition of our country from business perspective (Spoke about retrospective tax and transfer pricing, discussed the Vodafone case, how tax policies impact business sentiments) Q3- What do you think about the current inflation and exchange rate of our economy? (lot of discussion happened, QE tapering also came up) Q4- After QE tapering and witnessing its effect on Indian exchange rate, what are some of the most impactful steps taken by Govt to control the fluctuation in exchange rate? (mentioned cap on gold imports, meeting the demand for foreign exchange by using country’s reserves- not sure to what extend it is correct, but he seemed convinced) Q5- What are some of the things that can be improved to promote business? (mentioned about a client co. (Fortune 500 firm) that was trying to open a subsidiary in India and the challenges it faced, and some suggestions on what can be done to promote entrepreneurship in India) Q6- Asked me to explain a project I did at workplace on reputation risk (discussion was mostly focussed on how I conducted primary research and came up with the final recommendations) Q7- Tell me something about the firm you worked at and your role? Q8- Asked me about 2 other short term projects from work mentioned in CV


Q9- Asked a case- Very standard ‘Sales Declining’ Case- My client is from auto industry, his sales are declining, analyse why? (asked me to list down all the possible reasons) Q10- Tell me about your experience at IIM Lucknow and what would you like to change? (add courses on entrepreneurship, law and ethics, and sustainable business practices) Q11- Have you explored Lucknow, outside your college campus? If so, one thing you’d like to change or dislike? Ans: Nothing came to my head, so said: Introduce direct flight from Lucknow to my hometown, Udaipur. The connecting flight takes more than 15 hrs! He laughed. Q12- Tell me one thing that is not there on your CV. Q13- Why Accenture? Round 2: Q1- 1 case- refer next section for its description Q2-One thing I liked about the Accenture PPT and case workshop, one thing that I did not like (mentioned that function info was missing) Q3- Which team would you like to join- CN or India Business- I did not know what these teams are, so asked them to explain. Q4- Is it okay if we send you to a small village like xyz on a client project? Q5- What will you do if we do not select you? what other shortlists you have? (mentioned that this cannot be disclosed as per Placecom rules)


Case in Round 1- 1- One of our client’s sales (Auto Industry) are declining, why? : Sales= Price * Volume Looked at all the causes affecting Price and Volume. He did not answer qualifying questions. Told me to list all the possible external and internal factors. I wrote everything. Then he discussed it point by point. Note- Practice drawing a MECE. Refer to the 3-case file they gave during PPT. He was not looking for industry knowledge. Case in Round 2- (went on for 35 minutes, lots of questions and criteria, interviewer gave me a lot of time to think and structure)


There is a housing society “The wasteful society”, you collect all the household garbage and sell it to 5 different businesses. Determine what price you will pay to the society members in Rs/kg, given you want to make a profit of 20% for a year. Information given: The garbage you collect is sold to the following 5 vendors:

a. Compost Manufacturer b. Plastic Recycler c. Paper Recycler d. Metal Recycler e. Miscellaneous

The following questions were written on the case sheet: Q1- How would you price the garbage to make a profit? (what would be your strategy) Q2- What information would you need to proceed in the case, prioritize your questions (i.e. the most important information should be asked first: you will be evaluated on that) Q3- Apart from obtaining money from the above 5 vendors, what are other revenue streams? Q4- What are some of the other factors you would consider when you price the society? (Ans: Society maintenance charges) (did not discuss Q3 and Q4 in detail) Solution: Ans1- Assess how much waste I would get on a daily basis, calculate the cost and revenue streams, factor in profit margin and calculate the price. Questions asked: 1- What is the amount of garbage produced by the society/

household and how many households are there? Interviewer: 4.5 kg/ household, 180 households

2- Are all households producing the same amount of garbage? Interviewer: 120 households produce 14 kg/day, and the remaining 60 produce 1 kg/day. Recalculate the average value if it doesn’t come out to be 4.5kg. Gave me a calculator to do so.


3- Why do these households produce such a large quantity of garbage? Also, does this lead of 2nd degree price discrimination? (i.e. charge households on basis of the amount of garbage supplied) Interviewer: Large family size. Yes, we charge these households differently, we will look into this later.

4- Can I assume if the quantity of garbage produced remains same each day? Ans: Yes

5- Apart from households, who else supplies us garbage, e.g. local

kirana stores? Interviewer: Ignore, we only consider households

6- Who is collecting and disposing waste currently? Do we have the figures on what price the competitors/current vendors are charging? Interviewer: Ignore.

7- What is the segregation of waste? i.e. what proportion of waste goes to each of the 5 vendors? This will help me determine revenue. Inter. Assume 20% to each, he also gave me price/kg obtained from each of the vendors.

Revenue Streams: Q1- I obtain: 120*14+ 60*1=1740 kgs of waste everyday from the society. Is all of it segregated and sold or some quantity is wasted/ non usable. Interviewer: No waste, all of it is useful. So 1740/5 goes to each of the vendor. Revenue: Sum of (Price from each vendor*1740/5) Other revenue stream: Q: Since I will be collecting waste for an year, can I charge the society for an annual contract fees/ society maintenance? Interviewer: No, ignore that. Think of more ways by which you can earn money. Q: Do I get any subsidy or payments from government/ society maintenance unit for cleaning the place, as it leads to social benefits? No


Interviewer: let’s look at cost streams, for now, we can stick to the revenue obtained from our five vendors. Cost streams : a. Transport costs: Int: elaborate more: what transport costs: Me: I assume a truck goes to collect the waste, it will go from the garage to the society, collect the material from there and go to five vendors to deliver. Do we have the kms travelled per day? And price charged per km? Interiewer: some discussion on how to determine the cost. He said, price/kg is not the right metric, gave me price/km/kg of waste taken. The cost of transport depends on how much it is loaded and the distance travelled. Also, we decided to assume that it carries all the waste of 1740 kgs in different containers throughout the route. So cost is: 60*1740*x (he was looking for the right metric, price/kg/km. I only asked kg/km. Also, he also wanted me to ask him how much weight is carried at one time, as it goes to 5 different vendors delivering 1740/5 kgs. He wanted me to ask these two questions, even though we later decided to ignore this in calculation) 2- What are the labour costs involved in segregating the waste for

5 vendors? This is a manual process so would require us labour. Interviewer: we’ll ask the society people to do so. They’ll segregate the waste and give us. However think of the costs associated with this. Me: We’ll keep 5 separate bins for this. So costs of bins is required. q- Do these bins wear out, how many times do I change the 5 bins in one year (interviewer gave me the costs of the bins)

3- Labour: drivers salary (ignore, that’s included in transport), labour to pick garbage and unload it at vendors place. Cost associated: total annual salary My salary, as I manage this business: to be ignored

4- Do we calculate price based on profit before tax, or should I factor tax paid? Inter: ignore tax, calculate EBIT

5- Are there any financial costs? Have I made any investment for running this business on which I to pay interest? Ignore this


6- Any other set up cost? Ans: No

7- Finally, the price paid to households as we purchase the garbage

from them. Interviewer: Proceed to calculations Revenue: X Costs: Y (from all the factors) + (Z= cost paid for garbage) Profit: 0.2 total costs Total Waste 1740 kg Using all this data, calculate an appropriate price. X- (Y+Z)= profit= 0.2 (Y+Z), we know X and Y so calculate Z. Z is the total price I will pay for 1740 kgs of waste. I started drawing the graph for 1 kg and 14 kg waste to determine price for these two bundles (2 degree price discrimination). He looked at the graphs, but told me to ignore and calculate price by directly dividing it by 1740. He told me to summarize everything to the lady interviewer sitting in the room. Important: I filled 5 sheets in collecting all the information He looked at the sheets to see how I organized all the sections of the case, like cost stream, revenue stream, list of questions to be asked etc.


1- Was prepared to answer questions based on CV. 2- Was able to structure the case verbally and on paper. Both the

interviewers checked that 3- Interview was conversational


R2 interviewer seemed a bit intimidating in the PPT and I was praying he doesn’t take my interview. However, when I entered the room, I saw him and got very nervous. Because of this, I stumbled a little in the beginning, but as the interview progressed, I was fine.



1- Practice cases on paper, draw MECE and structure each subpart neatly.

2- Know your CV well, specially work and academic projects. Prepare HR answers.

3- Take notes during PPT and read about the company: they ask for it during interview.

4- Try to engage the interviewer, especially during the case. Smile and be confident.

5- Ask one question to each interviewer at the end of the interview. This shows your interest in the firm.

Interview Experience 5 Name: Pooja Agrawal Company: Accenture Strategy Name of interviewer and designation

Partner: Jayesh Pandey

Round (First/Second/third) Associate followed by HR and final round was by a partner


B.Tech Pulp & Paper Technology, IIT Roorkee, Fresher


Round 1: Introduction, Reason for a career in Consulting (I mentioned my dad’s business which he picked up) Case was on profitability of a tea packaging company(Dad’s business) Round 2: 1. Introduction (something not on CV)

2. Discussion about family, my hostel life & other generic stuff 3. Interviewer read the comments of R1 and asked about how

confident I am with quant. (I messed up some calculations in first round)

Round 3: I was the last one to be interviewed. Interview began with the case directly.


1. How to increase the number of bank accounts of a public sector bank? (gave a lot of details: targeted segment, existing customers, mean & median age and income of customers)

2. How to commoditize the perfume being sold at the Jaipur city palace & used by the royal family? He wanted me to think of a marketing plan for 5-10 mins. He wanted a one-on-one debate rather than a structured solution on paper.



I was very relaxed and interactive during the interview. The interviewer said that he was looking for consistency in the marketing case. I gave a proposition for the product and stuck to it till the end. I think that really helped.



HR answers: most important, Have a clear answer for ‘Why consulting’ Involve the interviewer during the case as much as possible.

Interview Experience 6 Name: Tanveet Saluja Company: Accenture Strategy Name of interviewer and designation

Round (First/Second/third)


BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus, Batch of 2013 Worked for 1 year in Carrier Airconditioning


Round 1: Questions revolved mostly around my CV. I had done a 6 month internship in Logistics department of Skoda. So he asked me a case study on how to improve profitability by reducing the logistics cost. Basically he wanted to check how many areas of logistics I touched upon and how could cost be reduced in each. He also asked which area I wanted to specialize in? What would I look at first while looking at income statement of a company so as to determine the health of a company? Round 2: HR Round. Tell me about yourself. Why consulting? Why is academic section of your CV so strong? Most remarkable achievement during your workex.? What are your hobbies? What would you do first after finishing your MBA? Round 3: This round was with the partner. Again questions from my CV. The partner had a degree in chemical engineering. So he asked me questions on heat transfer. ( I had done heat transfer during my graduation). Asked me my favourite course at IIM Lucknow. A few questions from microeconomics followed. Had a 15 minute discussion with him on Prisoner’s dilemma in the airline as well as soft drink industry. He ended the interview with the question: Why Accenture?




Be calm and composed. Consulting interviews are basically about having a wholesome conversation with the interviewer. The more comfortable you are higher are your chances of selection



Do not mug up frameworks for case prep. Be logical in your approach.

Interview Experience 7 Name: Vishwas Nandan R Company: AMC Name of interviewer and designation

Round 1 : One Senior Manager

Round 2 : One Partner, One HR

Round (First/Second/third) 2 Rounds


NITK Surathkal, Mechanical Engineering, 23 months of work experience at Hero Motocorp Ltd.


Round 1: • Most of the questions were related to my work experience

at Hero Motocorp (Supply Chain related) • Explain ABC analysis? (Classification of parts based on

sales) • Questions related to Flipkart’s Big billion Day - What is the motive behind Flipkart’s big billion day? - Given the negative publicity that flipkart witnessed,

would you as an entrepreneur have such a sale for your company?

- Estimate the customers that flipkart would have gained due to the Big billion day

Round 2:

• Tell me about yourself? • Why Consulting? • Why Accenture? • Work ex related questions


• Calculate ROI for your project at Hero Motocorp. • Which subject did you like the most in first term? Explain

economies of scale? Why does the cost increase after certain volume? How can that be avoided?

• Repeated questioning on why management? and why consulting?

• How comfortable would you be in applying your work ex related learnings in a bank?


Questions were mostly related to Flipkart’s Big Billion Day 1) Guesstimate the number of customers flipkart would have gained due to the Big Billion Day sale.

- Calculated it for a smaller area taking IIML as sample and suggested about extrapolating these numbers to a city like Lucknow or maybe even India

- Mentioned about the skew in the results if extrapolation was done with IIML as sample.

- Explained about the error corrections that must be considered while extrapolating like Computer literacy, awareness about the sale, internet availability etc.


Structured approach to all the answers Was confident throughout the process and involved the interviewers hence both the rounds were like a discussion



Research on the various divisions of Accenture and the kind of projects taken up by those divisions Know your CV well Preparation of HR answers is crucial


Altisource and Ocwen


Interview Experience 8 Name: Dipak Saha Company: Altisource Name of interviewer and designation

Senior Manager, HR

Round (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)

Jadavpur University, Power Engineering, Incident Analyst for a major international bank at Tata Consultancy Services, 22 months


Round 1: Mostly questions on my work experience. My learning out of it. Knowledge about the company. Why did I choose to work there?


No case interview.


I could talk at length about my work and back those up with some of the awards that I won during work. Being strong at Mathematics also helped.


Did not knew much about the organization. They wanted candidates to do more research on the organization.


Practice puzzles Go through the company website and ppt Prepare your HR answers well

Interview Experience 9 Name: Naman Gupta Company: Altisource Name of interviewer and designation

Oliver, HR Head

Round (First/Second/third) First Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)

Thapar University, Electronics & Communication, Genpact Headstrong (Big Data Analyst)



Round 1: Purely Work-ex based, What was your work? , What was your role? , What was the team setup? , What was the impact of your work on Client’s Business Round 2: What type of work appeals to you, where do you see your career in future, Again purely work-ex in very detailed manner



Honesty about my work Willingness to learn Explanation of my work in layman terms Confidence Spontaneity


Lack of preparedness about company’s work


Prepare your work-ex really well They look for people who wants to apply logic Stress on your analytical skills

Interview Experience 10 Name: Rishika Malik Company: Altisource and Ocwen Name of interviewer and designation

Mr Oliver, Head of HR Department, Altisource

Round (First/Second/third) One


SRCC, BA (Hons), Economics. No work ex


Round 1: Please run me through your CV. What do you know about our company? (Along discussion on it. what are the various services which Altisource offers, what is loan servicing etc. There are 5 different Altisource companies. Read about them. A lot of information is available on the Altisource and Ocwen websites) Please ask me any anything you want to know.




I gathered a lot of information about Altisource and Ocwen and the services it provides. Ocwen basically does loan servicing. Altisource provides technology solutions to companies, it has its own online real estate marketplace, Hubzu etc. Loan servicing is uncommon in India and it is important to understand it if one wants to crack this company. Sufficient information is available on the company websites.



Interview Experience 11 Name: Somya Sheshank Company: Altisource and Ocwen Name of interviewer and designation

Oliver Dsouza, Director Human Resources at Altisource

Round (First/Second/third) 1 round


IIT Roorke – Btech Metallurgical and Materials Engg, 2yrs work ex at iRunway India Pvt Ltd


Round 1: Q) Tell me everything you know about Altisource (discussion weny for about 15 mins). I had contacted seniors at Altisource, so I had a decent knowledge of the functioning of the company. However, the interviewer was not impressed and expected extremely fine details about the company. (Note that the operations of the company cannot be easily understood from their websites and other public information. It is better to get in touch with employees) Q) Tell me about your job. They were interested in knowing your role in as much details as possible. They were looking for some kind of a match between the role they had in mind and your background.



They do not ask any case.


The fact that I presented my work ex details in a manner which was easily understandable and showed a match with their requirements.


That I did not delve very deep into understanding the operations of the company.


Make your you read/ask around as much about the company as possible. That is all that is required.

Interview Experience 12 Name: Vaibhav Sharma Company: Altisource-Ocwen Name of interviewer and designation

Mr. Praditpto Sarkar + Mr. Oliver D’Souza

(Senior Manager) + Director (H.R)

Round (First/Second/third) Only 1 Round Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)

B.Tech (Computer Science) , 2 years work experience with Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) in the Healthcare vertical


Round 1: • Walk us through your resume esp. your work experience • Tell us more about your team structure and project details • What do you know about Agile methodology? • Tell us about the challenges you faced because of the

geographically dispersed teams • What are your predictions for the I.T sector in the

healthcare vertical? • What are the challenges to achieve such growth? (follow up

question to the previous question) • Were you satisfied with your job with CSC? What else are

you aiming for after you pass out from IIM-L? • Do you have any questions for us?


Not Applicable



The interview was primarily linked with my work experience in Computer Sciences Corporation. My knowledge of the I.T service sector came in handy during the interview. Also, it is important to be well aware of the various kinds of challenges and opportunities in the sector you were working in.


I was not well versed with the kind of work Altisource does and its relationship with Ocwen financial services. Please ensure you do adequate research about the company.


• If you have work experience related to I.T, Analytics or Operations, make sure you are well prepared for work experience related questions.

• If you are a fresher, be prepared for some puzzle questions. • Please do your basic research about the company


Alvarez and Marsal


Interview Experience 13 Name: Arpit Kumar Singhal Company: Alvarez and Marsal Name of interviewer and designation

2 Interviewers(Both having experience for quite long in consult firms)

Round (First/Second/third) 2 Rounds Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)

Delhi College Of Engineering , Electrical Engineering, Tata Steel Ltd - 3 years, Project Manager


Round 1: Tell me about yourself. Why Alvarez? Why consult? Work experience at Tata Steel. (He was interested in knowing how I solved problems at site) Case. Any question would you like to ask me. Round 2: Tell me something that is not mentioned in the CV. How do your friends perceive you? (No beating about the bush) Do you read management books? One finance problem. One current affairs question. Any question would you like to ask me.


The case was printed and quite long(about a page). It was about auto components part and everything was given about it. Suggestions were to be given whether a new company should enter it or not. I was given time to read it and just had to structure it. He interrupted me whenever he felt I was going haywire.


I had well prepared the initial questions – about myself, why consult and why Alvarez questions which helped me in gaining confidence. It was my only interview of the day so I was quite relaxed. The interviewers also seemed friendly.


I hadn’t prepared ‘Something that is not mentioned in the CV’ question. I had to come up with on the spot answer which could have been better.


Do well prepare your HR questions and work experience part. It really helps on the final day.


Interview Experience 14 Name: Kritika Gupta Company: Alvarez & Marsal Name of interviewer and designation

Round (First/Second/third) First


B. Com (Hons.) from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Work experience: 21 months KPMG (Transaction services)


Round 1: Analyse the hair care industry for a company that wants to enter the Indian market; Given the profits of two companies, where would you invest – (Ans: ask the interviewer for respective investments for the two companies and then calculate ROCE); few work experience based questions Round 2: HR questions (leadership experiences, why does the profile interest you etc.)


Analyse the hair care industry for a company that wants to enter the Indian market.


I was calm throughout the process, had practiced more difficult case studies for other consulting interviews, so the one asked in this interview seemed simple.


The interviewers were not very expressive and didn’t drop any hints as to how the interview was going. This made me loose a little confidence towards the end.


Understand the work profile well before interviewing. Have basic financial concepts in place (basic FRA knowledge form the 1st term would suffice), read a little about M&As.

Interview Experience 15 Name: Nishant Kumar Company: Alvarez & Marshal Name of interviewer and designation

Round (First/Second/third) First round was case study based A case was handed and each candidate was given 20-25 mins to solve the case before their 1st round Second round With the firm partner


A fin question was asked in addition to 2-3 Hr questions regarding why interested in finance, why consulting etc.


BITS Pilani, 3 yrs Marketing and Sales Analytics


Round 1:. The case given to me dealt with 2 skin care companies, market leaders in their segment. 2 new market companies had entered the market eroding off the market share of the established firms. Data reading working capital, paid in capital and operating expenses were given. The case was followed with 3 questions.

1) Discuss the current market situation? 2) What should be the strategy of Skin Care India Pvt. Ltd (

the market player in the mass market segment) 3) If you are a PE which firm would you invest in?

In the first round of the interview these questions were discussed in detail and various other scenarios were also taken into consideration Round 2: A finance question regading P&L statement of 2 companies were asked. Also basic Hr questions such as interest in finance, why consulting etc were also asked.


Stated above


Logical conclusion of the case in round 1. I think I was able to justify my interest in finance which added to my cause.




A T Kearney


Interview Experience 16 Name: Anupam Bhattacharjee Company: A T Kearney Name of interviewer and designation

Round 1: Manish, Partner Round 2: Nithin, Principal Round 3: Can’t Recall


BITS-Pilani, B.E. (Hons) Electrical and Electronics, Work Ex-23 Months, Intel and Broadcom (Wireless Communication)


Round 1: Brief introduction followed by a guesstimate. Round 2: General questions about my work area and interests. Followed it with a case. Round 3: Introduction followed by discussions on my work area. No cases in this round.


Round 1: The problem statement for the guesstimate case was: One of the leading automobile players in India has decided to launch an electric vehicle (priced at around Rs.7 lakhs) and wants to estimate the market size for the same. Initially started with the traditional top-down approach segregating the potential customer base into rural and urban households and then looked to find what fraction of households would be interested in and can afford the EV. Next we discussed the potential factors and trade-offs that would be involved in the decision making process of any customer when he has to choose between an EV and a fuel based car. Post that we did some calculations to estimate the size of each segment. Round 2: This round started with spending the first half hour discussing my work, projects and interests. It was largely conversational. This was followed by a case. Problem Statement: One of the leading players in the automobile sector in India currently has its production facilities offshore. It wants to explore the option of setting up local production facilities and see if it is economically viable to do so. The case was mostly quantitative and involved lot of numbers (fixed and variable expenses, projected sales figures for 5 years) and required calculating the BEP and YoY profits. Round 3: HR based round which included CV Review, why consulting, questions on my areas of interest and long term career goals.



1) Was calm and relaxed throughout the interview. 2) Wasn’t hesitant to ask for clarification whenever I got struck

while solving the case. 3) Was able to engage with the interviewers while discussing

my interests, work and projects


Missed one or two hints while solving the case where the interviewer had to prod me along in the right direction.


Interview Experience 17 Name: Gautam Bansal Company: AT Kearney Name of interviewer and designation

Round 1: Partner (Manish) Round 2: Principal (Nitin) Round 3 : Principal Round 4: Senior Partner


B.com (H), SRCC Audit Analyst with Deloitte and Touche (USI) for 17 months in the Asset Management and Real Estate sectors CFA level 3


Round 1: Tell me something about yourself. Guestimate: Estimate the demand for 2 wheelers in the market. Round 2: Why consulting? Mathematics puzzle: No. of ways you can move across chessboard from one end to the diagonally opposite end. Case: You are approached by a consumer goods manufacturer based out of South India. He wants to understand if it is viable for him to open a plant in North India. How would you help him? Round 3: 5 minute introductions. Case: Oil and Gas industry. I am a natural gas producer from 10 years ago. Discuss the applications of Natural Gas in the market. How attractive is the market for natural gas? Round 4: HR round. Tell me something about yourself. Why Consulting? Questions based out of CV. Why AT Kearney? Do you have any questions?



Round 3: After discussing the applications of natural gas, the interviewer asked me to discuss the market potential of natural gas in the transportation market. Thereafter, worked out cost benefit analysis in comparison to petrol and diesel.


R 1: I was calm and the interviewer gave me time to settle. The case was easy. R 2: I handled the numbers well. There was a tricky tonne to Kg conversion in the middle. Didn’t miss it.


1. Two of the interviewers were unresponsive. Another one was too responsive, almost like a stress interview.

2. Oil and Gas was an unfamiliar industry. Getting to the applications of Natural Gas took some effort.


1. Being composed is definitely one of the top 2 things that matter.

2. Define the problem clearly and get the broader structure right.

3. Prepare “Do you have any questions for me?” well.

Interview Experience 18 Name: Mit Kotecha Company: A.T. Kearney Name of interviewer and designation

1st round: Akshat Seth(Principal), 2nd round: Manish(Partner), 3rd round: Nithin Chandra(Principal), 4th round: Mohit Rana(Partner)

Round 4 Rounds


IIT Roorkee, B.Tech Biotechnology, Fresher


Round 1: Tell me about yourself; Case on Energy sector Round 2: Why consulting; Challenges faced by a consultant in life, followed by a case on automobile industry Round 3: Case Interview and No HR questions. Round 4: CV based questions and Tell me about yourself



Case 1: Problem Statement: A thermal power is plant facing losses Case 2: Problem Statement: Help a biscuit manufacturing plant to relocate to some new place and estimate the break even. Case 3(Abstract): Problem Statement: How can you improve the efficiency of an automobile manufacturing plant


My HR answers were well prepared. My areas of interest matched with 2 of the interviewers, which helped me to generate talking points and steer the interview in my way.


In case 1 it took me a bit longer to reach the solution but in other two cases nothing went wrong as such.


It is important to stay calm during the case interviews. The interviewer will be ready to help you out so it is important to clarify your doubts, but don’t ask the same question again and again. Take some time to understand the case question and confirm with the interviewer before proceeding further.

Interview Experience 19 Name: Prateek Sekhani Company: A.T. Kearney Name of interviewer and designation

Akshat, Principal

Round (First/Second/third) Round 2


St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata B.Sc. Economics Honours Work Ex: Futures First; Proprietary Trader; 6 months


Round 1: Puzzles like how many moves are needed to get from one corner of a chessboard to the other. Plus HR questions like, why will you choose A.T. Kearney etc Round 2: Case: Various uses of CNG/LPG, and is it feasible for a vehicle to convert to LPG. Round 3: Size of the second hand car market in India



Initially Akshat, principal asked me about a few basic points on my CV. Then he said if I had any questions. I asked about what work A.T. Kearney did in the energy sector since that was of interest to me. Then he gave me a case on the same. He asked me to enlist various uses of CNG/LPG in/around Delhi. I bifurcated it into 2 parts: Domestic and Commercial. Domestic included uses In the house and Outside the house. Inside the house was essentially stoves plus any appliance if any. Outside include vehicles, generator, etc. Commercial comprised of factories (I suggested boilers when asked to specify where), street lighting, office lighting, trucks+commercial vehicles etc. Post that he asked me to assess the viability of converting a car to LPG. I enlisted monetary + non-monetary factors. Monetary factors included per km cost of using LPG vs per km cost of Petrol/Diesel. Then based on average distance, the break even disctance was calculated. For noon-monetary, factors like trunk space requirements, reputational factor, accessibility of LPG stations etc were considered. Post that we spoke briefly about the Solar sector in general, with focus on scope of Solar energy in India. This came up since I had mentioned that it was an area of interest.


The fact that I knew in depth about the energy with solar sector specifically helped a lot. Apart from that, idea generation was something that went in my favour.


I could have been more crisp and mutually exclusive while enlisting my points.


Whatever little I could gather from my experience was that Consults thrive on good personality, confidence being a BIG factor. Just be extremely composed, confident and converse well. You probably may not do exceptionally well in the case but as long as you come across as a smart fellow, you should be sorted. Having said that, you won’t be able to sound smart if cases don’t go as intended, so prep those well. ;)


Interview Experience 20 Name: Shifali Makkar Company: AT Kearney Name of interviewer and designation

Round (First/Second/third) 4 rounds Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)

Bcom(Hons) Sri Venkateswara College Delhi University


Round 1: Ques: HR Based Round 2: Case Based Round 3: HR Based Round 4: HR + Offer


Round 1: Completely HR based round. Touched upon family background, educational background interests, CV based. Round 2: Interviewer was a partner Guesstimate Round 3: HR: Personality testing Round 4: With partner HR


In all the rounds, I should conviction in what I believed and said. Was confident in my HR answers. Solved guestimate ques. Was honest and struck conversations in all interviews.


-


Always involve the interviewer and remain confident of what you say. Even if the interviewer refutes your stance, not to get nervous. Keep a calm and pleasant face on. MECE very imp in structures. Reflects on your holistic thinking ability.


Auctus Advisors


Interview Experience 21 Name: Deepali Jaiswal Company: Auctus Advisors Name of interviewer and designation

Akshat Jalan, Business Analyst (Round 1) Abhishek Mukherjee, Senior Manager (Round 2) Saurabh Singhal, Associate Director (Round 3)

Round (First/Second/third) 3 rounds in all


B.Tech. Civil Engg, IIT Bombay, Work ex – 23 months at eGain Communications (Product Engineer)


Round 1: HR: started with tell me about yourself, asked about my PORs at IIT, discussion about my work ex. Other questions: When in a group – are you the silent one or the one who speaks the most, Asked to narrate a good story based on my POR. Why consult? Why Auctus? Round 2: Case + HR round Case: 2 cases – 1st quantitative, 2nd qualitative. HR: Why consult? Why Auctus? How is Auctus different from other consulting firms? Round 3: Case + HR round Case based on organisational structure. Discussion upon various topics – hometown, family. Other questions – Do you like travelling? Which all places have you been to? Why Auctus?


Round 2: Quantitative Case: Problem Statement: Company A manufactures beer bottles and has only 1 customer B. A sells 50 lakhs bottles per annum. B might raise the demand to 1 crore “after a month” in case IPL takes place this year. A has to decide “today” if it has to go for production of 1 crore bottles. Options for increased production are: (i) Produce as much as A can and get remaining from 3rd party. (ii) Buy a new machine which could produce 1 crore bottles. There is a probability that the new machine might be defective. Approach: I started the case by stating (drawing tree) that there are 2 possibilities i) go for increased production ii) not go for increased production. In case (i) there are 2 possibilities a) purchase the new machine b)


get from 3rd party. In case (i)(a) again there are 2 possibilities (1) machine is defective (2) it is not Followed by stating: to deduce the most appropriate option we need to calculate expected value of profit for each case for which I asked following questions: Current capacity of production (75 lakhs), probability of occurrence of event (IPL), current cost, cost of buying new machine, probability of it being defective and consequences, cost of getting from 3rd party, profit per bottle. (Asked other questions as and when required). Then computed expected value of profit for each of the 3 possible options and suggested to go for one with maximum expected value of profit. Discussed the case for about 45 mins. The case was followed by HR questions for 20 mins. Qualitative case: Problem Statement: A company is planning to construct a school in Indore. Suggest construction options for profit. Approach: I started with questions: Does the company has prior experience in this sector? How many schools are there in surrounding area and type? Which part of the city are we aiming at (outskirts)? Since it was on outskirts I suggested that it could go for full + day boarding and continued further on that: type of school (medium, standards, registration fee). He stated that the land was quite big and cheaper (as it is located on outskirts). I suggested that company could invest in other options like sports (swimming pool, TT etc.) for which it could charge. Could lend a portion for cafeteria etc. Didn’t discuss much on this case due to lack of time. Round 3: Case based on organizational structure Problem Statement: A company X is performing well but the CEO and CFO are not at good terms. How should X proceed? Approach: I asked for causes of conflict (Personal + Professional). Discussed more on the issue and suggested for restructuring.



I was confident and the discussion was very interactive. Picked up hints from interviewer. Cracked the quantitative case in first attempt (structure + calculation). Well prepared for – why consult, why Auctus and about the company.



Ask clarification questions. Think loud. Have a good discussion. Stay calm, confident and happy. Enjoy the process.

Interview Experience 22 Name: Divya Chopra Company: Auctus Advisors Name of interviewer and designation

Consultant, Consultant, Senior Manager, Director

Round (First/Second/third) Round 1 : Consultant (HR) Round 2 : Consultant (case) Round 3: Senior Manager (Guesstimate) Round 4: Director (HR)


Graduation: NIT Nagpur, B.Tech, Electrical and Electronics Engineering Work Ex: Deloitte Consulting, 23 Months


Round 1: • About me • Why consulting and why are you a right fit • CV related questions • Consulting is very challenging. Do you think it is in line

with what you want to do in life • Are you fine with travelling for work • What qualities does a consultant need • What is the difference between solving a case in an

interview and solving a case practically for a client Round 2:

• Case


Round 3: • Guesstimate

Round 4:

• HR Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

CASE: There is a beer company. Its current sales is X. It manufactures the beer bottles in-house at present. Since the World Cup is approaching, it is expected that the sales will become 2X. The beer company has to take a call whether it should increase its production. If it increases production, it will have to manufacture more bottles. At present the bottles manufacturing plant is running at 80% capacity. Firstly decide if the company should increase its beer production or not. I had to ask for all the costs involved and selling price from the interviewer. If we go with the option of increasing the production, then shall we manufacture the bottles in-house or outsource them. The costs for each of the activity was given. Explore all possible scenarios and decide. GUESSTIMATE: I have a piece of land. Should I sell off the land or build a school on it. For this guesstimate, you need to ask a lot of questions and calculate the cost of establishing a school on the land and calculate the cash flows in a 10 year horizon. Compare it with future worth of selling price of the land.


CASE: I could come up with all the possible scenarios quickly. I calculated the expected profits for each of the scenarios and came up with the best one. This case could have been solved using opportunity cost of each scenario as well. GUESSTIMATE: I asked the right questions.


The case was calculation intensive. I made a few calculation mistakes, but the interviewer was not worried about calculation goof ups.


Be confident. They are looking for enthusiastic people, good communication skills and presence of mind.


Boston Consulting Group


Interview Experience 23 Name: Anand Barot Company: BCG Name of interviewer and designation

3 Rounds of interviews. Last round with Partner named Ravi

Round (First/Second/third) 3 rounds


IIT Bombay (Btech +Mtech) Workex-33 months, 20 months: American Express, Last 13 months: Business development in a food-processing and retail firm


Round 1: Case of Market entry Scenario: The firm was a two-wheeler manufacturer in India and wanted to introduce its product in Nigeria. I was asked to explore the options it might have and how it should do it. Approach: I first found out the demand and competition in Nigeria. Also looked at the company’s capacity to meet the price requirements of the customer. Important point was that the two-wheelers were used as taxi in Nigeria. This point came out when I got an answer to the amount of usage of the product as 50,000 kms annually which was very high. Price we could offer was higher than competition so I suggested changing the design to have two customers per ride than just one, there by increasing revenue per ride and thus customer’s willingness to pay higher. Then interviewer asked questions about how to market it. I suggested a few advertising ideas like showing increase in standard of living of taxi driver due to usage of product. Then question was how to get over the inertia that people felt in buying as no one had used our product. For this my options ranged from approaching taxi driver unions to limited number of product units in market for a free 6 month period for the user to experience the product. I also suggested a more spread out distribution within the country to increase visibility of product. Round 2: 5 min HR questions like tell me about yourself, etc. Case of value chain management Scenario: The company was a supplier of excavation and other construction equipment. Recently, it had experienced a sharp rise in its warranty costs. I had to probe the issue. Approach: I studied the value chain and understood how product complains were generated and solution provided by company. In this I found that the dealer’s engineer was responsible for checking validity of complains and it was the dealer who got a commission for every complaint that he managed or solved. This was major point that hinted at possible collusion between customer and dealer. On further probing it was found that there


was a fraud happening at the dealer’s end. The dealer was generating false complains to earn more commission. To solve the issue I suggested having a company engineer look into the complaint validity. I also suggested having a remote way of monitoring the product health. Both these solutions were a bit time taking and costly. So a better solution from me was to monitor each product and number of complains it generated in a given period of time. If the same product generates more than normal number of complains in a period, it can hint at possible collusion and the firm can look into that complain before authorizing the warranty. Round 3: Case of distribution network and ROI Scenario: The firm was a cement manufacturer and wanted to expand into other regions. I had to explore ways and what areas to target. Approach: I looked at regions where the selling price of product was high and suggested we target these regions. Looked at various costs to the dealer or seller of the cement such as inventory storage costs, etc and how we can give him incentive to store and sell our product. Basically it was about increasing the ROI of the dealer wrt costs he incurs to keep our product and benefits he receives by selling it.


Done above.


The first round allowed me to look at a diverse set of options across functions such as marketing, pricing, design, etc. The good point was identifying early in the interview that the two-wheeler was used as a taxi. Another good thing was that with each question that the interviewer put forward to reject my suggestion, I was able to give another alternative option. Second round was more about finding the issue rather than ideation. I was able to unearth the issue well and solution suggested was very practical according to the interviewer. Third round was more about gelling with the Partner and being calm. At times when he probed me, I was able to maintain composure. All 3 rounds went well wrt establishing a good repo with the interviewer. The communication was two-sided and involved.


Most things went well. Only thing that could have been better was that in 2nd round I took some time suggesting a good solution. But then when interviewer hinted at a few things, I was quick to catch up. So, that too worked in my favour.



It is always good to be prepared with your HR answers. That is not to suggest that you cram them up. They need to be genuine and your preparation should involve having a few pointers for each answer. Most important thing is staying calm and composed and to enjoy the process. You should come across as someone who is enthusiastic about solving problems. Isolate each interview and don’t let it affect next interviews. It is good to have frameworks at the back of your mind for each type of case. But in the interview, try to ask good qualifying question before putting a framework on paper. Think aloud and let the interviewer be involved with you in the process of reaching a solution.

Interview Experience 24 Name: Arpit Vnayak Company: Boston Consulting Group Name of interviewer and designation

3 partners



Same as above


Round 1: 1) Tell me about yourself? 2) What are the important factors you will look at if you are a cement dealer? Round 2: 1) Case on building materials Round 3: 1) Guesstimate no of tomatoes sold in a residential area by a new organised retailer


Round 1: Had to talk about working capital requirement through dealer terms, inventory requirement, etc. Round 2: Two parts 1) draw the decision tree about how would you look at a niche building materials business and 2) come up with a formula with clear variables to estimate the overall market size Round 3: Straightforward guesstimate with important cuts being, % of people that consume tomatoes, type of people that will buy from such a store vs regular vegetable vendor, etc



Reaching the important points early with little talk on the various other points that could have been addressed, talked about. They were not looking for exhaustively looking and covering all points, instead wanted you to reach solution immediately and then completely cover them.


Not much


While solving cases we emphasize a lot on MECE thinking, trying to cover everything before reaching a solution. While that is important to make sure we don’t miss out on any point, on the day of interview it’s different with just 15-20 mins per interview. Try practising in such time frame closer to the interview date and close the case within least time possible.

Interview Experience 25 Name: Gautam Bansal Company: The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Name of interviewer and designation


B.com (H), SRCC Audit Analyst with Deloitte and Touche (USI) for 17 months in the Asset Management and Real Estate sectors CFA level 3


Round 1: Case: Your client is a fruits and vegetables retailer who is facing inventory management issues. Round 2: Brief introduction. Why consulting? You must be having a busy day. How many interviews are you through with? Case: A 20-25 slide PPT. The client is a Dairy farming corp. based out of Western Europe. Its current market is almost saturated. The client wants to expand its existing operations. It has several markets within dairy under consideration. Evaluate the prospects.



R1: Began straight with the case. Case Analysis 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. R2: The interviewer didn’t have my CV. He preferred a brief introduction. Probed about other shortlists and interviews I had. Case Analysis 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.


R1: I answered to the point and was quick with my analysis. Seemed like they had no time to waste. R2: Didn’t lose sight of the bigger picture. Concluded with a recommendation and case synthesis.


R2: Data overflow. There was too much data to comprehend.


1. Respond to the tone of the interviewer. 2. Being composed is definitely one of the top 2 things that

matter.

Interview Experience 26 Name: Mohit Agarwal Company: BCG Name of interviewer and designation

N/A

Round (First/Second/third) 3 rounds in total. The interview rounds were more case centric and less focused on HR. The HR questions, if any were interspersed with the cases. Only the first round had a demarcated HR round and then a case


Electrical Engineering, IIT Dlehi Deutsche Bank (3 years)



Round 1: 10 minute chat on the HR and then a 20 minute case. Round 2: 30 minute case Round 3: 20 minute case


Round 1: HR questions started with the usual “tell me about yourself” which later graduated into “tell me a situation where you created an impact and brought about a change” Case: The case was not a very difficult one in terms of laying out the right levers but had a lot of number crunching to do. Problem Statement: A pharma company is in phase-1 trials of a first of it’s kind drug in the world that can cure baldness permanently. Should it go ahead and sell this formula and rights to a potential buyer and if yes, for what amount. Approach - 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 2: Straight to the case, no beating around the bush, no small talk. I actually liked this interview style. Problem statement: The client is a motorcycle manufacturer from India, wanting to sell motorcycles in Nigeria. For simplicity we will talk in INR terms. The motorcycle market of Nigeria is dominated by 3-4 Chinese manufacturers who sell motorcycles at INR25k. My bikes cost INR50k. How do I sell them there? Case approach: 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.

Round 3: The case was a no quantitative one. It was about a private bank which has recently got 50 branch opening licences from RBI. How to decide where to set up these branches?


a). I went in with zero pressure into the interviews b). I was very calm and interactive throughout. In round one, the electricity in the interview room went off in the middle of the interview. And it was very dark. I got up and drew out the curtains,etc. c). I did not flabbergasted when the person in front threw numbers at me.


Nothing in particular that I can think of. Sometimes I missed a lever of two, but the interviewer led me in the correct direction eventually.


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.

Interview Experience 27 Name: Mohit Kataria Company: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Name of interviewer and designation

Round 1: Partner

Round 2: Partner

Round 3: Partner

Round (First/Second/third) Three Rounds Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)

B.Tech from PEC. Worked for 21 months in Strategic Services Group (SSG) of The Smart Cube, a business research firm.



Round 1: 10 minutes on Introduction and general HR. 20 minutes on the Case. Round 2: 20 minutes on the HR. 5 minutes on the Case. Round 3: 25 minutes on the Case.


Description of 3rd Case A tractor manufacturing company’s share is declining. Background Questions: Company Description, Manufacturing Operations, and Revenue Split – by product and geography. The company had 4 tractor models (different hp powers). 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) as the company did not want to compromise on the profits.


It was very interactive. Plus the breadth of issues that I could cover was the key that impressed him.


Missed the maintenance costs in the first phase. Came up with it during the second round of investigation.


Just be comprehensive. It does no matter if reach the solution or not. Just be exhaustive and have a structured approach.


Interview Experience 28 Name: Parvez Jesani Company: BCG Name of interviewer and designation

Don’t remember the name, Partner

Round (First/Second/third) First Round – HR + Case Second Round – Only Case Third Round – A little bit of HR & Chit chat on why BCG v/s McK etc


Narsee Monjee – B.Com, CA, CFA 2 Years work ex – Credit Suisse (4 months), Edelweiss (9 months), eParent (1 year)


Round 1: Why consulting, why BCG? Case on market entry for a Mobile Repairing Centre Round 2: Case – Profitability – Tractor industry.


Round 1 – Tell me something about yourself. Why consulting and why BCG? Case on market entry of a Mobile Repairing centre (the authorized repair centre for a company) – 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. Round 2 – Case on Profitability – Tractor manufacturing company. My profits are declining. On further questioning, I found out that the company dealt in 3 types of tractors. Followed the standard approach and figured out that there was a problem in the after-sales service of one type of tractor. He gave me some numbers to work out and suggest changing the prices of the tractors based on the competitors prices, gross margins.


Round 1 – I screwed up the 1st round. 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 2 – Perfect Interview. Qualifying questions were perfect. Applied the correct approach. Detected the problem in the after sales service. Perfect recommendations.


1st Round – Since I was very nervous, I screwed up the first round.



-

Interview Experience 29 Name: Radhika Saini Company: BCG Name of interviewer and designation

Partner


Eco (Hons) – Hanraj College MSc Economics – London School of Economics Worked for one year on Indo-Pak economic relations policy research


Round 1: Tell me something about yourself Round 2: No questions – only case Round 3: No questions – only case


Round 1: The case was based on a tractor manufacturer and the falling market share of the company. The primary idea was to lay out all possible reasons for such a fall both from the view of supply and customer demand. The qualifying questions ruled out the possibility of supply side problems and hence demand side was key. Repair and maintainence costs were the reason for falling customer demand. The case was fairly quantitative in nature. Round 2: The aim was to improve the profit per ton of cement sold. This was again a quantitative case where the different transportation routes were to be mapped and the most profitable markets were identified. Markets where profits were lower were abandoned. Round 3: This was a case discussion as opposed to a case solving exercise. Here the interviewer discussed the various possibilities for starting a new shop in terms of pricing, costs, financing, recruitment, location, etc.


The first round required a systematic approach and therefore adequate preparation helped to solve this case in a structured manner. The third round required innovation and spontaneous ideation which is possible if similar cases have been attempted before. Overall presenting ideas with logic and structure helped me.



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.


Prepare hard and work on exploring all possible options within a case.


Deloitte US Strategy & Operations


Interview Experience 30 Name: Abhinav Maingi Company: Deloitte Name of interviewer and designation

Round (First/Second/third) Round 1: HR Round 2: Case based Round 3: HR


Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee – ECE Goldman Sachs - 12 months XLPAT (start-up) – 12 months


Round 1: Discussed points from my CV. Stress was on graduation and work-ex. Briefly discussed my reason for joining a start-up after Goldman Sachs. Why MBA? Why consulting? Round 2: Started with introduction. Interviewer gave me a case and then based on my structure gave me a datasheet. Based on these two, I had to take a decision. (Case was on cable business). He asked me about items in P and L a/c and balance sheet. Some more questions revolving around FRA concepts were asked. Round 3: Why Consulting? Why should we take you? Why should we not stop recruiting from IIM L? This was a stress interview.


Your client is a cable operator whose profits are declining. You need to identify the reason behind this and provide a solution. I asked initial qualifying questions like geography, other businesses, technology, etc. Then I asked about forward and backward linkages and explained him my understanding of the value chain. He approved the value chain. He then gave me a datasheet. From the datasheet it could be easily seen that the problem was in the forward linkages. Then I quickly discussed the entire value chain with numbers. He said, give me the most likely problem and solution linked to it. The problem was with the set-top-boxes and I explained why I felt it is the problem. Solution was to change the vendor.


I solved case quickly and gave recommendations in a structured way.


In my final interview, I was asked names of people who had interviewed me in previous rounds. I did not remember the names.



Focus on your academic subjects. Good case solving is just a big +.

Interview Experience 31 Name: Komal Agrawal Company: Deloitte Name of interviewer and designation

-

Round (First/Second/third) 1st Round : HR 2nd Round : Case based 3rd round : Case based + presentation round


B.Sc. Biology, MBA IB, Associate Consultant at Infosys Ltd-23months


Round 1: It appeared that they intended to make a stress interview. As I entered, he stood up, shook hands, but refrained from smiling. Work ex details on CV were discussed, was asked to explain the difference between agile and waterfall methodology of development (methods used in IT industry) and explanation was followed by 5 to 6 other questions on the same topic. Q. Why did I join IIM Lucknow and not IIM Bangalore? A. justified my stance Q. Is IIM Lucknow adding value as per your expectations? A. I mentioned learning in stress, time management and sharing of ideas…(globe) Q. In your cv, I don’t find any POR on campus? (committee etc.) A. told about Bhavishya Q. What all shortlists do you have? A. After 3 seconds pause, “It would be good if you could ask pcom” Q. Interviewer stood up: “O Really! Every other person who came to this room told me about other shortlists. Now tell me, what other shortlists? A. Ask pcom( it’s important to be calm and not panic) Q. “B.Sc. Biology! Hm..how good are you in Maths” A. Humbly gambled, “Sir, I am good that’s why I am here” I felt like the opportunity died this very moment… Q. Do you have any questions? A. No Sir.( he was disappointed and mentioned that everybody else had a question) I globed about some friends who are in deloitte and then compared


Mckinsey and deloitte work culture, to prove that I have some idea of the role being offered. (please prepare a question to be asked) I was escorted out the door. Round 2: Case based, qualitative along with data sheet. Round 3: Principal round. It was mix of case study briefing and cv. Lot of questions on personal life, work life balance, consistency in Deloitte. Eg. Q. If we give you PPO, will you be willing to travel. Q. Why consulting. Q. Solution proposed in the case. Q. You have never done one thing at a time. (Entrepreneur when student, left college when student, job to IIML etc.) How will you be consistent and satisfied in Deloitte? Q. Why didn’t you peruse you start up ahead in spite of being successful. A. Told him about problems faced in scaling and some issues in a small sized organisation that tickled his funny bone. Later I linked this with best practices in Deloitte. Q. Any questions. A. took lessons from previous interview, made up a question and globed (type of project etc.)


Case: A cable box manufacturer wants to outsource manufacturing.

(a) Is this a good option (b) If they don’t pursue this, what else can be done. (c) What are decision making criteria (d) If you go for outsourcing, how will you process with the

analysis Data sheet was provided when I brought up cost into discussion. Fixed and variable components were given along with annual production for three years. I was asked to calculate cost per unit and base my decision on the data of three years( including cost of machinery- fixed component and other assets)


Different scenarios mentioned in the case and don’t know what they liked in first interview, but probably my answers were to the point and I didn’t panic


I should have prepared a question to be asked, could have rehearsed the answer for “how good in Maths” and “which other shortlists”.



For all the interviews, just know the answer to “who am I”, (you did somethings, you didn’t do others, you should know why you made those decisions; what are you good at and be aware of things you are not good at) It is not only about the time period from the day of your shortlist till your interview, it is about your journey till date.

Interview Experience 32 Name: Rupika Malhotra Company: Deloitte Consulting S&O Name of interviewer and designation

Round (First/Second/third) I had two rounds of interviews only (the others had three)


Miranda House, Economics hons Work ex: 3 years, at Forrester Research


Round 1: it was a one hour round. Basically they took my 1st and 2nd round together. 20 minutes of HR and the rest was case based Round 2: last round which was the partner round. They discussed the case with me again. They asked me to present it as if they were the client. Other aspects of the case that I missed were also explored.


The case was about a cable box making company that had to decide if they should go for outsourcing or continue manufacturing in house. Profit and sales figures for the last 2 years and expected figures for the next 2 years were given. All aspects of the case were to be explored. You are expected to “think out loud” and talk about everything that might be of importance in making a decision for the company. And it helps to be structured in your thoughts. For example, when you talk about outsourcing, talk about how its going to impact your costs, what kind of costs (fixed/ variable) and how, what will you do with the facility that was earlier being used for inhouse manufacturing, etc. Do the same for the other options. Any approach to solve the case is fine as long as you cover all aspects in a structured manner. I was guided well by the interviewer- If he saw me getting stuck somewhere in the case, he would start a discussion to get my mind


working again. Overall, it was like a discussion and not an interview.


I think the fact that I was “thinking out loud” was a positive. Like I said, this way I was able to engage well in a discussion with the interviewer. I was also asked questions about my work ex in the same interview (HR and case round were taken together in my case). I had made sure that I knew all aspects of my previous company (since Deloitte was one of our clients there). I knew there was a chance that the interviewer would already know a lot about my previous company and work and so I could not mess up there. And I think this helped which is why he took my case round in the same interview. HR round is the first step- one can’t afford to mess it up.


There were times when I gave up (when I was solving the case). That is one thing I should not have done.


Prepare HR well. Practice some cases to build a structured approach to solving them Be confident when you talk about your CV. Shows that you know where you come from and what you want.

Interview Experience 33 Name: Shalu Mitruka Company: Deloitte US S&O Name of interviewer and designation

Round (First/Second/third) Round 1: Senior Manager Round 2: Senior Manager Round 3: Partner


Architecture and Economics from IIT Kharagpur, with 20 months of job ex in Pharma domain


Round 1: 2 small cases (related to pharma domain). Few questions on my hobbies. I was asked to summarise my work ex which was followed by 2 case. Round 2: Detail case study. They were more looking into idea generation Round 3: Why deloitte? Why consulting? And was asked to present my case of 2nd round in 2 minutes. Where do you see yourself after 10 years.



FIRST ROUND Case 1: You want to setup a sales force team in India and you are a US based Pharma company. what will be your budget. So firstly I asked about the drug which I want to launch in India, generic or patent. Who are my competitors? Then how much I want to invest, do I want to start small or want to be a market leader. Do I want to start from scratch, want to sell license, or want to merge or acquire some Indian based company. Regarding sales force, do I want to build a new one, or tie up with existing companies? Further I also asked about pricing regulations in India, do I have to follow a price cap, if yes then what’s the expected profit. For all these I was asked to take assumptions and move on. Secondly I divided costs into external and internal factors. External factors included (costs related to filing of Patent in Indian market, etc) . Internal costs related to HR costs, Sales rep salary, training, samples and free drugs to doctors, land ,factory setups ( told in more detail) Case 2: further on the above case I was asked to estimate the number of sales rep required to launch the drug. Solution: For this I asked rough estimation of market size in India, and expected market share for the drug. As per the client’s US benchmark, they invest 30% of the revenue on sales so i got the amount they want to invest in sales rep ( let’s assume X). If one sales rep costs Y, therefore we can estimate the number of sales rep required (X/Y). SECOND ROUND: Case: I am a US based company and I sell 3 products A, B, C (I don’t rem exact name) and I am having losses. I assume the reason for facing losses can be either economic downturn, new competitors, or internal problems in the company. Tell me what is the exact reason So I started with few general questions to check whether it’s economic downturn or new competitors or internal problems. Then I was provided with data sheet ( Please note: the data mentioned below are just rough numbers to give idea about my case)

1) As the sales were neither increasing nor decreasing as per figures and not the market size has increase much. So it was not an economic downturn. As the client’s market share has actually increased rather decreasing so it was not competitor’s problem. So I was only left with increase in costs due to which my profits have not increased. Further I also checked if I am pricing less as compared to my


competitors. So I was asked to calculate the price of company’s products. So as the prices were not changed in 3 years so I have three equations and 3 variables (2400000 = 1000A+ 1500B+ 1200C, 23000000= 1100A+ 1550B+1100 C and 2500000= 1200A+1600B+1250C). After I wrote equations I was asked to stop and further sheets were provided

In second sheet process diagram was made and small footnotes were given (PLEASE READ FOOTNOTES) So I figured out that process 2(setup2) was 50% time not working which was causing delays in process 3 and process 4, thus increasing costs. Also Setup1 and setup 2 was installed in 2 different time frames and more over they do same work, so there was no requirement of second setup, setup1 can do it ( there was good discussion on this, I don’t remember exactly)

After this as I figured out that process was not efficient, I was given 2 possible systems (shown below with their sales and cost)


and was asked to choose one. Though system 1 seemed to be good with high sales and less cost but after few years profit was declining whereas in system 2 though we were at loss but profit was increasing at a much higher rate. Further I was asked to calculated NPV values ( on which I said I have no idea as I was asked to choose some r value)


My first round had 2 cases related to job ex. As I prepared for job ex cases, I was able to do good. I was confident and was smiling. Whenever I faced problem while solving the case I asked for help and they were helping me in solving the case. It was a very friendly environment for me.


They asked about NPV and some finance concepts about which I had no idea, except NPV formula


1) Should know about your job ex nicely, each and every detail 2) Be confident and smile J


KPMG


Interview Experience 34 Name: Prateek Kumar Company: KPMG Name of interviewer and designation

Senr. Consultant

Round (First/Second/third) 2


IIT Kharagpur, Civil Engg. , 22 months in Techno-commercial aspects of Construction in JSPL


Round 1: GD – Discuss feasibility of “ Make in India” Round 2: PI & Case


Case : If govt. wants to collaborate with private players to open education institutions what are possible quality/Financial check measures


My Experience in Govt. projects


Gave the solution based on experience & insight too soon without more mental exercise


Knowing your CV through and through. And Case practise

Interview Experience 35 Name: Swapnil Vadnere Company: KPMG (S&O) Name of interviewer and designation

Senior. Consultant

Round (First/Second/third) 1 Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)

NIT Bhopal, Information Technology, 24 months at Deloitte


Round 1: PI


Case:


My Experience of working at Deloitte



Answered the question “things that you hated about Deloitte” straightforward without giving proper thought


Thorough preparation of HR answers, CV and past work experience details

Interview Experience 36 Name: Tuhin Kanti Mondal Company: KPMG Name of interviewer and designation

S&O summer internship



IIT Kharagpur, Instrumentaiton; almost 5 year work ex in GAIL(India) Ltd. in operation, maintenance and project development. Additional relevant exp : quality control, ISO audit management, SAP procurement job etc.


Round 1: a) why are you so famous in your batch? Why everybody talks about you? b) What did you do in your job? c) a few basic questions in operation. d) 2-3 questions related to extra academic activities.


No case was asked.


Their strategy for the interviewees were to test them with a blow of unexpected question at starting. The success rate depends on how can you tackle the blow and answer promptly. With a heavy operation background I faced a few questions related to operation and a few questions related to relevant work experience.



Be open minded. And for KPMG you should expect some starting blow. Whatever it is try to provide the information such a way they can’t verify. Be confident, and try to put a smile. Also be through about your CV points, in details.


McKinsey & Co.


Interview Experience 37 Name: Akhilesh Chauhan Company: McKinsey & Co. Name of interviewer and designation

Suvojoy (Partner) Suveer Sinha (Associate Partner) Mandar Vaidya (Partner) Vikas (Director)

Round (First/Second/third) All


IIT Delhi Dual Degree (Chemical Engg.), 2 years consulting experience in Supply Chain, Operations & Risk Management


Round 1: General HR followed by discussion on one of my projects in the public sector. Interviewer popped a case out of that. How to control PDS kerosene leakages in petrol pumps? Round 2: A case on a hotel operating in losses. Made me calculate the profit margins for ‘Room’ & ‘Non-Room’ segments of the hotel followed by qualitative discussion on how to improve profitability. Round 3: General HR (mostly around football). Guess estimate on estimation of 1 year revenue for NEUFC (ISL team) Round 4: Intense HR


Round 1: Went by the distribution of kerosene across various nodes & analysed issues. Discussed measure to control it at retailer points (Consumer data digitization, mapping to Aadhar card in the future, etc) as well as at wholesaler points (this is where the bulk of kerosene was lost). Overall, had a good discussion. Round 2: Somehow became nervous while doing the initial calculations. Realized it & took a step back to form an income statement of the hotel & broke it into ‘Room’ & ‘Non-Room’ segments. Found out that ‘Non-room’ segment is under heavy losses. Discussed ideas to improve it. I think this interview did not go well. Did not get a good response from Suveer. Round 3: Broke NEUFC revenue into components (Stadium sales (Tickets+food), Merchandise, Sponsorships, Broadcast revenue, Player transfers, etc). Guesstimate for only the stadium sales for the whole tournament. I think this was the cracker I was waiting for. Interviewer seemed very much impressed.


Round 4: Very dis-interested person in front. Did not try to make an eye contact with me. Working with something while I was giving my ‘Tell me about yourself’. After I finished he took a 30 second pause looking down. I had absolutely no idea what was going on. Then he suddenly asks me what is so special about me? Probably my response was satisfying for him and he asked me whether I had any questions for him or not. Then we discussed about his experience at Mck.


I believe strong HR answers helped me a lot. Had done decent case practices which was required. Also, confidence level was just right in the process.


Got stuck in round 2 case. I think I panicked for a while but then I quickly took a step back & approached the problem again in a structured manner. Also, could have given more ideas in round 1 & 2 interview cases.


Never ever panic in the interview. Always keep a smile on your face & answer confidently. While doing your case practices, do take time out to introspect for at least half an hour before sleep every day. This will help you build strong HR answers.

Interview Experience 38 Name: Amrita Singh Company: Mckinsey Name of interviewer and designation

Partner

Round (First/Second/third) All three rounds I was interviewed by partners. Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)

B.Com (Hons) from Jesus and Mary college, Delhi University.Worked at the Paralympic Committee of India for 33 months as the Assistant Director (Adminstration & Coordination)


Round 1: Generic HR questions.One simple guestimate to estimate the size and revenue of Apple I phone 6 in India. Round 2:A case based on tackling the problem of Anemia in India (assuming the role of the Prime Minister of India) Round 3: A case based on market entry of a firm into India (basic structure required).HR questions on why consulting?Long term goals?



Case 1: If you were the Prime Minister of India how would you tackle the persistent problem of anemia.(key pointers- conduct a pilot, rope in the rural local leaders as they are very strong opinion leaders) Case 2 : A well reputed pharma firm wants to enter the indian market.Chart out the structure for the same.Decision on whether to manufacture locally or import from the host nation.Slight costing structure figures were given with basic calculations required.


Confidence and not coming under pressure.Maintaining a calm attitude really helped.My HR questions went very well as they were thought over. (comparing different case experiences with friends led to the conclusion that HR plays a very vital role and is a key distingushing factor)


Interview went well.HR questions were the tricky part.Was repeatedly questioned on why my ambition for music wasn’t translated into a career choice.Further how suited I was for consulting given my non analytical background.In the first round I made an error in the calculation of the guestimate,however they were only testing the approach/struture.


Just be confident.Being yourself is the key.Do not try to lie to impress the panel.Honesty is highly appreciated.Be clear on why consulting.Practice as many cases (in a formal structure and environment).Note the feedback and continously work on the same.

Interview Experience 39 Name: Arpit Vinayak Company: McKinsey & Co Name of interviewer and designation

Mr. Rajat Dhawan + 2 other partners



Engineering (IIT Madras, B.Tech Biotechnology), 4 years work-ex: Jaypee Capital Services (Derivatives Trader, 6 months), JP Morgan (Equity Research Analyst, 2.5 yrs), Samara Capital (PE Analyst, 1 yr)



Round 1: 1) Tell me about yourself, 2) Biggest failure in life (from the McKinsey test), 3) What would your suggestions be to the PM Narendra Modi on making the recently launched MadeInIndia Campaign successful, 4) Guesstimate the no. of iPhone 6 that would be sold in India post the upcoming launch Round 2: 1) What were your biggest learnings from the work experiences in all companies/ profiles you worked for/ in 2) Need to reduce the waiting time in the OPD of a hospital. How would you do it Round 3: 1) Why MBA after such work experience? 2) Short quantitative problem on variable/ fixed expenses of a hotel 3) How would you reduce the setup cost of a hotel company?


Round 1: 1) Suggested things around SEZs, substituting imports (focus on specific sectors), etc 2) Reached a very large no of 30MM over the quarter. Hence was not good overall. Round 2: Very specific case, data specific. Recently executed by the partner. Discussed the current work schedule of the doctors and suggested ways around reducing waiting time: incentives for taking appointments, etc. Round 3: Qualitative case


Except for round 1, case interviews were good. Was able to reach exact, tangible solutions.


Round 1 wasn’t good. HR answers could have been better. Guesstimate wasn’t good.


1) HR answers are important. Take time to prepare well. 2) Some interviewers tend to get very friendly, to make you comfortable and talk about things you shouldn’t, don’t lower your guard/ be too friendly.

Interview Experience 40 Name: Fern Sharma Company: McKinsey Name of interviewer and designation

Mr Vikas ,Senior Partner

Round (First/Second/third) First Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)

Works on Pharma cases



Round 1: Why consulting? How has IIML been so far Spoke about committee and ABG experience. Linked why consulting with experience in analytics Round 2: Only HR questions. What advice will you give my 8 year daughter? Long term plans? What do you think the role of partner is in the firm? Advice: Let her follow her dreams. There is no ultimate success. You choose your own path. She is lucky enough to be born in a family where all the resources will be provided to her to follow her passion. All she needs is great guidance and freedom of thought. Long term Plan: See myself as a partner in McKinsey in 8 years


Movie theatre case. Single screen cinema suffering losses in Mumbai Listed all the revenue and cost streams. It was a cost side problem as everything was done internally with 100 employees for food vending, maintenance etc Solution: Outsource all the activities and cut down on labor costs


My confidence in answering all the HR questions. More than the case, they were judging the communication skills. Also I listened to their view. In the case it was 50-50 talking.


Nothing


1) Prepare Why Consulting? Long term plans and Why McKinsey questions well

2) Involve the partner as much and take pauses while solving the case. No need to rush

3) Stick to the structure that you have been following with your case group

Interview Experience 41 Name: Krishnan Sankaranarayanan Company: McKinsey & Co. Name of interviewer and designation

R1: Abhishek (EM) R2: Partner (Don’t remember the name) R3: Partner (Don’t remember the name)


B.Com, Loyola College (2011) Goldman Sachs, Fixed Income



Round 1: About me and a case Round 2: Case Round 3: HR


R1: Apart from the pleasantries and usual HR questions, the first case was based on automobiles and how the share of the automobiles industry can be improved globally and contribute more to the GDP. I missed out few options but the interviewer was satisfied I discussed those options I had put forward at length. R2: The case was related to the benefit given to LPG customers (DBT) and how can it be implemented for kerosene since it is widely used to adulterate diesel. The partner expected a solution with regard to eliminating the benefit which was not utilized by deserving people. R3: Completely HR. The partner asked me a lot of questions on why consulting, my goals in life, how will working in McKinsey help me achieve them, etc.


Throughout the rounds, I was quite calm. I did not rush unnecessarily at any point of time and I also gave feasible solutions rather than giving solutions that could not be implemented. This worked in my favour. Also, in the 3rd round, I did not memorize my HR answers and deliver it due to which I was able to engage in a conversation due to which the partner was interested and the interview went on for 45 min.


During the 2nd round, the case problem was quite long due to which I did not write legibly and the interviewers generally tend to see what you write to judge your thought process. The partner was initially apprehensive about my illegible handwriting.


During case rounds, make sure you write legibly and think of all the scenarios possible while trying to do MECE. It does not matter if you take 1 or 2 more minutes but keep the interviewer engaged during moments of silence. Be honest in your HR answers and do not tell your HR answers verbatim.

Interview Experience 42 Name: Nishtha Khandelwal Company: McKinsey & Co. Name of interviewer and designation

Ruchi (Associate Partner) Vikas Badoliya Malcom Gomes (Engagement Manager) Rajat Dhawan (Director)


Round (First/Second/third) All


B. Com Honours, Shri Ram College of Commerce, Fresher


Round 1: Tell me about yourself followed by 1 case discussion Round 2: a case discussion followed by few HR questions Round 3: HR round and one guesstimate Round 4: HR Round


Round 1: You own an e-commerce website which sells jewellery, fashion products and apparel majorly for women. You have spent a good amount on marketing the site but still are in losses. Now you have to make a strategy to earn profits. Basically an idea generation case; suggested innovative ideas to increase revenues Round 2: A person owns a single screen cinema hall in Mumbai which is in losses. Find out problems and suggest ways to turnaround the same. Round 3: Guesstimate on how many students pass out as commerce graduates from Chennai every year. Round 4: HR round; asked to explain things from cv.


All the interviewers were completely engaged in the process; got a compliment for my confidence. Take time off before starting with an answer to the case. For HR answers, be confident of whatever you say, try to quote examples with every answer.


Understood the question wrong in one of the round but realized a minute later. Admit your mistake and proceed.


Be very confident in the interview. Put a lot of focus on HR answers as they are equally important.

Interview Experience 43 Name: Parvez Jesani Company: McKinsey & Co Name of interviewer and designation

Mandar, Partner

Round (First/Second/third) First Round – HR + Guesstimate Second Round – HR + Guesstimate

Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream,

Narsee Monjee – B.Com, CA, CFA 2 Years work ex – Credit Suisse (4 months), Edelweiss (9 months),


Work ex details, etc.) eParent (1 year) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Round 1: Tell me something about yourself, asked a lot about my start-up as to how and why I started it, etc. – explained him the problems we faced in scaling it up. Got a case related to that – If I get a funding of Rs. 10 Cr, what will I do? Round 2: Tell me something about yourself, why consulting, why McK? Guesstimate – Expected sales of iPhone 6 in India


Round 1 - Explained him the strategies that we had thought about – Products that we were planning to introduce, the ways we thought of expanding geographically, etc. And then he made me do a Guesstimate on the expected no of customers in 3 years. Followed a top-down approach – Rural/ urban – age – income level – need-gap. Round 2 - Followed a top-down approach – Rural/urban – age – income level – need-gap.


Round 1 – It was absolutely perfect. Since it was a case related to my start-up, I had a few ideas in mind on the expansion front. I took the cue on the guesstimate and jumped onto it. Round 2 – The partner was not at all responsive. He showed as if he didn’t care when I was doing the guesstimate. I kept on running him through my assumptions and tried my best to engage him.


-


Try to do some cases related to your work-experience.

Interview Experience 44 Name: Shifali Makkar Company: Mckinsey Name of interviewer and designation



Bcom(Hons) Sri Venkateswara College


Work ex details, etc.) Delhi University Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Round 1: Ques: Initial 5 mins HR ques (background, passion, interests etc) Followed by a small case based on my interest area mentioned in CV Round 2: Case Based Round 3: Case Based Round 4: Case Based


Round 1: Case: To chalk out plan for opening a theatre school I started with a MECE structure about all steps (plan of action). Then asked him prior to proceeding further which one to focus on first. The interviewer wanted me to draw out a plan for generating revenue so then delved further into it listing down all the possible options. He wanted to test my comfort with numbers too, so asked the revenue potential of a year and its profitability. Round 2: Interviewer was a partner Case: As an advisor to PM, give suggestions on the MAKE in India Campaign. Drew out structure, tried to ensure it to be a MECE one but was a highly open ended topic. Was a one sided interview, very little response from the interviewer’s side. Round 3: Interviewer was a lady, senior consultant. A case on testing the profit viability of a baby care firm going online. Round 4: With Partner A cash flow case on whether government should invest in eco cars and introduce it across the country


In the first 3 rounds, I ensured that I remained calm and confident. Didn’t lose composure or become nervous. Ensured a conversation flow with interviewer and took hints at appropriate times. In case solving, balanced between structure and spontaneity. Structures were MECE.


Round 4: Structure was in place but faltered in solving it right.



Always involve the interviewer and remain confident of what you say. Even if the interviewer refutes your stance, not to get nervous. Keep a calm and pleasant face on. MECE very imp in structures. Reflects on your holistic thinking ability.

Interview Experience 45 Name: Surbhi Kalia Company: McKinsey & Co. Name of interviewer and designation

Partner, Partner



Chandigarh College of Engineering & Technology, Punjab University Fresher Professional Theatre Artist


Round 1: First round was completely HR. It started with “Tell me about yourself”, and questions like “Why Theatre”, “Why consulting”, “Why Mckinsey” and “your learnings in B-school and in Internship”, “How have your experiences shaped you” and “Why MBA after Engineering”, “Why consulting after Engineering”. Basically, questions were driven from my preceding answers . To end with “ Any questions for him”. Round 2: Again, it began with “tell me about yourself”, “Why not Theatre as a profession” and “Why consulting”. And then he asked me to connect Theatre with Consulting. Ended with “Any questions for him”.


Round 1: First round was completely HR. It went for about 30-40 minutes. Round 2: After the HR questions, he took me towards the case by asking what all can I do for Theatre. I listed down few options, out of which, one was to organise theatre events and have a Theatre company. He took that as a case topic, and gave a case. “You own Surbhi Theatre company. How will you promote Theatre” (expect unorthodox cases in Mck interview) I asked for some time, and listed down my thoughts as bullet points. I gave him options like listing down theatre groups, organise yearly Theatre events et al. Then after like fifteen minutes of discussion over this, he asked me to calculate revenue from these theatre festivals. I divided it into two, one from cities with lavish Theatre culture like Delhi, others with lesser level of Theatrical activities and fervour. Based on the Theatre fests I had


been a part of, I calculated the revenue. He seemed pretty satisfied with the analysis. Importantly, I kept asking him if I can use the assumptions I am stating. It is imperative to verify your assumptions.


Round 1: I was honest in my answers. Be yourself in the interview. He kept asking me questions, and I answered with the experiences of my life. This turned the interview in a a casual conversation. Towards the end of the interview, he also shared his own experiences of the organisation with me. Round 2: It was about Theatre! Again, I verified my assumptions. And I kept him engaged.



Be yourself. Keep a smile on your face. It helps to keep your calm. Think on your feet. I think, having a question to him in the end, when he asks, does help. Read the cues and expressions of the interviewer. Take time to structure your thoughts. It becomes easier for you to think ahead in the right direction.

Interview Experience 46 Name: Swati Thakur Company: McKinsey and Co. Name of interviewer and designation

Round 1: Partner (Case) Round 2: Partner (Case) Round 3: Director (Short-HR Only)



Economics (H), St. Stepehen’s College, Delhi, 24 months across Analytics & Consulting


Round 1: HR-Tell me about yourself, background, experience so far (personal) Discussion on PORs, slightly longer discussion on my work-projects undertaken, insights Guesstimate: No. of tennis balls in India at any point of time (2 approaches) Case: Falling revenue of a Theatre in Mumbai; wasn’t typical was a detailed discussion on all possible aspects that could affect revenue/profitability


Round 2:Brief intro, some basic HR; Follow-up question/comments on my answers in the HR form filled a week prior to placements Case: Valuation of different revenue streams for an Indian Super League Team (mainly a lot of number work) Round 3:Short HR with Director (10 minutes) Questions on past work-ex, activities in college, views on some current economic issue


Round 1: Guesstimate: No. of tennis balls in India at any point of time Though the initial plan was to discuss the appraoch and the numbers both, we ended up discussing the apprach at great length. He then asked me to give him another apprach for the same, which I did. We discussed the pros and cons of both approaches. Case: Falling revenue of a Theatre in Mumbai Asked qualifying questions about the industry, about the revenue streams, the theatre and genre. Laid down the basic structure of the case; then we went into a detailed discussion of the value chain. Beyond the basic structure, I think I was being tested on depth of analysis, idea generation and thinking on my feet. We discussed the whole process of how and why a customer would come to any particular theatre, then looked at the possible issues at each step. We then proceeded to discuss different scenarios-what would happen if any particular aspect of the theatre as altered, what can be the possible areas of improvement for the theatre in particular and any theatre in general. Round 2: Valuation of different revenue streams for an Indian Super League Team The intent of the case was to check my comfort level with numbers because that’s what the partner made me do. I had no idea about ISL and I said that clearly to which the partner readily gave me a brief overview of how it works. Then, I laid down a structure after asking a few basic questions about their revenue streams. From then on, it was me calculating revenue from different sources to the last decimal. Even when I did make a small error, I gracefully accepted it and it was fine.



Round 1: HR- I was honest with my answers and the interviwer mentioned this as something he liked. Guesstimate- I was able to switch to a different approach as soon as he asked me to. Was able to point out possible flaws in both approaches. Case: The detailing and idea generation were things he really liked.



• It is important that your HR answers are not made-up because the interviwers appreciate honesty

• Its good to have a question in mind to ask when you’re given a chance at the end of the interview

• If you don’t know something in a guesstimate/case or if you think you made an error somewhere, it is perfectly okay to ask/accept and take a step back


Interview Experience 1 Name: Ankit Singhania Company: AMC Name of interviewer and designation

One senior person , One HR, One Partner


BITS-Pilani, Chemical Engineering, Oracle Financial Services Software -22 months, CFA Level1, family work experience in pharmaceutical


Round 1: Tell me about yourself Why AMC? Why Consulting? Why not finance? Why MBA from Engineering? Any question you would like to us? Round 2: Mostly HR Tell me about yourself Why AMC? Why Consulting? Any question you would like to us? Round 3: Tell me about yourself Why AMC? Why Consulting? Any question you would like to us?


Round 1: 1. Ranbaxy production is falling. Give me the structure and

exhaustive list. 2. Ranbaxy profits are falling. Give me the structure of all the

parameters under consideration. Round 3 :

1. Calculate the cost of the disease ( opportunity cost+ medical expenses+ social +emotional cost )

2. List down all the parameters to be considered while constructing a Toll booth on highway to generate maximum revenue.


Knowledge about company and cracking the case.


Why consulting could have been more better


Read about the company on their website and include that information in your answers. Practise basic case solving frameworks


Interview Experience 2 Name: Arpit Agal Company: Accenture Management Consulting Name of interviewer and designation

Round 1: Senior Manager

Round 2: HR

Round 3: Partner


Chemical Engineer from IITB, 22 months of work experience at Capital One


Round 1: • Mostly questions on my work experience at Capital One

and what I learnt out of it • One basic question on marketing strategy of a company • Why Accenture? Why consulting?

Round 2:

• Pure HR interview with all kinds of standard HR questions like leadership examples, strengths, why consulting, hobbies, social work etc.

Round 3:

• Partner Round- Checking the fit. Similar questions as earlier. No case studies or guesstimate.


All the rounds had a common objective: checking whether consulting is fit for me. They were especially keen on the learnings out of my work ex. Any standout achievement will really help here. Otherwise the questions were quite straightforward. No technical stuff for me (cases, guesstimates). “Why Accenture” is one question which was asked in all the three rounds.


I was quite relaxed and had prepared well for my HR answers. I had prepared couple of questions on Accenture based on their ppt and website which helped in making conversation a better one.


I had a break between my second and third round due to other interviews. It caused a slight break in the flow although not a major one.


• Go through the website and their campus ppt well • Be prepared with “Why Accenture” answer • Prepare for all the standard HR answers well in advance. It

really helps on the final day.


Interview Experience 3 Name: Mohammed Mudassar Company: Accenture Management Consulting Name of interviewer and designation

Rounds 1,3: Do not know Round 2: HR Round 4 (Telephonic) : Vishwesh Prabhakar, Partner

Round 4 Rounds Brief Profile : Computer Science Engineering, Osmania University, Hyd.

12 months at Google as Corporate Operations Engineer


Round 1: Why would a person with a very technical background want to go into consulting? What is the current mobile phone I use? (At the time, I used a Micromax A74) Why has Micromax succeeded? What has it done correctly? What do you understand from Micromax’s recent advertising campaigns? Why has it cast Hugh Jackman? Why is Nokia doing badly? What are the strategic mistakes it has made? Which other industries interest me? (Apart from technology, my answer was Aviation) Why is the aviation industry not profitable? Caselet: How would I approach the situation if Boeing asked me to help their suppliers (HAL) improve their output? What recent major deals in aviation did I know about? How would I be able to handle the pressures and challenges of a consulting career? Round 2: Largely conversational, my experiences and expectations from consulting and whether Accenture would fit me. No clichéd HR questions. Round 3: Guesstimate the size of the Indian Diaper market. Repeating the point about me being too technical for the role. Round 4: What is Accenture’s current stock price? Is Accenture a public or a private company? Where is Accenture headquartered out of? What is causing deflation in Japan? More questions about the state of the Japanese economy and


macroeconomics in general. What should the governor of RBI focus on?

Narration of the case interview

Boeing parts: • I was only asked to list the broad areas I’d look at. Listed

transportation, supply chain, labour relations, and legal arrangements.

• Added one or two possible problems under each issue and suggested solutions.

Guesstimate(Diapers): • Structured using the number of kids in India using

population statistics, the family income, and cost of diaper by guessing the percentage of families who would use diapers.

• My initial estimate was $12 billion, way too high, and without him pointing it out, I tried to adjust my various estimates.

• He was fairly happy with the structure and did not try to correct the numbers too much.


• Google on my resume helped. My interviewers looked at that, smiled at me, and probably did not look beyond that on the CV.

• In Round 1, the interviewer stated an incorrect fact about the aviation industry and I corrected him. This made me look knowledgeable and he didn’t ask too many factual questions after that.

• Also, on the questions involving me being too technical, I took a consistent stance that I like technology and I believe it can be applied through consulting. I felt they were trying to get me to change my stance, but I stuck to it while respecting their point of view. I think this helped.

• The spontaneity I was able to show was helpful in turning the interviews in directions I preferred.


• In the second round, I wasn’t really sure what I had to say as I was more prepared for questions than a conversation, I felt I rambled a bit.

• In the fourth round, I could plainly not answer many questions on macroeconomics.

• The questions I asked were perhaps a bit naïve. Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

• In-depth knowledge of one or two sectors is very valuable. • Consistency of answers across interviews and your CV

makes you look sane.


Interview Experience 4 Name: Rhythem Pahwa Company: Accenture Management Consulting Name of interviewer and designation

Round 1 – Senior Manager from Supply Chain Vertical

Round 2 – Some HR executive

Round 3 – Vikrant; Partner, heads the sustainability practice are

Round (First/Second/third) Three rounds Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)

B.Tech from PEC (2010 batch); Prior work experience of about 5 months with Mu Sigma, Bangalore and 26 months with ZS Associates, Gurgaon


Round 1: Some basic questions like tell me about yourself, why consulting Discussed one project from Mu Sigma and one from ZS in detail, nature of responsibilities Case on an FMCG giant who was facing a sharp decline in profits. The interviewer did not allow me to use a pen and paper and rather asked to orally discuss the case. I questioned the ins and outs of the business, the industry and other basic qualifiers. The issue was with the supply chain. Gave him recommendations on how to enhance the profits. After this he gave a couple of hypothetical situations pertaining to sales and distribution issues and how I would go ahead. The interview lasted for about 45 mins. Round 2: Tell me something about yourself, typical HR situations (significant achievement, situation where you achieved something significant after overcoming obstacles, etc.), which practice area would you like to work in at AMC, what do you know of that practice area, what do you remember of the ppt, what did you like, what is it that you didn’t like. The interview lasted for about half an hour Round 3: This was the Partner round. Some general questions from my work-experience, which practice area would you prefer, why, recent developments in that practice area, a couple of projects from my stint at ZS He asked me an HR case. A Financial services firm recruits and trains Financial Advisors but for some unknown reason the attrition rate is huge. Investigate why. He just gave me 5 mins to


discuss and solve the case with him so had to be really fast with the analysis. After this round he made the offer and I accepted it.


Explained above


Spoke enthusiastically, did well in the cases


Couldn’t justify satisfactorily why I wanted a particular practice area


Prepare well for HR questions, it helps

Interview Experience 5 Name: Sabyasachi Dhar Company: Accenture Management Consulting Name of interviewer and designation

Principal


3 Rounds


Economics (Hons.) St. Xavier’s College. Worked for 35 months as part of the Essar Group Corporate Risk and Insurance Management Team


Round 1: Tell me about yourself (was the only HR question in this round) How did you balance your work/studies with your extra-curricular activities? Explain your work experience Questions on work experience like the type of risks associated with vessels or the state of the Insurance industry in India If your previous employer came to accenture for consulting advise, what advice would you give them? Case 1st asked me about how Tata Sumo is doing in India, to which I replied not well at all. Then the problem statement was to help Tata come up with a decision regarding the future of Sumo.


Walked him through the value chain and stressed on the cost and value drivers and came up with 3 solutions, to which he seemed impressed and stopped the discussion there Post the case, he asked about the current Economic condition of India and what implications the forthcoming elections and the budget hold. Had a discussion on that for 10 minute and then he asked me if I had any questions. Asked him why Accenture is the only Consulting firm that is publicly listed while the others are privately held? He seemed impressed again and explained the whole idea behind going public. After 10 minutes of discussion, the interview was concluded. Round 2: HR round. Asked various questions like tell me something about yourself, why Accenture, why consulting, tell us something that drives you, why did you give up on sports, what convinced you to do an MBA. Also ran through my CV and asked HR related questions regarding the Positions of responsibilities that I held and the extra-curricular activities I took part in. Round 3: Was the final round. Again asked me to introduce myself and in general spoke about what I did in life and what drives me. Also wanted to know what I was passionate about in life. I had a feeling that the objective was to test whether I was passionate about the things I care about. The conversation ended with him asking me whether I would like to choose Accenture Global or Accenture India, to which I replied Accenture Global and linked it to everything else I had spoken to him about.


The problem statement was to help Tata come up with a decision regarding the future of Sumo. I took a minute off to get the 1st two layers of the structure in place. Then started with the Cost and Value drivers and complemented it with the value chain to figure out where they were going wrong. After looking at every aspect, we came to the conclusion that the Tata Sumo is falling behind due to improper


positioning of the vehicle vis-à-vis it competitors and the lack of sheer innovation that the subsequent models have shown.


Clarity of thought Structure to answers, especially HR answers Interacting with the Interviewer, asking questions wherever necessary Not fumbling and losing the main chain of thought



Preparation of HR answers, most essential In a case, look at every aspect possible If you don’t know how to proceed, take time out to think and involve the interviewer as much as possible Don’t jump to conclusions

Interview Experience 6 Name: Stuti Garg Company: AMC Name of interviewer and designation

--


First, Second(telephonic)


MNNIT Allahabad, Electrical Engineering Worked at NTPC Ltd. for about two years


Round 1: 1) Walk me through your CV. Ans: I started with academics. Elaborated on the special achievements in it. Talked about my stint with NTPC and the projects I did there. He himself asked about various extracurriculars and PORs I mentioned and asked me to elaborate on them. 2) Which project was your personal favourite at NTPC and why? Ans: I spoke about a rural electrification project and told them how I got complete autonomy while executing it. Spoke about other facets like interacting with gram panchayats etc. 3) Do you think Kyoto Protocol is biased? (I conducted a panel discussion in college about carbon emissions control) Ans: Talked about its various clauses, how they are


administered and how much say developed nations have in it. Finally giving some examples concluded that isn’t biased. 4) Which are your favourite three books? (I was a member of literary club in college) 5) What did you read most as a kid? Ans: I said Tintin. He too turned out to be a huge tintin fan and we went on talking about it for another 10 minutes. 6) If I ask your best friend to describe you in one word, what do you think she’ll say? 7) How is coal paucity hindering our progress? (worked in thermal plant) Ans: I said that we had abundant coal. The problem is in our policies and practices. Elaborated on that. 8) Do you want to ask me anything. Round 2: Was a telephonic round. Three very generic questions were asked. 1) Which was your favourite subject in term 1? 2) What do you do in free time at IIML? 3) How has the journey been so far at IIML?


1) A burger joint’s profitability is falling despite same sales revenue? Analyse the reasons. 2) ESPN has to bid for an upcoming cricket match series. Give them a reasonable quote. Ans: I asked about the kind of series: test, oneday or IPL. I asked about the match’s location. He replied India to which I asked if India was playing. Enquired about the sponsors, ad revenues etc.


Coherence and structure in answers I was very candidly chatting with them which probably worked in my favour



Know your CV really well. Sort things out in your mind before answering. Ask them only relevant questions. Never beat around the bush. Stay calm and composed.

Interview Experience 7 Name: Suraj Serikar Company: Accenture Management Consulting Name of interviewer and designation

Don’t remember


Round 4 (Telephonic) : Vishwesh Prabhakar, Partner


Graduated from IIT Madras, 2 years work ex at Olam as a consultant


Round 1: Case + HR Interview kicked off by tell me about yourself. Then asked about my PORs at IIT. Gave a case on Olam expansion strategy in between discussion about my work ex. Then some questions about Accenture and HR. Asked if I had any questions for him. Round 2: HR Tell me about yourself? Why Accenture? Why consulting? HR person was interested in my work ex and PORs, asked a plenty of questions on that. Round 3: CV Based + HR Tell me about yourself? Asked how my day was, as my energy levels were bit low at that point of time. I had an entrepreneurial venture at IIT and interviewer was asking questions related to entrepreneurship trends in India and issues faced in my venture, key learnings etc. Interviewer was working in a similar domain of supply chain (Sales and distribution) and we had a discussion on challenges involved in projects. What were my expectations from Accenture and why I prefer it over working for Olam? Round 4 : Telephonic interview- CV Based Was very short interview and partner was quickly running through my CV and asked about my entrepreneurial venture and why it failed?


Suggest a strategy for Olam to expand in next 2-3 years in coffee commodity business unit? Interviewer was looking for structure and logic in the approach. I walked him through the value chain in coffee business and then focussed on areas in procurement and distribution currently controlled by other parties. Then proposed for forward integration for the product and explained the rationale using some examples of other businesses of Olam. Interviewer appeared to be quite convinced at this stage and he moved on to some specific set of questions in commodities.



I was quick to realise the case presented to me in between conversation and I had asked him time for structuring it. There were no signs of nervousness as I had sat for ample number of interviews before and was very comfortable and confident throughout the process. Was quick to catch cues from interviewer and focused discussion on topics that engaged him. Was cheerful throughout the process.


I was completely exhausted as interviews were scheduled towards end of the day and my energy levels were not high.


Be confident, energetic and enjoy the process.

Interview Experience 8 Name: Swati Singh Company: Accenture Management Consulting Name of interviewer and designation

-

Round (First/Second/third) Four rounds in all Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)

Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology, Delhi (Mechanical Engineering) 2.5 years’ work ex. with an Indian automobile company (R&D)


Round 1: 1) Tell me something about yourself? 2) Work profile? (Some more questions related to it)

Most questions after that were supply chain management (SCM) related because I had worked in an automobile company (caught me off-guard since my area of work was research and not production). Some of the questions were -

3) Difference between SCM inside the firm and outside the firm

4) How does an automobile firm manage its inventory? 5) What is the difference between centralized and de-

centralized supply chain? Advantages and Disadvantages of each

6) What are the various ways in which you’ll reduce inventory pile up?

Round 2: (HR) 1) Tell me something about yourself 2) How was your experience of working with XYZ Company? 3) Why consulting? Why not join the old firm back? 4) Why Accenture? 5) How do you fit in?


6) What if we are not able to recruit you today?

Round 3 : Started with the usual tell me something about yourself. Then he started questioning me on why I want to choose consulting as a field and why I don’t want to work with my old firm again. Then he gave me a guesstimate: Estimate the no of passenger shared auto rickshaws in Lucknow The guesstimate could have been done using multiple approaches so he asked me the different approaches I can use to arrive at the final answer. He also cross questioned me on the assumptions I had made while solving the guesstimate. Round 4: The interviewer was also a mechanical engineer so he asked me a lot of questions on SI/CI engines, Torque Speed curve, Knocking etc.


Round 4: Market entry strategy for a Chinese automobile firm My approach was to first evaluate whether it is the right environment and time to enter and then move on to how to enter- by utilizing existing capabilities or developing new ones.


Round 1: I was able to give some work related examples to support my understanding of concepts which I think he really liked Round 2: I was calm and confident throughout Round 3: I logically explained my assumptions without getting perturbed by the interviewer’s cross questioning (even though a few data points actually turned out wrong) Round 4: The case went well as I could cover almost all the areas


Round 1: I was not very well prepared to handle SCM related questions. Round 2: Nothing as such Round 3: I should’ve taken more time in solving the guesstimate and not rushed into getting an answer


If you have core manufacturing work-ex, irrespective of the department you were in, be thoroughly prepared with operations related questions. Also, be prepared for a few question from your undergraduate stream


A T Kearney


Interview Experience 9 Name: Naveen Bansal Company: A T Kearney

Name of interviewer and designation

-

Round (First/Second/third) - Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)

PEC, Goldman Sachs


Round 1- 1. Tell me something about yourself (was asked the same question multiple times in the process) 2. Your most significant achievement in life 3. Support your hobbies with examples: I mentioned reading novels and was asked about the last novel i read and what did i like the most in the novel Round 2 - 1. Explain what I did at Goldman Sachs (Job role and responsibilities) 2. One instance where you think team work was most important (linked to work experience) Guesstimate 1: Estimate the demand of ACs in India Case 1: A two wheeler manufacturer, a market leader in the category, has a lot of cash available for investment. The firm is a proprietorship and has an owner. The owner now wants to move to the small car segment. Advise him if he should venture into small car market or not. Case 2: Estimate the demand of Cement in India. - Was asked to devise both top-down and bottom-up approach for estimating the number. Top-Down approach included looking at Macro indicators (GDP Per capita and Cement consumption per capita). The Interviewer had all the numbers but he was waiting for me to ask.






Prepare some questions to ask to the interviewer. 1. Stay happy! a smile on your face really works! 2. Don't hesitate in asking for time to think. It is perfectly fine! 3. Make HR questions as personal as possible! ( a BIG +) 4. Maintain your stand following the Pcom rules if asked about offer. Ask for some time to think and contact PCom immediately.


Interview Experience 10 Name: Aditya Dogra Company: The Boston Consulting Group Name of interviewer and designation

Rishabh, Project Lead (First Round) Sachin Kotak, Principal (Second Round) Priyanka, Principal (Third Round) Amit Sachdev, Principal (Fourth Round)


B.Tech. Civil Engg, IIT Bombay, Work ex – 11 months at Inductis (Analytics)


Round 1: Brief introduction followed by a case Round 2: No HR questions, went to the case straight away Round 3: Brief introduction followed by a couple of experience based questions, this was followed by a case Round 4: Introduction followed by a guestimate


Round 1: The case was concerning a mobile device manufacturer facing a decline in profits. It had opened new stores through a franchisee recently and started selling products at a lower price. This had affected the equation with the set of old retailers. In addition the margins provided to the retailers by the client weren’t competitive which were causing it to lose sales. Round 2: The interviewer had shaken things up a little by doing away with the conventional over the table discussion and the case was solved on a blackboard. Problem statement was developing a presentation to be made at a round table conference of procurement managers. I started off by laying out the broad structure of the presentation. Later the discussion moved onto coming up with different environmental factors that need to be included which would concern the day to day work of a procurement manager. I bucketed these factors into Political, Economic, Social, Technical and generated ideas for each backing them up with recent events eg. Under economic factors one of the concerns was currency fluctuation which would affect price of procurement and how hedging could mitigate the risk. Round 3: The case was about a pharmaceutical company launching a new vaccine and looking to decide upon a pricing strategy. I listed the 3 factors I would consider to fix the price point - manufacturing and selling costs, pricing of competitive products, value of product to customer. The interviewer directed me to consider the first factor since there were no competing products and the third factor was very qualitative. The problem was then reduced to estimating the size of market, forecasting sales and asking questions to get complete information about the


costs involved (R&D, Patents were major costs). Round 4: The case involved estimating the demand for the upcoming Mumbai metro. I proceeded by breaking the problem into three parts – shifting of passengers from Mumbai local, shifting of passengers from other modes of public transport, people shifting from private to public transport. I made reasonable assumptions about the % of passengers that would shift from each segment on the basis of the information I had about the metro routes. Post that there was some calculation involved in estimating the size of each segment as frequency multiplied by capacity (separately for peak and non-peak hours). The interview ended with a good discussion about my work at Inductis on a financial services project as Amit himself had been working in that domain.


Picked up the hints given by the interviewer – in my first round, after laying down the approach I was going in a different direction. At that point I picked up a hint from the interviewer’s expressions and took a step back to then move in the right direction. 2 of my interviews had lots of calculation involved which I was able to handle extremely well.


With a new format and a very unconventional case in the 2nd round it took a little time to adjust and for a while I wasn’t giving the kind of ideas the interviewer was looking for.


Extremely important to stay calm and confident throughout the interview and have a good discussion with the interviewer.

Interview Experience 11 Name: Chinmaya Golecha Company: The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Name of interviewer and designation

Amit Sachdeva, Principal

Round (First/Second/third) One round


Worked at Deutsche Bank Centre as a part of the TMT team in London (11 months)


Work ex details, etc.) B.Com (H) from SRCC CA Inter


Round 1: 15 minutes - Quick chat about the CV, some relevant interest areas around my work-ex and some PoR’s. 25 minutes - Case around Computers/Laptops manufacturer’s service revenue increase. Round 2: n/a Round 3: n/a


Case overview: There is a computers/laptop manufacturer, global leader, with two revenue streams – Primary selling of products Service revenues from maintenance, repair and replacement parts Global average split is 75%-25% respectively but India split is 95%-5% Problem Statement: To increase revenue stream from services in India Case Approach: 1) Background questions: Inquired about the supply chain. What services are offered, how they are offered, who offers them. Discovered that problem area was sale of replacement parts and the services entailed therein Discovered that the company follows a hub-and-spoke model, ie: one central distributor in the country who gives spare parts to all retail stores (100% franchisee system) 2) Approach: Decided to approach the problem using the most basic Revenue breakdown = Volume x Price If we can find why revenue is down either because of Volume or Price than we can find the issue. I felt, prima facie, that the problem lay in Price (as my understanding is for a replacement part, I would get something cheap rather than go the actual store after warranty and overpay). However, I was told that the price offered outside the stores was 20% higher than the in-store price. The Problem statement thus became: Why are people not buying


replacement parts from us even if they are cheaper? To drill into this, I decided to get into the shoes of a consumer. The various problems (logical flow, thus MECE) could be: Do I have access to a store? Do they have parts? Do they have good staff (technicians that can help etc)? Turnaround time? Other service elements? I dived into each bucket to find that the problem lay in spare parts after spending considerable time on good staff and access. (I established that distribution/reach was good so people did not find it inconvenient to visit our stores as well as we had skilled help that could effectively and quickly solve consumer problems) Re-visited the supply chain to figure out where the problem was with spare parts. Discovered that the hub sent them to the stores but still the stores did not have inventory. Spent time analysing the inventory situation using the interviewers help. Discovered that each store had an individual P/L and were giving the inventory to other people (who were in turn selling it at a 20% markup) and taking a cut! Recommendations: Establish Inventory issue norms, and ensure random checking of inventory at stores.


Very Interactive – Interviewer was very involved in the case Picked up all the hints dropped – the interviewer lit up when we spoke about black market selling of the replacement parts


Nothing majorly, Missed a couple of things where the interviewer had to prod me along in the right direction


Enjoy the interview! It is actually great fun, and if the interviewer realises you’re enjoying it, it acts as a huge positive!


Deloitte US Strategy & Operations


Interview Experience 12 Name: Abhinandan Pandey Company: Deloitte Name of interviewer and designation

Round (First/Second/third) 1st Round : HR 2nd Round : Case based 3rd round : Case based + presentation round


Bengal Engineering & Science University, Shibpur Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering Ericsson India Global Services Pvt. Ltd. – 35 months


Round 1: Questions on hypothesis testing (I had mentioned QAM as my subject of interest) Why consulting, Why Deloitte, Asked me to sing as I looked nervous in the beginning of the interview, How your analytical skills will help in consulting. Round 2: It was a case based round. A case was provided which dealt with the sources of revenues and profit and the various advertisement mediums to be reckoned for the summer Olympics in 2015. It was a calculation intensive case, so it involved simple calculations for which the interviewer gave some time. Went for around 40 minutes Round 3: The case which was discussed in Round 2 had to be presented to a senior partner. What followed was an in-depth discussion on the same case and another case. This round lasted for around 30 minutes.


Summer Olympics will take place in 2015. Our customers are conducting the event. What are the major sources of revenues for them? Major sources of profit? What are the costs involved? How will you price the tickets to earn so and so amount of profit? How will you make a team. How will you prioritize the tasks?


I was confident and bold enough to think on my feet. The interviewers seemed more interested in how one approaches a problem. They were complicating the problem as I got deeper into it. The key is to consider all possible aspects and quickly chose the best possible alternative as a part of the questions which were asked. Might sound like a cliché, Thinking out Loud helps a lot!


I fumbled in 2 instances. There are times when the answers just don’t strike! But keep your calm, keep thinking as there is always a next question and there is always a better way to answer the next question!



Interview Experience 13 Name: Anmol Mahajan Company: Deloitte US S&O Name of interviewer and designation

Senior Manager


B.Tech in Electronics and Electrical Comm. Engg. from IIT Kharagpur (2010). Worked for three years as R&D Design Engineer at Analog Devices, Bangalore


Round 1: In this round, I was asked some basic HR questions like, Tell me about yourself? Why did you choose consulting as a career? Why Deloitte? Long term goals? Questions regarding my prior work experience and my role and scope in R&D. Then the interviewer introduced himself and we briefly talked about his role at Deloitte for some time where he answered some of my questions on his career. He asked me if I had any questions regarding Deloitte as a firm. I responded with a question to which he gave a detailed response. No guesstimates or case questions were asked in this round and it primarily focused on HR questions and clarity about my long term goals. This was an elimination round and some of the candidates were eliminated after this round. Round 2: Case based round with two Senior Managers Round 3: Synthesis presentation round with two senior managers.


Round 2: Round 2 was with two Senior Managers from Deloitte. There were a few HR questions primarily based on why consulting as a career. Then the interviewer told me that this is a case round and if analysis is done right I would be expected to come up with apt recommendations for the client. The client is an automobile firm with an annual turnover of around $10b. Our client has a parts supplier which has an annual business of around $400m (90% of their total business was done with our


client). On one day, our client company’s CEO gets a call from their supplier that due to financial troubles, they are going to shut down operations from next month onwards. The case was about recommending solutions to our client in this scenario. I started by asking questions regarding the business model of the automobile client, their other suppliers, current inventory of parts with our clients and when will they exhaust it, environmental factors like geographies they operate in, availability of substitute suppliers in these geographies. From the responses to such questions it became clear that a solution was to found with their current supplier itself. So I started asking them questions regarding the details of financial problems the supplier was facing. Upon few of such questions I was given a data sheet with 5 to 6 tables detailing the various factors like direct costs, overheads, expenses, number of units sold, unit price, environmental factors like industry comparison of costs, labour unions etc. at each of their three plants. After this, the discussion was more quantitative in nature with me calculating present profits/loss for each of the plants, suggestions for cost reduction based on industry comparisons etc. These questions primarily focused on the ability to understand the data given in various tables and link them with each other and come up with tangible parameters through some number crunching. Once this analysis was done, he administered another angle by giving an option to our client to invest $10mn in the supplier’s firm in return of advancement of technology which would lead to reduction in prime cost. He asked me if our client should make this investment. I asked further questions on time factor as to if we invest now how far from now would we see reduction in costs. He said we would analyse two situations one where the returns are immediate and the other where the reduction in costs is earned three years down the line. For the current scenario, since I had already calculated the profitability/loss of each of supplier’s plant, it was easier to calculate the benefits of the investments. For long term analysis, I answered that we would have to look into NPV of our investment with discount factor depending on many risk factors. We briefly discussed about what could be the risk factors given the data in the data sheet. On this he was happy and said that I would have to present the synthesis of the case in the third round. Round 3: The third round was act based with a senior manager acting as a client. I briefly gave the synthesis of the case with my recommendations. This was followed by a few counter questions


asked by senior manager (acting as a client) which I answered briefly. Once they were satisfied with my answers, we went back to normal mode where few questions regarding the expectations from the internship, expected learnings, etc. were discussed.


- Preparation of HR answers and knowledge about Deloitte and the role on offer

- Ability to perform basic calculations at a good pace - Exploring various avenues of solving the case and giving logical

pros and cons of each What do you think went wrong in this interview?


Interview Experience 14 Name: N Susheel Kumar Reddy Company: Deloitte US S&O Name of interviewer and designation

Rd1,2 - Senior Manager Rd 3- Partner


Mechanical Engineering from IIT Madras Work in Caterpillar – 35 months, operations


Round 1: Tried to unsettle by saying you are in the wrong room, and I worked for your company so expect really tough questions Why consulting and why deloitte? Few questions from work, and then extracurriculars. Guesstimate on stadium gate receipts for Indian Hockey league? No.of matches played, no.of seats in each stadium, occupancy rate, etc. were calculated What are your long term goals? Round 2: Case on a firm which has 3 plants and is making huge losses. Data sheet is given with details of cost and productivity of all 3 plants. We decided to look into the costs being incurred, split the cost into 3 buckets – Wages, Material and overhead costs.


Material had no scope of cost reduction, Wages – we identified in plant 3 the no.of salaried were more than hourly hence more cost. Similarly in overheads – Plant 3 has too much inventory holding cost. So we decided to reduce these costs, but even reducing these didn’t turn a profit so we decided to shut plant 3 and move the production to plant 1 and plant 2 Later I gave suggestions on how to raise cash for increasing the production in the other 2 plants – Money by selling plant 3, Loan or money from market Later did profit analysis to prove the investment is giving good profit Round 3: Had to present the case I did in Round 2 to the partner – he was acting as the client whose case we took up and solved. Drew the tree structure and explained him how we went about each and every bucket before identifying root causes. Possible solutions for root causes and suggestions to improve. The partner kept asking many questions, not agreeing to most. He was only satisfied when the arguments made were based on numbers. Later he asked basic HR questions like, what field of consulting would I choose? Why deloitte? Etc.


Mentioned Above





KPMG


Interview Experience 15 Name: Prince Arora Company: KPMG Advisory Services Name of interviewer and designation

2 interviewers over a video call. Do not recall their name and designation

Round (First/Second/third) Only One Round Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)

Fresher, Dual Degree IIT Madras [8 pointer] Member of The Consulting & Strategy Club


Round 1: Tell us about yourself. Questions on Business Current Affairs, leaders. Why KPMG? Who all are its competitors? What are its business lines? A few questions on FRA acronyms and their importance (like EBITDA)


Estimate the market size of Biscuit Industry in India. It was a guesstimate. They gave me some time to work out the solution but I made some quick assumptions and took them through my thinking process. I solved the case from supply side. Then once I was done, I asked if I should solve it from the demand side as well. The interviewers asked me to elaborate upon the way I’ll go about it. Came up with a ball park figure.


The guesstimate and the level of enthusiasm shown towards solving it. I think they were looking for the right approach and not the correctness of the final figure.


I messes up a little on the company specific questions. Do go through the Company RG before you enter the interview.


Stay confident. They seem to like people who are confident about what they speak. If you don’t know an answer, tell it to them politely.


McKinsey & Co


Interview Experience 16 Name: Abhishek Gupta Company: Mckinsey & Co. Name of interviewer and designation

Involved an Associate Partner (Pradeep), Partner (Navtez)


All


NSIT (2011 Passout) 18 months in J.P. Morgan and 5 months in Reliance Capital


Round 1: Short tell me about yourself. Then one guesstimate and then a case discussion Round 2: Tell me about yourself. HR question on leadership qualities and instance related to that. Case discussion. Round 3: Purely HR with partner, asked questions on why not finance, why consulting, why Mckinsey? After each round you will be asked if you have any questions for the interviewer, if you have some good questions then do ask, but do not ask for just for the sake of asking.


Round 1: Guesstimate: Value of a bulb with infinite life (involved basic DCF calculation, evaluation of expenditure you might do in case of a normal bulb). Case: Problems that a truck association might be facing in getting truck drivers (possible problems and solutions for those). Be innovative as possible. Although I didn’t reach the exact problem in the end (only got to know this after the interview from a friend), but explored quite a few areas to get through to the second round. The interviewer was very silent and unresponsive, you just had to carry on with the case on your own. A solution to the truck problem was that the people got AIDS as they went at different places, and then they had problems getting married. Second was that there were health problems, due to them eating food at different places and uncomfortable seats, no proper place to sleep. Round 2: Case: Why a shipping company is going in loss. Evaluate the possible problems and suggest solutions. Suggesting solutions to every case in the end will be required and this is where one’s idea generation will be tested. Also involved testing of quant skills, specifically math calculation required (basic but one can panic under pressure).


Being calm and confident, thinking on the feet really helps. I had already gone through a fair set of interviews before, so wasn’t


nervous at all. While you would have done an umpteen number of cases before hand, but every case will be new and will require you to go to different breadth and depths. While case solving remains a very important part, they also test you on your HR skills. The second round was the deciding factor, after which directly there was a partner round. In the end managed to convert the call. Finally, it was very important to smile over the course of interview which lasted 30-45 mins


To be frank, I think everything went right for me in this process. Although I did miss out the exact cause of the problem in the first round but wasn’t so much a big deal. The way you structure your thoughts is more important.


To me case solving had much more importance in the course of the interview, but HR answers shouldn’t be ignored for sure. Make sure you are properly dressed. You get evaluated on every aspect.

Interview Experience 17 Name: Anonymous Company: Mckinsey and Company Name of interviewer and designation

Rounds 1,2: Case Study Round 3: HR

Round 3 Rounds Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Round 1: 1.) Tell me something about yourself? 2.) Convince me to sell my company even when it is doing very

well in the market. Round 2:

1.) Case study on Indian Telecom sector Round 3:

1.) McK vs BCG question 2.) 5 ways India can win 5 Gold medals in upcoming olympics


Case 1: Selling the Company • Started by giving financial benefits of selling the company. • Gave implications on entrepreneurship front, brought views

surrounding family society Case 2: Indian Telecom Sector

• Case was about increasing revenues from Mobile apps. • Started with geographical expansion of the company service

by looking at various strategies (M&A, Alliances, Joint


venture etc). • Went ahead and looked at companies promotional

strategies, delved into customer segmentation for better targeting.

• At last suggested some modifications in apps to make it more users friendly and appropriate for smart phone users.


• Case went well, Interviewers were happy in both the cases about the approach I took.

• Were happy about my past work ex What do you think went wrong in this interview?

• I could have better put recommendations in cases • Could have brought more practical examples during my HR

answers • Engagement with partner could have been better.


• Keep Structured approach throughout interviews • Consistency within answers is important • Be confident and calm on D-Day.

Interview Experience 18 Name: Aviral Srivastava Company: McKinsey Name of interviewer and designation

Vikas Bhadoria, Partner Shivanshu, Principal Mukund Sridhar, Associate Partner (Not sure)


B.Tech Mechanical Engineering from IIT(BHU), Varanasi. One year work-ex as Analyst in Inductis, Gurgaon (Analytics consulting).


Round 1: Tell me something about yourself not in your resume. (I talked about how being a good student in school opened up avenues in leadership and extra-curriculars and shaped the person I am). Turning points in my life that shaped me. Regrets in life. A short description about my work at Inductis. And then case. Round 2: A very brief tell me about yourself. How did your previous interview go according to you? Couple of things about my interests in meditation. And then case. Round 3: I was ushered in within 5-10 minutes of my previous interview. Mckinsey had made us fill a subjective sheet during out Aptitude test. Mukund had access to the sheet. He asked about a regret I had written: My CGPA in college.


He asked if I had any questions about Mckinsey and my company priorities. A little chitchat and that’s all. This round hardly lasted 5 minutes.


Round 1: Vikas brought in the case decisively (not as a gradual flow in conversation): “My friend owns a standalone cinema theatre in Mumbai. Profits and revenue taking a hit. What should I do?” I started the case with the usual qualifiers (since when, what has changed, industry, competition, type of movies, location etc). I made a structure but he sounded disinterested. Kept throwing me off my game with vague disinterested hints. None of my directions seemed to appeal to him. I persisted. Took some timeouts to rethink approaches. Came up with 3-4 approaches before we went into one. Then he asked me to ideate. Round 2: I am a shipping company. And my profits slipping. Give an exhaustive list of things you will evaluate. I did reasonably well. I missed the factor of fuel and he pointed it out. New scenario: cost in fuel changed drastically 3 years ago. What will be your current profit/ loss if the fuel cost hadn’t changed? Sounds simple and it was. I kept looking for a trap and started number crunching only after a minute. The moment I got the number, he seemed satisfied. He asked me to give recommendations. And I took a 20 sec pause to structure recommendations instead of hurtling them all out. The interview ended here, on a much more positive note compared to the first one.


I was calm across interviews and somehow managed to leave the stress at the door before all rounds. I received positive feedback regarding this later on. Round 1: My HR answers were interesting, passionate, structured but natural. I never gave up during the case and persisted despite several setbacks. I didn’t mind starting from scratch repeatedly. My idea-gen was adequate. Round 2: I gave an honest and humble feedback about round 1 when asked. Initial structure during case was ok (I missed fuel, but he pointed it out). Most importantly, I could crack the math in the case in my first attempt (it was quite simple really, but turns out, many silly mistakes were made during the day). I managed to structure my recommendations as well and generate several relevant ideas. Round 3: Frank genuine answers about my academics and work experience. He asked about people at my previous company, expectations from Mckinsey etc.



Round 1: I didn’t think my case went all that great, as the interviewer looked disinterested throughout and kept redirecting me. Halfway through the case, I realised that cracking the case was out of the question. I came out of the interview apprehensive but luckily was ushered into round 2 before I could dwell on it. Round 2: I entered the interview unsure, given my performance in the first interview. I kept trying to give subjective solutions and state assumptions when all the interviewer wanted was simple math. I kept thinking the case can’t just be simple maths, but initially it was! Round 3: I was mentally prepared for a case but there was none.


Prepare on your CV. You need to have recall value in the eyes of the interviewer. Structure HR answers. But they will sound natural only after practice. It helps if you have 2-3 USPs in your mind. For example, I had quizzing, meditation and a childhood abroad. Never give up in a case. Keep your cool as people get unsure of simple math during cases and literally end up doing written calculation where mental should have sufficed. Don’t read too much into the interviewer’s body language (unless he’s giving you hints during a case). Take pauses during cases but don’t let the silence get heavy. Each interviewer may ask you at the end if you want to ask him something about the company. Don’t do DCP. Ask him genuine questions that you think that a person of his stature and experience can answer better than a younger employee at the firm. Do not judge your own performance in the interview. You will never know what the interviewer is thinking. You might have been given a tough case just to see your response.

Interview Experience 19 Name: Ishani Roychowdhury Company: McKinsey & Co. Name of interviewer and designation

Round 1: Gunjan (Partner) Round 2: Vikas (Partner) Round 3: Navtez (Partner)


Three rounds in total (third round was purely HR)


Economics Honours from St. Stephen’s College, 21 months of work experience at Bain Capability Center (BCC)


Round 1: Tell me about yourself, followed by related questions on my answer, why consulting. Next 15 minutes was a case. Ended with a brief discussion about the Partner’s consulting career so far.


Round 2: Follow-up question on an answer that I had written in the HR form filled a week earlier. This was followed by questions on my work experience and how the BCC model works. This was followed by two quick cases. Round 3: Pure HR round


Round 1: This was the first case of the day for the Partner and we spent 12-15 minutes on HR at the beginning. She asked me about myself which I had prepared well. That led to questions around my career decisions, a bit about my work experience and society work at undergrad college. This was followed by the case. She gave me two choices and asked me to pick one. I chose the IT case. Case statement: I run a software company which sells accounting software in India. Before launching accounting software, I had hired a market research firm who estimated the market at Rs.XY (some figure). However, in spite of having a share of 45%, we have not been able to penetrate the market any further. The idea was to start with exhaustive qualifying questions that covered competition, region of operation, industry dynamics. I figured that the problem did not lie in the company per se, but in their target customers. They focused mostly on the SMEs who used traditional accounting books rather than accounting software. I was also abruptly stopped in between, after which I quickly synthesized and gave in my recommendations. My recommendations were around creating awareness to migrate more people to online accounting applications She asked me if I had any questions for her. I asked her a question which extended the discussion for 5-7 more minutes. Round 2: 2-3 questions on the HR form submitted earlier. This was followed by a detailed discussion about my work experience, some case examples from my previous work, the BCC model and how it works and why consulting. Case statement: My friend owns a single theatre in a metro city, has been losing profits steadily. Suggest ways to improve his profitability. The case was about generating options and the Partner kept insisting on more suggestions. I looked at the revenue and the cost side separately, divided them into short term and long term plans, and tried to logically structure my suggestions. For the revenue side, I had gone by the customer purchase process approach to


ensure nothing is missed. This was followed by a second case which was a guesstimate: Another friend of mine wants to sell tennis balls in India. Estimate the demand. The approach was usual, starting with sources of demand and estimating it using population. Finally, he asked me if I had any question for him. I had a question and the discussion went on for 5 more minutes. Round 3: This was the most interesting interview experience of all. I was told it was like a hygiene test before I went in, and I was relaxed yet energetic. The partner looked at my HR form and asked me similar questions, as in my previous interview. The discussion touched upon various topics- mostly around my work experience, family, school life and career decisions (it was like a friendly chat after sometime and I had much to talk about). He also asked me why I would want to join McKinsey. At the end, he said it was a good discussion, that he thought I am fit for consulting and felt no need to give me a case.


In all the rounds, I was energetic, smiling and engaging. The HR questions were extremely crucial which I thought went well. About the cases, I had thought my first round case wasn’t great- it was my first case of the day and I couldn’t tell whether she was happy with my recommendations. However, later I heard from others that she was actually happy about it. The second round cases went well- I managed to generate as many options as he wanted, and did not give up. In fact, I went into lot of details on the guesstimate and he stopped me in between to ask for the final answer.


Nothing major, I guess. The idea is not to ‘solve’ the case, but to display your structure and your method of thinking and to engage the interviewer throughout.


Be calm and enthusiastic throughout. Carry yourself with confidence and smile- that reduces the nervousness too. Prepare your ‘about me’ well because that feeds into the discussion that follows. Also, the questions on ‘why consulting’ and ‘why McKinsey’ are common. Further, it’s very important to structure your HR answers too.


Interview Experience 20 Name: Mashantha Viswanathan Company: McKinsey Name of interviewer and designation

Mr. Anil Sikka – Senior Specialist Ms. Gunjan Soni – Partner/Senior Partner Ms. Aayushi – Engagement Manager

Round (First/Second/third) Ms. Aayushi - first Mr. Anil Sikka – second Ms. Gunjan Soni - third


B.Com (Professional); St. Francis College for Women, Hyderabad, Analyst at Ernst and Young Hyderabad for 11 months in the Advisory service line


Round 1: HR – Tell me about yourself, one wild/fun thing I had done. Guesstimate – If I needed to increase the prevalence (usage) of contraceptives in India by 20%, what sort of a number would I be looking at? Round 2: HR - Tell me about yourself, Working individually vis-à-vis working with teams, how have I dealt with people taking credit for work that I do. Guesstimate – As head of a publishing house, I was asked to estimate the readership for a book that I wanted to publish Round 3: HR - Tell me about yourself.


A retail chain wanting to enter India; how would I go about it? Variables and KPIs that I would look at. Followed a value-chain centric approach; was asked specific questions at each stage such as the kind of metrics I would look at.


1) Was confident and comfortable; felt more like a conversation rather than an interview (especially the second and third rounds) 2) After a point, we were discussing the solution for the case together (happened in the first round)


1) Was initially nervous and I guess it showed in my first round 2) Could have been more targeted with my questions


1) Don’t get flustered; keeping your cool is very important 2) Try to approach it like you’re going to meet a new person rather than you’re going to face the most important interview in your life; it helps in being yourself => More confidence => Best performance


Interview Experience 21 Name: Pratik Goyal Company: McKinsey & Co. Name of interviewer and designation

Suhail (Associate Partner) Naftez (Partner) Vikash (Partner)


Total 3 Rounds Interviewers names in order


St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata Chartered Accountancy Inter Fresher


Round 1: 3 structural approaches to solve the problem “ India should win 5 gold medals in 2020 olympics” Round 2: About yourself not in the CV? Why consulting? An estimate of the total number of glucometers sold in India in a year. Round 3: A cinema hall whose profits are falling - Problem finding and Recommendations. An approach to estimate the revenue of the cinema hall and the cost was also asked. My leadership roles and why no POR in IIML? My entrepreneurial venture and the business logic behind it? Why not Finance as a career choice?



The HR part went very well The idea generation was very important and the initial two levels in the structuring which should have incorporated a MECE. The ability to communicate what I was thinking was very important in the cases.


The nervousness was very high and so required a little time in idea generation in the first round but kept talking to the interviewer so that dint leave much gap and made up for the nervousness.


Generally the interviews are targeted to test the idea generation ability, comfort level with numbers and the problem solving ability which form the main work of consultants. In the softer aspects the HR answers are very very important. Knowing the CV is very important and should be a reason for why u did what u have, and it will generally be a part of all interview rounds.


Interview Experience 22 Name: Shreya Sachdev Company: McKinsey and Co. Name of interviewer and designation

R1- Shivanshu (Partner) R2- Vikas (Partner) R3- Gunjan (Partner) R4- Navtez (Partner)

Round (First/Second/third) Round 2 Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)

B.A. (Hons) English- Lady Shri Ram College for Women-Fresher


All three interviews revolved around my educational background (I’m the rare breed of Literature students that occasionally crop up here) and how that fit in with IIM Lucknow and Consulting. I was also asked about my internship with a Fashion House and my motivation behind taking it up. Finally I got asked about my expectations from a Consulting job. The interviews ended with me asking each of the partners questions. Shivanshu was working on a data- heavy project so I asked him about how he dealt with the more mundane aspects of Consulting. I had a prior interaction with Vikas at the McKinsey dinner and I continued with the same discussion regarding Entrepreneurship opportunities at McKinsey. Gunjan and me spoke about opportunities for women at McKinsey and the initiative she had started regarding the same. Navtez was working on a case in the same sector that my father works in, so we discussed the current challenges faced by that sector.


“My friend runs a standalone theatre in the heart of Mumbai, but has recently been witnessing declining profits.” I initially structured it into a regular profit and loss case, but after the first 4-5 minutes (possibly because he gathered that I had no problem structuring the case) he jumped directly to recommendations. The rest of my case focused solely on me shooting options as to how he could possibly increase his profits. The suggestions included the obvious ones such as price of tickets, show timings, staff requirements etc, and then we went on to other areas such as the Food and Beverages counter, Parking and so on. At that point, after we had exhausted all avenues he asked me to come up with out-of-the-box solutions, and we spent the rest of the interview solely on idea generation.


I was smiling and confident throughout the interview even though I was convinced that I had quite possibly tanked the case interview before this. I could bring myself to look outside my structure and give him


solutions over and above the ones What do you think went wrong in this interview?

I didn’t ask for numbers, possibly because numbers were where I had messed up in the last case. If I had gotten over the phobia in time the case solutions I presented would have had more of an impact.


Reading the cues and expressions of the interviewer always help. Apart from that don’t make the mistake of getting trapped by your structures because McKinsey partners usually tend towards unorthodox case interviews.


Interview Experience 1 Name Deep Banerjee Company Accenture Management Consulting Name of interviewer and designation

Vishwesh Prabhakar, Partner

Brief Profile Chemical Engineering from Bangalore, 1 yr Work Ex at Tesco Retail, 3.5 yrs at Indian Oil Corporation as Assistant Manager handling Supply Chain and Operations

Interview questions Round 1: Work related, Industry related, Latest Trends in Supply Chain, CV related, Case analysis, Related to current energy problems in India Round 2: My apprehensions about Accenture Round 3: HR Questions


“I’m a chemical manufacturer. Help me optimize my outbound logistics”


- Work experience matched with their requirement - Industry knowledge - Information about the company


In the case interview, I mistook “optimize” as “cost reduction” only. Should have taken other factors into consideration


- Be energetic and enthusiastic - I firmly believe that the first 2 minutes in an interview decide

the outcome to a great extent - In the case interview, even if you go wrong at some place, do

not fluster and keep trying

Interview Experience 2 Name Ipsa Kalra Company Accenture Management Consulting Name of interviewer and designation

Round 1- Anurag Johri, Strategy Head

Round 2- HR

Round 3-Saurabh Bhatnagar-Partner

Round Case in first round only

Brief Profile Graduation in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata. Fresher.


Interview questions Round 1: Started with some questions on leadership as I stated it as strength. Followed by 2 cases on projected soap and 4 wheeler market in 2020. Round 2: Basic HR questions on weaknesses and anyone apart from me who should make it to AMC. Round 3: Questions on academics (PGDM), ranging from MANAC to economics and MS Excel. Keynesian Vs Classical Types of Costing Lookup in excel Branding General questions on the current education system in India


I was asked to choose an industry of my choice. I chose FMCG sector. I was first asked to give the market size of the soap market in the year 2020. The interviewer was not looking at numbers but at multiple approaches. I gave the income segmentation approach, rural-urban divide approach. He suggested the extrapolation of GDP approach. I also made a point that in the urban market soaps are soon being replaced by shower gels etc.


The interview started on a good note and they liked the way I spoke and conducted myself.


They expected me to suggest the GDP approach myself.


Consulting interviews require you to be able to give a holistic picture of the case presented. Keep the interviewer involved at every step.

Interview Experience 3 Name: Meghana Katiki Company: Accenture Management Consulting Name of interviewer and designation

Vivek Mishra, Ridhima (HR) and one more Senior partner

Brief Profile IIT Kharagpur, Biotechnology, Deloitte Consulting -23 Months Interview questions Round 1: Case and CV

• Explain me one of the projects you took up at Deloitte • Why consulting • Which subjects did you like in term 1

Based on my answer he said link Marketing and Economics. • Explain one initiative you took


Round 2: HR

• What do you like about Accenture • What do you remember from Accenture’s PPT • Did you attend the session by our senior partner, Give

one positive and one negative feedback I handled the negative part very tactfully: starting with slight negativity but ending on a very positive note. Would like to join IB or GTIN. Understand the difference properly. Round 3: CV

• Walk me through your academic background. • Why did you leave something as promising as

Biotechnology for something as mundane as Management consulting.

• Tell me one challenging task that you did I gave the example of a project at Deloitte.


Well a guesstimate was given to me but I never realised it was one. I told about how demand is actually estimated in Apple and how they produce less than the estimation to keep the hype.


I knew from beforehand what they were looking for. I could project all those qualities in some or the other answer. My HR answers were well prepared and reviewed before I entered the interview. I kept a smiling face though one of the interviewers’ kept a shrewd expression on his face. I steered the interview in my way by giving answers of all HR questions based on experiences and stories and talking about things I knew very well so that I could handle the drilling questions.


I took Economics’ name as one of my favourite subjects and couldn’t answer some questions properly.


Any company, any interview, HR answers are extremely important. More so to tailor the answers to the company. It is also important to understand the values and culture of the company and portray a fit in the interview. Accenture’s PPT is very important to them. If you are serious about that company make sure you attend the ppt.


Interview Experience 4 Name Preethi Viswanathan Company Accenture Management Consulting Name of interviewer and designation

Senior Manager

Round Had three rounds of interviews

Brief Profile Electrical Engineering from Anna University; Prior work experience - 11 months as Graduate Engineer Trainee in Larsen & Toubro Ltd, ECC division

Interview questions Round 1: • Some basic questions like tell me about yourself, other

interviews for the day • Why did you choose consulting? • Questions on POR's mentioned in the CV and which I

consider the most important among them • Why Accenture and how do I feel it is different from the

other consulting firms? • I was also asked about my role models • Questions regarding power sector – what are the

problems in the sector at present Case on a pure-play thermal power generator with installed capacity of 2,000 MW in India. The company is making losses in the recent years I went ahead with a lot of questioning regarding the company, type of clients current financial position, current risk exposure in terms of fuel, market etc and the related businesses that the company is already into. I came up with a framework to analyses the profitability using the basic structure of costs and revenues. I first analysed on the cost side considering various parameters like fuel, distribution, overheads etc.


I was then told to focus only on the revenue side. After further probing about the pricing and the sales volume (in MW) , the interviewer indicated that the power was sold only to the government. It was found that the company generated power which exceeded the government's requirement as per the contract with the company. I recommended that the excess power generated could be sold to private players to minimize losses Round 2: HR round Questions on primary skills required for a person in consulting Was asked about which of the skills I have and which I still need to develop Question was again asked about why consulting and why Accenture? Round 3: The Partner asked me about my educational background, my interest in music, my favourite course in Term I. After I told it was marketing, I was questioned on some basics and was asked to explain my marketing project. I was also questioned on some challenges I faced here at IIM L. Questions on work experience were asked maily relating to the role I had at L&T. After that he urged me to ask questions as he felt I have been asked enough. I questioned him about some news which was mentioned in the RG doc about AMC opening an Innovation centre. I further questioned him about the roles offered and the functions of IB and GTIN and sector preference for projects. He explained the answers in a detailed fashion. I was asked to wait for a while, the offer was made and I accepted it.


Explained above



I prepared well for HR answers and was able to answer the questions on consulting well. Thorough knowledge about everything that I wrote on the CV A firm answer about why I wanted to join AMC as it was asked in all rounds of my interview


Nothing that I can specifically point out.


• For AMC, it pays well to know well about what work the company does and some recent happenings that the company was involved in.

• Frame good questions for asking at the end of the interview as my third round was primarily based on that

• Generate a plethora of options when analysing a case. It shows that you can think in multiple directions. In summers, most companies look only for people with ideas rather than skills. Hence, this is the most important phase of a case interview as far as summers are concerned.

• Thorough CV and HR preparation are of prime importance

Interview Experience 5 Name: Salonee Gupta Company: Accenture Management Consulting Name of interviewer and designation

HR Head, Saurav

Round I had 3 rounds of interviews Brief Profile Civil Engineer from Delhi College of Engineering, with 23

months experience in Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. Interview questions Round 1: Some ice breakers like about yourself, walk me

through your CV and why consulting, details about other interests and especially work experience related questions, followed by an elaborate guesstimate, and if you want to ask us anything in the end Round 2: Some ice breakers like about yourself, walk me through your CV and why consulting, details about other interests, followed by if you are comfortable working anywhere and want to ask us anything in the end


Round 3: Some ice breakers like about yourself, walk me through your CV and why consulting, details about work experience, followed by some course related questions from FRA and QAM, and if you want to ask us anything in the end


Guesstimate in the 1st interview: Estimation of Baby Diaper market in India Followed by questions like, what was a major assumption in your estimate, what could have been a better approach for estimation, etc.


My ability to think of different ways to approach this problem, and being able to point out a flaw in my estimate and a solution to that


Could have been a little more structured


1. Take 2 mins to structure your thoughts before starting the estimation. These 2 mins are very critical.

2. Try to think of out of box solutions and recommendations once the problem has been identified.

3. Maintain your calm during the interviews as they check your confidence level.

Interview Experience 6 Name: Shivani Rastogi Company: Accenture Management Consulting Name of interviewer and designation

2 senior partners and 1 HR

Round 3 rounds

Brief Profile Jadavpur University, IT Consultant in PricewaterhouseCoopers for 2 years

Interview questions Round 1: Tell me something about yourself. Had a long discussion on ABG scholarship. Asked a case and a guesstimate. Do you have any questions for me?(this was a long discussion as well) Round 2: Why AMC? Why not go back to PWC? Would you like to work for ops or strategy? Why? Which sector did you like working for in your last job? Some work-ex specific questions. Do you have any questions for me? Round 3: It was not an interview really. Just asked me if I had any questions for her.


They asked me a case they had recently worked on. A Japanese pressure boiler manufacturer wants to enter the Indian market. They make high pressure resistant boilers.


Advice them on how they should enter the market. Approach-They expected me to list the various options like set up a plants in India, export from Japan, enter a JV with a local player etc. Then he asked me to compare the various options based on some criteria I thought best. I chose ROI. So then he asked me to compare for the options in a tabular format, without any numbers, just using High and Low. Guesstimate-No of eBook readers in India Approach-I started with the income level division. Then I went on to percentage of target age (12-40ish). Then with the penetration of laptop and desktop among them (considering they would have at least one of them before purchasing and eBook reader) and he asked me to stop at this.


I think my structured approach to the problems was what worked for me. Also I showed my interest in taking up operations and supply chain courses. This was also appreciated by one of the partners.


I think the interview went quite well for me except when asked about which sector of my work experience I liked working for the most. I tried to show positives in each of the 4 sectors I had worked on and he seemed unconvinced .


Lay out the structure well. They seemed to be more interested in covering the breadth of options rather than drilling down on them. Also they didn’t seem to bother much about numbers and percentages in the case and guesstimate.

Interview Experience 7 Name: Sruthi Nooka Company: Accenture Management Consulting Round 3 Rounds Brief Profile Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Osmania

University, Hyderabad; Prior work experience - 35 months as Business Technology Analyst in Deloitte Consulting

Interview questions Round 1: Questions regarding my prior work experience, nature of responsibilities, reasons for shifting from technology consulting to business consulting Questions regarding my areas of interest(operations in my case) – I was asked to compare the supply chains of apple and dell, HUL and P&G Case on Market expansion for HUL product(Dove) into one of


the north eastern states Round 2: What skills do you think a consultant needs? Which one of those skills do you lack in? Learning from prior work experience, significant achievements I was asked if I attended the pre-placement talk and what I liked the most about it Round 3: Questions regarding work experience – I worked on SAP implementation, so the interviewer asked me to give three reasons why companies go for ERP implementation – a hidden form of cost-benefit analysis case Questions on subjects of Term – I and Term – II: Regarding Microeconomics and Macroeconomics, Prisoner’s Dilemma, a small case on how a business operating in oligopoly can stay profitable, applications of QAM in all areas such as marketing, finance, operations, economics etc.


Problem Statement: What factors should HUL consider if it’s wants to launch one of its products in one of the north Indian states? The interviewer was looking for the approach only and not extensive detailing. Firstly, I clarified on why the expansion is made – for profitability or expanding the customer base I analysed the scenario in three parts – Customers, Company’s capabilities and Competition By analysing the available customer segments and targeting the required segment the demand can be estimated and thus the profitability based on factors such as size, affordability and growth rate of the chosen segment In terms of company’s capabilities its financial and operational capabilities should be considered. Factors such as investment cost, company’s financial position, investment cost as a proportion of the company’s overall cost base should be analysed under financial capabilities. Operational capabilities include resources, availability of channel partners in the new market etc.


Competition analysis determines entry barriers and possible threat from competitors


I have answered questions regarding my prior work experience well and I could explain the reasons for transition from technology consulting to business consulting convincingly. My case analysis went pretty well. In the third round, I have answered all the questions asked about academic subjects with practical applications.


I had to give some impromptu answers for certain questions regarding my previous question. Even though I justified my answers well finally, I could have organised my answers better.


• Know about the company thoroughly. In case you have not attended the ppt, find out the same from your friends who have attended it and try to get as much information as possible from seniors.

• Lot of students have been questioned about academic subjects. So it’s good to brush up on basics before attending the interview.

• In case of students with prior experience, prepare well in advance about your nature of work, roles and responsibilities, nature of projects handled. Be ready with some examples through which you can explain your problem solving skills and leadership skills.

Interview Experience 8 Name: Ashok Patsamatla Company: Accenture Management Consulting Name of interviewer and designation

Senior Manager

Round 2 Rounds

Brief Profile Mechanical Engineering from IIT Madras; Prior work experience - 24 months as Analyst in KPMG Management Consulting

Interview questions Round 1: Some basic questions like tell me about yourself, other interviews appearing for on that day. What is your view on team work in consulting? Do you think it is always important?


Questions regarding my prior work experience, nature of responsibilities and reasons for continuing in consulting industry Questions regarding power sector – what are the problems in the sector at present, recent interventions by the government (SEB bailout package) and my views on the same, Case on diversification strategy for a pure-play thermal power generator with installed capacity of 2,000 MW in India. I went ahead with a lot of questioning regarding the objective for diversification, current financial position, current risk exposure in terms of fuel, market etc and the related businesses that the company is already into. Interviewer indicated that the company wishes to leverage on its current strengths and to hedge current risks through diversification. Financial position of the company is not a constraint. I came up with a framework to cover the entire value chain of the power sector and a basic fish-bone analysis of options at each stage of the value chain. I believe that this stage (option generation) is very crucial and needs to exhaustive. I came up with close to 20 options for diversification during this stage which impressed the interviewer. I was then told to focus only on the immediate upstream and immediate downstream options with just a macro overview of each option. I did a basic investment horizon to benefits analysis for each of the options and finally suggested the following recommendations:

1. Acquisition of a coal mine in Australia/Indonesia since exposure to imported coal was found to be high. Also it can hedge exchange risk (relevant in the current macroeconomic condition)

2. JV with a port developer to save on transportation charges and to benefit from increasing imported coal demand in India

3. Power trading to better leverage the excess thermal generation capacity due to seasonal demand fluctuations

4. EPC player – offer EPC solutions to huge upcoming capacity in India

The interviewer was very much satisfied with this and indicated that there might be a role suited for me for summers.


Round 2: HR round was skipped and was directly taken to Partner round. Round 3: The Partner (Vishwesh) asked me about my educational background, CGPA drop during graduation period, current academic performance at IIM Lucknow in Term I. I justified these aspects to which there was no other additional questioning. Then he asked me about the kind of culture that was prevalent at KPMG and what I did not like about it. He explained in fair detail about the kind of culture at AMC and what made him stick to the firm for the past 15 years. He asked me if I wanted to work on any sector in particular and I expressed interest in working on some academic oriented projects that AMC takes up from time to time on pro-bono or in conjunction with World Bank etc. The partner then told me that he headed a new practice at AMC – the sustainability practice – that deals in such projects. At this stage, the Partner made an offer and I accepted it.


Explained above


My sector knowledge in power helped in fair detail at the option generation stage and I was lucky to have gotten a case in that sector itself. I prepared well for HR answers and was able to answer the question about team work in consulting well. Thorough knowledge about everything that I wrote on the CV


Nothing that I can specifically point out.


• For AMC, it pays well to know well about what work the company does and some recent happenings that the company was involved in.

• Frame good questions for asking at the end of the interview • Generate a plethora of options when analysing a case. It

shows that you can think in multiple directions. In summers, most companies look only for people with ideas rather than skills. Hence, this is the most important phase of a case interview as far as summers are concerned.

• Thorough CV and HR preparation are hygiene factors. • Always smile!


Interview Experience 9 Name: Siddharth Raghuvanshi Company: Accenture Management Consulting Name of interviewer and designation

1. cant recall 2. HR Head 3. Saurav – Partner 4. Alumnus

Round 4 Rounds

Brief Profile :

I have done my dual degree (B.Tech+ M.Tech.) in Computer Science & Engineering from IIT Kharagpur. After that I have worked in FICO as a software engineer for 1 year.


Round 1: It was more of a chit chat round. First, the interviewer asked me – Tell me something about yourself. In my answer, I mentioned about founding and heading 70 member team of Student Welfare Group at IIT Kharagpur & co-founding a start-up named estumart.com at IIT Kharagpur. The interviewer became more interested in my work at Student Welfare Group & he asked me in detail about my work. Then he asked few questions on my start-up like whether it is still working or not, what was the motivation for the start-up & having such a good engineering profile, why didn’t I opt for an MS degree. In the last, he asked me whether I have any questions. I asked about the difference between GTIN & IB profile. First he I told him, what I knew about both the profiles, then there was some discussion regarding why I want to choose IB over GTIN. Round 2: It was with HR. She too started with tell me something about yourself. Then she asked why we should take you. Then she asked why “how do you think you are better than others who are being interviewed now”. Answered all these questions. Then she asked me if I have attended AMC Pre Placement Talk or not. I told her that I have attended it. Then she cross questioned me by asking about the stipend details. Told her. Then she asked “why Consulting”. Then “why Accenture”. Then “what are the core values of Accenture”. Globed the last answer, as I felt core values of most of the consulting firm are similar. Later I found that 4 out of 6 core values, which I answered, were correct. J Round 3: This was the round with the partner. He seemed like a cool person, which gave me an opportunity to ask him the most important question – ‘Tell me something about yourself’. I found that he was working in GTIN. So that gave me opportunity to further ask him some questions like what he thinks is good about GTIN. Do people in GTIN get to work with Indian clients or not. On site opportunity & so on. After that, the partner asked about my favourite course in the Term 1. I told him QAM. Then he


asked me the reason. After that he asked some questions on Anova, I had to tell him that it still has not been taught. Then he asked my next favourite course. I told him marketing management. Then he asked the reason. Told him. Then he asked me some questions on definition of brands. Gave him the answer with some examples. Then he asked me some questions on Micro economics like on demand & supply, how micro economics is different from macroeconomics, definition of GDP, GNP, prisoners’ dilemma & its implication in the industry. Round 4: It was with alumnus. He was the founder of The Consulting & Strategy Club. So he asked me in detail about our work & how do we pitch to a client, etc. It was more of a discussion rather than an interview round.


No cases or guesstimates were asked to me.


I had interest in the consulting. So I have gathered a lot of information about Accenture, their different profiles. The discussions with the interviewers showed them that I had genuine interest in consult work.


My 2nd interview was not that good according to me. I had to globe sometime like in question on core values of Accenture.


The most important thing is that you should be confident enough. Consult interviews are more of a discussion rather than interviews. So take it in that way only. If you have any genuine doubt, you can also ask questions to them. It will be appreciated.


A T Kearney


Interview Experience 10 Name: Nidhi Mehta Company: A.T Kearney Name of interviewer and designation

1st Round : Sidharth Jain , 2nd round : Praveen (Principal), 3rd round Manish(Partner)

Round 3 rounds Brief Profile Shri Ram College of Commerce ( Eco Hons), 13 months work-

ex with Tata Capital Ltd. (Senior Credit Officer) Interview questions Round 1:Tell me about yourself ; post the case I was asked to

give my view on the recent reduction in CRR rates Round 2: Why Consulting ? Round 3: No HR questions were asked. However,The partner asked me if I had any question for him.


Case 1: FICCI is planning to launch a new electric car, It has been proposed that this will lead to a reduction in pollution. Should the new car be launched? Approach : This was a case involving a guesstimate. I first looked at all the stakeholders that could be affected by this proposal including the current car manufacturers. The interviewer however guided me that it is assumed that all car makers will start manufacturing this car. The question then came down to the emissions produced by a regular car and an electric car. I further sub-divided the cars into small, medium sized (hatch backs and sedans) and SUV’s. I also talked about the emission levels being different for diesel and petrol cars. Emission levels depended on the mileage and data was given for the cars and CO2 emission levels. Case 2: I am a steel manufacturer. My profits are decreasing. Help me out. Approach: This was a simple profitability case. I started out by asking him about his business: the no of factories, locations and if profit had been reducing in all of them. I then looked at the revenue and cost heads. I asked him if he wanted me to look at a particular head and he said I could start with revenues. Within revenues I looked at the price and volume. Prices were constant so I began analysing the factors affecting the volumes. I looked at both supply and demand sided factors. Through this analysis I came to know that the competitors had an integrated procurement whereas the client’s cost of raw materials was higher. Also some of the machinery was obsolete. Branding of the steel and delivery time were also issues of concern.I gave


some recommendations such as improving the quality of the steel ,having a branding strategy, giving cash discounts and attractive margins to dealers , looking for alternate suppliers. Working on a backward integration was suggested as a long term strategy. Case 3: Estimate the number of car servicing that take place in India Approach : The partner didn’t want me to get into calculations. He specifically told me to give me the just the approach. I started with estimating the number of car owners .We could divide Indian household into different income categories and estimate car owners. Some percentage of this would be old cars and others would be new. The new ones would probably be under free servicing schemes. The old ones could chose to go to the service centre or chose a local mechanic. The owners of expensive car owners would chose the servicing. Based on this we could estimate average number of breakdowns in a year for different car ownersand the corresponding requirement of servicing. Next we need to estimate the number of accidents as servicing will have to be done in this case as well.


Case 1 : The catch in the case was that the emission levels were higher for the electric car. I could identify that this was because electricity was being generated by thermal energy. I also took into account transmission losses that would happen in electricity generation. I guess what went right was that I took into account all aspects of the case instead of following a narrow approach. Case 2: The interviewer didn’t have a specific problem in mind. He was just looking at the approach and how many areas of concern I could identify. I was comfortable with profitability cases and I guess I structured the case well. Case 3: The case lasted for just 5 mins and it was important to communicate a proper structure.


Case 1 : It was not a typical case so in hindsight I could have structured it in a better way. Case 2 and 3 : Nothing went wrong as such


It is important to stay calm during the case interviews The interviewer will be ready to help you out so it is important to clarify your doubts. Take some time to understand the case question and confirm with the interviewer before proceeding further.


Interview Experience 11 Name: Mohit Agarwal Company: Boston Consulting Group Name of interviewer and designation

Navneet Vashisht, Partner

Round 3 Rounds Brief Profile Chartered Accountant, Graduate from SRCC; Prior work

experience -22 months as Associate in BMR (tax consultant) and Ernst & Young (Transaction Advisory Services)

Interview questions Round 1: Some basic questions like Why consulting and why BCG. Case on acquisition strategy of a large Indian conglomerate looking for diversifying into IT services. 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. However, I think the interview did not go so well. However, I knew I would be given another chance to perform. The interview ended on brief chat with Hindi literature on poetry and short stories. Round 2: The interview was taken by Principal in BCG. Problem Statement – An Indian Cement market share is declining. MA: Define market share? Interviewer: Market share is defined by quantity and sales value. MA: 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 MA: 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. Anyways, he told me to analyze 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

The interview ended with HR questions as to – why MBA after CA, why consulting, why BCG and why not industry after CA. Round 3: The third round was a very brief round. The problem statement was – Whether Uninor bid for the next spectrum auction? 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. At this stage, the Partner made an offer and I accepted it.


Explained above


I think structured approach to the problem and able to articulate it well went right in the interview. Also, I linked the problem to practical situation which helped me in cracking the case.



I was nervous in my first interview; hence initially I went in haywire manner. However, I was told that one needs to perform in 2 out of 3 interviews to get through. I did well in my second interview and hence moved to third round. So in case, you do not do well in one of the interview, it should not matter. It’s important to think clearly and structurally.


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 t he interview.

5. Thorough CV and HR preparation are hygiene factors. 6. Always smile!

Interview Experience 12 Name: Shraddha Gupta Company: Boston Consulting Group Name of interviewer and designation

Rahul Jain, Partner ( First Round) Seema (Second Round)

Brief Profile Economics Honours, St. Stephen’s College No Work Ex

Interview questions Round 1: What drives you to do well at academics? A truck company has just entered India. They want you to design a financing strategy for them. Basically they want to ensure that people who want to buy their trucks will have access to financing. Round 2: The government wants to redesign the way it supplies vaccines to rural areas. What parts of the supply chain will you outsource?


The partner started off by asking me about academics (I had a really high CGPA that time) and I asked him a bit about how he was also one of the top rankers in his time at Lucknow (he’d mentioned this at the BCG dinner earlier). He then gave me the case question. I started by focussing on the different factors that were important for a person to get loans from banks (like creditworthiness, availability etc.) He said the structure was fine but he wanted me to focus more on the link between financing and the truck purchase. So I figured out that I needed to understand their target customers better. We discussed that for a


while. It turned out that there were two kinds of customers (forming 50% of the total each) One was large fleet owners who bought lots of trucks together and had no trouble with financing. The others were smaller ‘players’. They took a loan from a local moneylender and used the purchased truck as collateral. So I suggested we focus on the smaller guys (because they did not have access to traditional financing) and try to get the moneylenders to promote our trucks. He then drew a couple of graphs and asked me to figure out what kind of monetary compensation we could offer the moneylender.


The case was really different from the ones I had done earlier so I really enjoyed it. It didn’t really feel like a case interview at all, felt more like a discussion. I was able to pick up the clues well.


Can’t think of anything.


Try to have fun. Don’t fret too much about how many cases you have practiced.

Interview Experience 13 Name: Wamika Mimani Company: Boston Consulting Group Name of interviewer and designation

Navneet (Partner)

Round First

Brief Profile St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata; B.Com Honours, CA Inter, Fresher

Interview questions He asked me for a quick introduction. We spoke briefly about IIM Lucknow and then he straight off headed to tell me about the interview pattern. He told me that we’d do a case and then move on to discuss any questions I had about the company.


The case was about an Indian conglomerate entering the IT space. I was asked to prepare a detailed market entry strategy at the start. When I outlined that he could opt for a JV, an acquisition or an own set-up, he asked me to probe further into the JV idea. From there on, the case was about identifying specific metrics to ascertain the best JV route. It was a very spontaneous case discussion, and we covered a variety of opportunities, problems and solutions in and around the original problem statement.



I kept my cool. At one point, I realised that he was not getting the specific reply he wanted. Instead of panicking, I asked for a minute, took a step back and reworked the problem successfully. What worked most was the level of engagement with the interviewer. Post the case, we had an excellent dialogue about the sector in which he was working on a case.


I rushed to give a particular answer in the case, which was absolutely unnecessary. It was crucial that I didn’t get nervous after that.


Keep high energy through the interview. Feel confident and remember that, at the end of the day, an interview should most importantly be a good conversation.

Round Second Name of interviewer and designation

Vikram (Principal)

Interview questions He asked me to talk about the past 8-10 years of my life briefly. He told me that he’ll administer a case, and that he didn’t expect me to solve the case. He clearly told me that he was testing me on my approach and the questions I asked.


The case was about a cement company losing market share. It has set up new plants too. There was some amount of data to play with and a lot of technical jargon (which I suspect was to just throw me off track!)


I structured the problem in a very detailed manner. I asked relevant questions and took my time. I also got lucky that intuitively I managed to find the root cause of the problem, though it wasn’t expected out of the case. The rapport with the interviewer was good during and after the case.


Nothing really, I was quite happy with how the interview went.


Look happy, it rubs off on to the interviewer as well! It’s important to practice ample cases so that you’re confident with your problem solving.


Deloitte


Interview Experience 14 Name: Divya Chandra Company: Deloitte S & O Name of interviewer and designation

Senior Manager

Round 3 Rounds Brief Profile Mechanical Engineering from BITS Pilani; Prior work

experience - 10 months in BHEL, New Delhi Interview questions Round 1:

HR round: Interviewer started with his introduction first. Then some basic questions like tell me about you, hobbies. Which all places have you travelled till date? Is travelling an issue? Questions regarding my hobbies and interests. Why consultancy? Round 2: Case Study Round: A case study on Health industry was given. It was related to Hospitals and Clinics in USA. A lot of number crunching was required. Also emphasize on all key points looking at numbers with lots of option generation. Round 3: The Partner asked me about my educational background. Why not finance? Current academic performance at IIM Lucknow in Term I. Why consulting? Scrutinized CV well. After this round, the Partner made an offer and I accepted it.


Case emphasized on a lot of number crunching. A chain of clinics and hospitals were owned by a company based in the USA and were generating losses. A whole set of data sheet was given to analyse. It needed identification of the various problems leading to losses in hospital revenue. Then options to cut down on costs were to be given based on the expenses given in the sheet.


Quick calculations and analysis of data sheet was a plus point. I was able to answer the question why consulting well. Thorough knowledge about everything that I wrote on the CV.


A smile throughout the interview helped.


None.


1. Prepare why consulting question well 2. Be quick in calculations and generate as many options as you

can when analysing a case. Think of out of box solutions to the problems in the case.

3. Thorough CV based preparation is required.


McKinsey & Co.


Interview Experience 15 Name: ANURADHA TYAGI Company: McKinsey & Co Name of interviewer and designation

Round 1: Pradeep (Principal) Round 2: Navtez (Partner) Round 3: Mandar (Partner)

Brief Profile Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University, Economics (Hons), Analyst in the Advisory Practice at Ernst & Young

Interview questions Round 1: Apply Econometrics and other Economics concepts to define the distribution of ticket price between Lufthansa & United Airways if a passenger pays INR 50,000 to fly the route Delhi-Frankfurt-New York. (Lufthansa takes the passenger till Frankfurt and United Airways from Frankfurt till NY) Ans : Bargaining power, occupancy ratios, original ticket costs for standalone routes-Range for Lufthansa is INR (15,000-30,000) & Range for United Airways is INR (35,000-45,000) Round 2: Presentation to the industry about projections of supply & demand of Oil & Natural Gas in India by 2025. Explain all parameters involved in the projections Ans: No clear-cut answer in this case. Was tested on general understanding and ability to tap as many levers as possible Round 3: You seem to be inclined towards Theatre. Let us try and understand the functioning of Kingdom of Dreams, Gurgaon-its profitability and possible recommendations if any Ans: Again, case involved numbers and exploring several factors. I don’t remember the exact answer but the revenues came to approximately 5 crores annually, not too sure.


All three cases stemmed from casual conversations with the respective people. The first one started with talk about my favourite subjects within Economics, the second was after I was asked about my background (my father works with RIL) & the third was when my interest in theatre was questioned. Hence, the point I am trying to make is that please be clear about what you speak because your case can be an off-shoot of the conversation. CASE 1: My questions resulted in me getting details about the occupancy ratios of the two airlines, competitor airlines, routes travelled by both the airlines, preference of passengers etc. The right questions and numbers helped me clarify relevant points & discuss some economics concepts which the interviewer wanted


to see. CASE 2: I was not given any data or prior information and hence had to make assumptions and clarify my logic at each stage. Started with 3 scenarios-worst, expected & good. Went on to explain why demand in this industry would always grow & hence supply should be the focus. Delved into India’s dependence on imports, bureaucracy issues, treaties with other nations-India-Afghanistan pipeline, political scenario of OPEC countries & other oil rich nations like Iran, geologists & their ability to tap the right oil fields, Risk Analysis-Probability & Severity of finding oil in India (this point fetched me great review) & of course, not to forget the regulatory environment in India & Public-private players in the Industry. Some substantial arguments were discussed and I came up with some other parameters & a conclusion. CASE 3: In order to understand the case, I questioned about the revenue levers and what I think was the business model-different shows-main v/s others, footfall, income through business besides shows, peak season etc. Discussed cost levers & made a couple of recommendations based on the parameters.


Structured cases, exhaustive option generation, relaxed & confident personality and ability to build a connect with each administrator in all rounds


Nothing really. I maintained my cool and came across as relaxed and composed for all three rounds. My feedback from the firm while they made the offer was that I managed to keep myself very calm and my cases structured even though at times it seemed difficult.


-Do not give up at any point in time during any case. Sometimes the case may not be your comfort area but you need to drive yourself till the end & that matters -When numbers are thrown at you, keep your cool and work it out without being under any pressure. It’s better to get the right answer than mess up simple math -Practice cases and be clear about HR answers. Nothing should precede the other, give equal importance to both

Interview Experience 16 Name: Harshita Kesarwani Company: McKinsey & Co



R1 - Sambit (EM)/ R2 - Pradeep (Partner)/ R3 - Palash (Partner)

Brief Profile Economics (H), SRCC, 2010 Nomura – 2 years, Fixed Income, Global Markets

Interview questions Round 1: About me and some related questions followed by case. Round 2: About me and HR answers around extra-curriculars, teamwork, initiatives and leadership Round 3: Case on a healthcare product launch with a guess estimate. The twist was that I had to do everything without using pen and paper. This was an interesting new challenge.


Round 1: Case was based on a telecom firm’s tower construction costs which were higher than peers’. This was a stress interview and the guy kept insisting on structure. I think the important part was to keep calm and not to lose patience. Round 2: No case Round 3: Case was on a joint replacement product. As mentioned, it was without pen and paper so focus was all the more important.


Round 1: I think what really worked was patience and smiling through the 40-45 minutes. The feedback I received was that I never stopped myself from thinking through every option which helped in covering every possible bucket. Round 2: I don’t think all HR answers can be prepared and the ones I answered here were some that I had never heard before. What really helped was that I had listed a few situations before Summers week that described key qualities that I would like to talk about in a specific answer. Round 3: Not being familiar with healthcare at all, I think what worked was taking time to understand the product and the market. Also, the case became more like a conversation which helped me solve the case well. The guesstimate was tricky to do only in the head but in the end he was looking only for the approach and not the actual market size figure.


HR answers are supremely important – run answers through people and work on the feedback. Be prepared for any kind of interviewer. Each has their own unique style – keeping calm is the best way to crack the interview.


Interview Experience 17 Name: Karabi Mitra Company: McKinsey and Company Name of interviewer and designation

Can’t recall

Brief Profile I graduated in Economics honours from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, and worked for one year in Google Hyderabad, as an Account Strategist.

Interview questions Round 1: Case based interview ( have narrated below) Round 2: HR based: was asked the following:

1.) Tell me about yourself, in the course of this question, asked me about my family as well.

2.) Why consulting 3.) 2 instances of leadership 4.) Asked about music as it was in my CV that I had taught

the piano. 5.) Also, asked about my work experience.

Round 3: Case based interview ( have narrated below)


The first case was about a pharmaceutical company which had come out with a new eyedrop which cures myopia, and I had to price the product. Here we had to look at alternatives, such as cost of wearing glasses all your life, and the amount you would be spending, and discounting the amount you spend each year. I mentioned the cost of glasses, doctor visits, contacts, also laser surgery etc, to finally compute the price. The second case which I got in the 3rd round, was also about a medical company which was facing a problem of falling profits. Here there were several problems, low productivity, and falling sales as well. Here the sales force was required to convince the doctors about its products, as they would then prescribe the medicines. Important thing here was whether they were targeting the right doctors who had a lot of patients, whether doctors were already loyal to some other company etc.


What worked in all the interviews is that I was quite calm, and the interview was more of a discussion, rather than a question answer interaction. I think it’s best to be frank and just treat the interviewer as someone who is actually interested in hearing about your experiences. As for the case interviews, it is very important to ask questions if you have any queries, and to always let him know why you are making whichever choices and assumptions in the course of the case.


What do you think went wrong in this interview

I don’t think anything went wrong.


Practicing a lot of cases not only with others, but also going through solutions on your own helps a lot. It is important to keep analyzing your mistakes rather than doing a lot of cases. HR answers are probably even more important than the case themselves, so it is important to prepare them well in advance.

Interview Experience 18 Name: Swati Sengar Company: McKinsey & Co. Name of interviewer and designation

Deepak, Partner

Brief Profile B.Com (Hons) from Shri Ram College of Commerce 23 months work experience with KPMG

Interview questions Since it was Deepak’s first interview of the day, he didn’t want to do a case. It was a 20-30 minutes HR interview. The broad questions were: - About work experience ( I focussed on achievements and

initiatives) - About dance (my spike as per my CV: I focussed on

leadership skills, handling failures and motivation skills adopted)

- Biggest failure in life - Conflict management techniques used in teams - Academic performance at IIML (he was referring to my CGP

of term 1) - Life at IIML ( I focussed on my learnings, positive and

negative aspects) Narration of the case interview

No case


Since it was my first interview of the day, I was quite enthusiastic and had a big smile on my face (appearance is very important). I was relieved when Deepak told me that he didn’t want to do a case. I tried to answer in a story-telling format (its important that the interviewer understands the flow of the answer). I believe my energy level was good and I was quite confident while conversing with Deepak (important to note that its a conversation and not a question-answer session).


Before entering the room, a senior had told me that Deepak was in Australia for 2 years so I brought it up in the conversation. Also, Deepak was among the first batch of students who were recruited by McKinsey. I asked him about his experience and he seemed quite emotional about it.


For a few questions like biggest failure in life, I first gave an answer which he thought was an achievement and not a failure. Later, I substantiated the answer with another instance which seemed to satisfy him. I was using my hands a little too much and I think Deepak was getting distracted by the movement.


- Its very important to keep energy level high - Engage the interviewer in a conversation and don’t stop

yourself from saying something by virtue of being the interviewee. Give yourself importance and talk proudly about your past experiences

- Pick up hints thrown by the interviewer - A firm handshake always works and exudes confidence - Don’t freak out and have fun


Accenture Business Consulting


Interview Experience 1 Company Accenture Business Consulting Name: Shalabh Malhotra Round 2 Rounds Brief Profile :

IIT Guwahati, Mechanical Engg., 10 months in NTPC Ltd.

Personal interview questions

1st Round 1. Tell me about yourself. Examples from life to justify for

whatever points you had mentioned. 2. Guesstimation Case 3. Do you like travelling? Which all places have you been to?

(A consulting job requires a lot of travelling. Make sure you justify that you love travelling)

4. What do you know about Accenture and ABC? Which vertical in ABC interests you the most?

2nd Round This round is based on your work-ex. Know your company well and have a good hold on your sector. 1. Tell me about your experience in NTPC Ltd. 2. Why NTPC Ltd. after engineering and why MBA now? 3. Present Power Scenario in India. Difficulties faced by

thermal power plants at present. 4. Future of Nuclear Power Plants. Pros and Cons. 5. Hydro-electric plants and their pros and cons.


Problem statement: You are a private company who has got the contract to install street lights in Lucknow. Guesstimate the number of street lights that will be required and the expected profit you think you can earn. Structure: 1. I assumed Lucknow’s area to be 20km by 20km. 2. I, then, divided the city into a matrix assuming it to be

criss-crossed by #60 20 km roads running horizontally and vertically each.

3. Then estimated an approximate of 30% area to be under forest cover.

4. Divided the roads in the remaining 70% area into roads present in residential and non-residential (commercial + highways) areas. Took an estimate on number of street lights present per km in both these areas.

5. Finally came to a number on the number of street lights taking into account that some places will have 2 lamps on a single post while others will have just 1.

6. After that estimated the product + set-up cost for each street light.


7. Estimated the running charges (maintenance and electricity). Electricity charges would depend on the number of operation hours and watt-rating of the lamp. Maintenance charges and profit margin was estimated.

8. In the end a total estimate of profits was calculated. What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Though I was called for the 2nd interview, I think I didn’t do well in the Guesstimation case (1st round) itself. The 2nd interview was good but I guess they were calling people for the 3rd interview based on both the interviews combined. Prepare for cases and Guesstimation well.

Interview Experience 2 Company Accenture Business Consulting

Name: Binay Jaiswal


4 rounds were held. I don’t remember the specific names of all the people. The first round was taken by Gautam and third round was taken by one of the alum.


1st and 2nd round were case interviews. Third was a work experience specific interview and last was the HR round.

Brief Profile : ( Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc. )

B.Tech in IT from NIT Durgapur

45 months of work experience:

37 months in IBM and 8 months in TCS as SAP ABAP Technical Consultant.

Personal interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Round 1:

The first questioned asked was the number of shortlist on day 0 and the interviewer jumped straight into a slide in his laptop. Basically the slide had plenty of line diagrams. I had no clue what it was about. As we started interacting, I figured out the line diagrams showed number of units sold in a span of 8-9 months.

I was asked to analyse the line diagrams. On further interaction and based on my answers, I came to know the diagrams had the data about the number of units sold by various companies and total number of units sold in each month. The figures didn’t show any consistent pattern and I was asked to figure out why was it so. Basically only thing I could figure out was


the sales showed cyclical nature and the number showed a positive trend just before Oct-Nov and a dropping trend in Jan-Mar.

There was a clear market leader but the sales were decreasing in latest months while there was a fierce competition for the second and the third slot. A detailed discussion took place about who can take the second place and why. Then he asked some FRA question related to the graphs. The discussion boiled down to FIFO/LIFO method and he gave some data for a particular company and I was asked to show the impact of LIFO or FIFO on Profit, COGS, Taxes, and retained earnings.

After that he asked a short case on airline industry and it didn’t revolved around rising oil prices (Aberration of current Market condition). According to the case, one courier company increased the freight charges though there was a decrease in oil prices. My answers revolved around higher interest rates and depreciation which decreased the operating profit of the courier company. But he was looking for something else and the case was supposed to be analysed from demand-supply side (Microeconomics!!!!). With his input we concluded that the business model of freight industry was changing. Companies who used to transport by rail/road now started using Air Freight which increased the demand suddenly and hence the price. Further because of capacity constraint, the Air Freight company bought few new aircrafts and hence wanted to break even early to make the most of current market.

Note: The interview went Ok types. Interviewer expectation was much more and I think I could not handle the Airline case upto his expectation. He wished me good luck for the next round.

Round 2:

I came to know that they have scheduled my first round again as they were expecting more.

The interview started with “How did the first round went”? I said “It was decent but I should have done better”. He asked “would have or should have”? I said “Should have”. “What went wrong” was his instant question. I gave my analysis and he looked satisfied by my analysis (He displayed like thatJ). I was told that this round will have 2 parts: (i) Case (discussed below) and (ii) some general questions


As he was very satisfied with the case analysis, the second part of interview was not much of pain. It was more of a general discussion. As I had work ex in IT industry, I was asked how will I handle management consulting as its very different from IT consulting and required very competent skills. I was also asked about the highest level of client interaction and how I managed them. He specifically asked for one of the CV point which was about interacting with the program director of the US based client and how I managed to convinced him to increase the scope of the development, issues faced and what it took to convince him to approve the increase in man hours effort from 400 to 950.

Few questions about my strengths and how I will handle the clients specifically when I am interacting with CXO level people followed. I was also asked why consulting and whether I would be comfortable travelling after marriage. Overall I had a very good interview.

Round 3

This round was taken by one of our alums. I was asked if I am nervous or excited. I said both and was asked to explain why so. (Good Ice Breaking 5 minutes). I was again asked the number of process I am running for (Other Shortlists!!!). A casual discussion followed like it must be tough running for different process in different parts of the campus.

He was constantly picking up points from my CV and it was more or less work experience related interview. Questions like my greatest failure in life so far and my learning from it, why Accenture business consulting, strengths of Accenture etc. I was asked to compare between Accenture and (i) IBM (ii) Deloitte (iii) McKinsey and few other consulting companies. Why consulting figured again and my fit as a consultant was asked.

I was also asked about my CGPA and relative position amongst PGP1 students. Questions like do you face difficulty studying after 45 months of work ex and how I adjusted, how I manage pressure here etc. followed. I asked three questions to him and a detailed discussion took place.

Round 4

It was HR round which lasted for around 10 minutes. Questions like Why ABC, Consulting, my strengths, best and


worst feedback received in my previous work ex were asked. I was asked about my expectation from ABC. Brief discussion about my POR and CGPA followed.


Problem statement: The case was about decreasing sales of Nano in Kolkata and adjoining areas. Case analysis: Initially we discussed if it was a normal trend in other parts of India or not. If there was any price increased by Nano or any changes with the design which might not have gone well with the consumers. We also spoke about impact of negative publicity like engine failure and instances of fire breaking out in Nano. Marketing strategies of handling negative publicity was also discussed. But the maximum discussion happened around 2 points:

1) As Nano was mainly for people with 2 wheelers, I wanted to understand where the real issue was. Whether consumers are moving to 2.5-3 lakhs priced car like Alto and Zen (few others also) or people with 2 wheelers were not able to buy Nano. I asked about any trend whether any data regarding people willingness to buy Nano (Through Test Drives taken, visits to showrooms etc.) but not actually buying was there or not. After few minute of discussion, I was told that the main issue was people with 2 wheelers are not buying Nano. So the main issue was affordability. I recommended zero % interest rate for EMI for first 2 years of purchase and very minimal ROI after that. We also discussed about the bank Nano should partner with and then he filtered the question to 1 bank only. I opted for SBI as it has branches in adjoining remote areas of Kolkata and people there have higher trust in Govt. banks.

2) We also spoke about the Demand-Supply constraint. If there was any channel conflict. Brief interaction revealed that Nano had only 7 distributors in that part of region and this was a major problem and it should increase by 3-4.


My case performance in the second round went pretty well. The interviewer complimented me about the analysis (though it may not look that impressive above). The structure and thorough conversation helped me sail through and I was told


that I kept the interviewer interested and hooked throughout the case solving phase. After my third round I was also appreciated about my prior work experience and I was told “You had a quality work experience and I appreciate your practical approach of business understanding”.


My first round didn’t go that well particularly the Airline question. I should have interacted more to understand various perspectives rather than being biased with current market situation (Like higher oil price and interest rates which was not applicable here)


1) Stay Cool because it will help you to interact freely and focus on various perspectives which is very important in the case

2) Display a lot of enthusiasm and don’t shy away from talking. Remember Consultant need to do a lot of talking. Just ensure you talk sense on that day.

3) Practise some cases before interviews. 4) Never think that you are out of race. Don’t judge

yourself in the interview. Interviewer might give you chance to bounce back.

5) Higher Work Ex people particularly IT background can’ t get day zero shortlist is a myth

Interview Experience 3 Company Accenture Business Consulting

Name: Mahesh


NA


First (of 3 rounds)

Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc. )

Bpharm

Work experience of 2 years

Personal interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share

1. Tell me something about yourself?

2. Asked me about my role at previous workplace?


them) 3. Why consulting?

4. How did you know Accenture?

HR related questions were asked in the subsequent rounds


Problem statement: A multination firm in oil and gas segment is looking at setting up a green field plant by collaborating with ONGC India. You being one of the directors chosen to work for this partnership what are the most important factors you would look at?

Case analysis: I divided the decisions into HR , operations , finance and marketing related decisions. Since the venture was a new one I focussed on the organizational chart development and the role of director in selecting the right people for higher and middle management roles. I also talked about getting policies with regard to skill set of workers, policy on unions being in place. Talked about setting up a township and hiring a contractor for it as the location is likely to be in a remote area. Also focussed on retaining and hiring of talent.

Marketing function decisions included pricing of product (based on cost estimates of sales force) and sales force for carrying out B2B activities. Discussion on operations was the most important one in this case. I talked about the role of director in hiring a contractor and overlooking the subcontractors used. I also talked about the timelines of the project and suggested a milestone based approach with penalties to ensure that the work gets done. In addition to contract related equipment i focused on the equipment specification to match to the capacity expectations. Aggregate planning with scaling up was also suggested to make the factory operational and to sort out initial issues. I focused on the supply chain related issues to transport the end product to customers.(Suggested pipeline)

Talked about the role of cost accountant in determining the price of the end product and also focussed on selecting an external auditor to oversee the accounting standards.

Structure: Divided the case as per verticals in an organization

A guestimate on the number of streetlights in Lucknow was asked (He asked me to be very short in description and wanted


me to use numbers at every step)

I approached this by assuming Lucknow to be close to a rectangle in shape the dimensions being 20 x 15 Km. Then i assumed the main streets to be passing though lines joining the mid points. I assumed that these roads to be two laned and had the highest density of lights. The next part was about the streets branching out of these streets and i assumed lower density of lights here. Thus i got a series and added them up to get the number of lights.

Other questions

Guesstimate the number of travellers to Antartica

Guesstimate the number of cab drivers in Dehli


Got the structure. I was able to use the ques from the interviewer and could this helped in approaching the case better.

After the discussion gave 3 points on which a director needs to focus


Should have organized the points in each vertical in order of their importance.


Ask for clarifications to the interview if needed. Practice a lot of cases with your peers.

Be clear about ‘Why ABC’?


Interview Experience 4 Company The Boston Consulting Group

Name: Abhir Bhomavat


Principal

Round First

Brief Profile :

BITS-Pilani Goa Campus (8.73 – Electronics and Instrumentation, Fresher with an internship at J.P. Morgan Investment Banking)

Was a convener on the council during my under graduation.

Institute rank 2nd at IIM-L in the first term with a GPA of 9.4


1. Are you clear about your decision between IB and Consulting?

2. Why consulting 3. Why BCG?

I had a well prepared answer for all these questions


Problem statement: The client is a company that manufactures an interactive educational tool. It is basically something as big as a blackboard fitted in the classroom and has touch screen interactivity. What do you think is the scope of this product and what are the other things that the company can do in the field of education to increase its revenues (to 1000 Cr)?

Case analysis: I first tried to understand the product properly.

Q. Does the company make any other products?

Ans: No

Q. What is this particular product used for majorly? To teach what?

Ans: English language

I was trying to build a structure at this point when he interrupted me by asking me if I had understood the question. I felt he was trying to put a bit of stress. He then asked me to explore what all are the options that an educational tech


company in India could explore.

Q. Are we looking at only classroom services or online as well?

Ans: Upto you what you want to look at

I built a structure which split into Classroom learning and online learning. Then further split classroom learning into providing education material and products (like the one the client makes). In online I split it into videos and material.

He was happy with this basic structure. He then asked me that the client was focusing on language needs of people. So he asked me to estimate the demand of the English language learners. He then asked me to estimate how many such are those who already have a source to learn and how many are wanting to but do not have a source and what should I target?

I started with the metro population in India. Roughly 14mX4 = 56m. Then divided it by the age group. I dint plug in any figures. I just made the initial tree. I told him that I would plug in the figures later. Age group of 16 and less who are going to schools.

He then asked me why I have not considered adults who want to learn English.

Then I considered that as well.

He then asked me why I have not taken into consideration those who do not know that they want to learn English. I didn’t understand what he meant, so I asked him to explain. He told me that a domestic maid is latent demand because she doesn’t know that she want to learn English (got kind of philosophical at this point)

So he asked me to factor that in as well. He asked me how we can make them use an online medium when they do not have basic education in the first place.

Summary:

He helped me a lot with the case. Infact he gave me the 2 most important points of adult demand and latent demand. Overall I found the case to be very tough and ambiguous. He kept on asking me if I understood the question which made me lose confidence many times.

What do you think I was passionate about the education industry like I had


went right in this interview?

mentioned. I also was not put down by his comments of “have you understood my question”. He didn’t give me much time to think, but I still managed to build a structure with all the ambiguity in the problem. I feel he was judging the different ways in which I could think since it was a pretty open ended and highly unstructured case to start with.


At first I didn’t understand why he was focusing on the demand of English language. I should have taken into consideration of adults as well. I was looking at only school children. I was very nervous since it was my first interview of the day and was also the very first for BCG in the morning. The interview was shorter than I anticipated.


Please make sure of what you say in the initial HR questions. I had mentioned that I liked teaching. That was the reason why picked out this case for me. So please make sure you can show the passion for a particular interest that you have mentioned.

Be calm during the case. He will help you out for sure. It is important to be persistent and keep going at the problem.

Round Second


1. Are you convinced about consulting vs. IB? 2. Why do you want to do consulting and not IB? 3. Tell me something different/interesting about yourself. 4. Have you worked on live projects? If so tell me one in

which you used a completely different approach. Ans: I spoke about a project that I had done during an intern at a CSIR lab after my 2nd year of engg. It was highly technical and involved FEM in the field of Biophysics. He asked me what I did differently. I explained it to him in layman terms. He was very impressed with my answer.


Problem statement: A financial services company (NBFC) that has entered India few years ago wants to know whether it should continue in India or not? Case analysis: Q. I asked him the relative position of the business viz-a-viz its peers. Ans: It is not very high. Somewhere around 6th.


Q. What are the different businesses? Ans: Mutual funds – debt and equity, Asset management, etc. Equity fund is not performing as well as its competitors. Debt is on par Q. What is its target market? Ans: HNIs with income of INR 5Cr + I had made a brief structure earlier in which I had said that I would like to explore 3 things. The historical performance of the fund, Its competition, and the third thing was future growth in India. He gave me some details on the historic performance and all. He also told me about the competition. I was then asked to make a decision of whether to continue in India. I told him based on the future growth story they should remain in India. He wanted me to ask the growth rate of HNIs in India. He then gave me those figures. Q: He then asked me what all problems they could face. Ans: Very volatile equity markets, major source of HNI money is black so we can’t capture the entire growth in HNI. Competition could outdo us. If interest rates fall, investors would want to invest abroad. I gave a few more options that I can’t recall right now. Summary: The case was very straight forward. Basic questions needed to be asked. I had expressed an interest in finance so I was given this case.


He was very impressed with my HR questions. That gave me major confidence. The case was simple and need a proper structure initially which I provided. He was impressed with the option generation as well.


I forgot to ask him the growth rate of our target market (HNIs).


Prepare HR answers really well. My case was something which anybody would have cracked but the differentiating part was the HR answers.

Round Third

Personal interview 1. Tell me about yourself


questions 2. Why does consulting excite you? Was well prepared for these.


I had 2 cases in this interview. 1st case: Problem Statement: A taxi driver (black and yellow taxi) asked me if he should move to a radio cab in Delhi. Analysis: I was a simple case of cost-benefit. Split into revenues and cost. Cost split into fixed (maintenance and insurance) and variable (fuel) I asked him the km each car run in a day, the mileage, the cost per liter of diesel. Charge/km. Made the comparison and gave him the answer. He asked me what else I should consider. I told him that the taxi driver had more freedom owning his own cab. But in the radio cab he won’t have to worry about depreciation of the vehicle. I also told him that owning his taxi may be a matter of prestige for the driver. 2nd Case: Should a PE fund buyout Infosys? Case analysis: Q. I asked him what the private equity fund was looking at : Stake purchase or complete buyout? Ans. Complete buyout He asked me how a PE can gain out of buying Infosys. I told him that the PE would have board members and would provide guidance and expertise along with the funding support. Q. How long is the PE looking to invest in Infy? Ans. 5 years Q. what is rate of return that infy will give in 5 years


Ans: 20% At this point he asked me will the PE be able to increase the profits of infy? I told him that we could better management and expertise from the PE end. He said that the PE would not be able to manage Infosys better that what it already was. Q. Will the PE be able to bring in new outside business? Ans: no Q. Will the PE be able to generate more than the expected 20% revenue for Infy? Ans. No At this point he told me think of it from an IB perspective. He told me that if infy can be bought for say Rs 100 and would be worth Rs 120 after 5 years, it’s not a big deal. The PE would not be interested in something like this. So why would a PE look to invest? I luckily had some prior knowledge of Infy (0 debt on its balance sheet and a hell lot of cash) So I told him that the entire source of funds was only equity. So the PE could buy the equity and then pay off dividends to it (since INFY was cash rich) or else raise debt for leverage. Q. Will the growth remain 20% even if I raise debt? Ans: yes So I told him that if INFY raises debt of Rs 100, Firm value would be roughly Rs 200 and growth would be 20% -> Rs 240. Therefore the PE would make 40 on its initial Rs 100 -> 40%. He was looking for a solution like: Buy it for Rs 100. Replace Rs 50 of equity by raising debt. And then sell it for Rs120 5 years later. So effective gain would be Rs 20 on Rs 50 which is still 40% Q. What is this mechanism called? Ans. Leveraging He spoke a bit about LBOs then.


The extra information I had on Infosys was something he was very impressed with. He liked the fact that I was persistent in the PE case. I was thinking of different options. He led me to a solution.

What do you think I didn’t get the hint of him leading me to an LBO based


went wrong in this interview?

solution even though I knew what an LBO was.


Be confident and be persistent. Keep on going at the case even if you are stuck

Interview Experience 5 Company The Boston Consulting Group Name: Arjun Bhaduri Name of interviewer and designation

Arvind Pandey, Partner and Director

Round First Brief Profile :

B.Sc (Economics Honors) from St. Xavier’s College No work experience


1. Why should BCG select you? This was a pressure question because everything I said seemed to displease him. I just tried to match my personality with BCG and that seemed to work for me.


Problem statement: A cement manufacturer based out of East India has been seeing his prices in east India dip heavily in the past few months. Despite being the market leader, he seems to be unable to arrest the fall in prices. The aim as a consultant lies to raise the prices by 10% and find a strategy to make sure the prices do not fall so easily again. Case analysis: This was a very complex case with multiple problems and solutions with each having a different set of pros and cons. He wanted me to see the case from a simple demand and supply point of view. Structure: The supply was overshooting demand in the market as a result of the actions of competitors. So the issue was also to do with the distributors in the middle and how brand consciousness would come into the scene. The structure could be simplified to a 2*2 matrix with price elasticity of demand and brand consciousness on the axes. The issue could be then simplified on the basis of the quadrant in focus.


Summary: Overall, the issue was embedded in being able to use game theory with the distributor and play prices up and down at regular intervals. Another strategy was to enter into forward contracts.


Calmness and common sense was the key.


Was a little nervous at the beginning of the interviewing as a result of the complexity of the case.

Round Second


1. General conversation for about 5 minutes? The interviewer was very calm and reassuring and that helped me build the conversation.


Problem statement: A local taxi driver in Delhi wants to explore the possibility of signing a contract with a radio taxi service. Help him with his dilemma

Case analysis: This was a case that really tested your ability to think far and wide because the math was simple but the underlying logic could have been missed very easily

Structure:

Used a simple revenue-cost structure for the pre and post radio taxi phase. Then tried to see if any of the key variables could be modified to come up with a different result.

Summary:

The case had two parts- one was the initial decision and the decision after changing a key variable.


Thought simple and picked up the cues very well.

What do you think went wrong in this

Failed to see the obvious solution the first time and needed a little pushing in the right direction.


interview? Round Third


1. Asked my questions about my tastes in food? 2. General discussion on football and tennis and we spoke

about our favorite stars from each of them. More than anything else, this was an amazing conversation where I could speak without any fears and inhibitions.


Problem statement: A life insurance company in Sri Lanka is losing out on market share. Where does the problem lie?

Case analysis: The case was a test of structure to see if you could create one with all the levers enlisted.

Structure: The market share could be seen as a function of number of policies sold and the revenue per policy. The discussion would then carry on the aspect of number of policies. The number of policies itself would be a function of a number of factors, out of which one of them was creating an issue. Summary:

The toxic area was something to do with the insurance policy salesman and the entire structure had to be panned out so as to get to that


Was highly energetic and logical in my approach.


I rushed through the case in parts.


Be calm, logical and energetic. That is all you need to impress the interviewer.


Interview Experience 6 Company The Boston Consulting Group Name: Aman Bhatnagar Name of interviewer and designation

Pranay Mehrotra, Partner & Director

Round First Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc. )

IIT Delhi Electrical Engineering (B. Tech) Entrepreneur, 17 months

Personal interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

1. Started with discussion about Tintin, Herge, literary quizzing, went on to about yourself, gave his introduction and a chocolate, clarified on why it took so long to get to see me

2. Interested with Manchester United, talked about playing vs. watching football vs. gaming for a bit


Problem statement: Client is a life insurance agency in Sri Lanka facing declining market share Case analysis: Market leader, no.2 and no. 3 growing in dominance, Market growing, they didn’t release a particular policy, don’t give enough incentives to their agents which other firms are capitalizing on, Structure: Broke it down into their business structure, understood how they operate, tried to find loopholes in each step Summary: Was asked to stop after explaining the approach and asking two or three questions, BCG vs McKinsey took over, spirited discussion regarding pros, cons and discussion I had with Gautam Kumra at McK, after debates and stressing the people point, we called it a day.


Confidence, at ease, conversational tone and mode Relating with the interviewer, leading the interview


Take hints, explain approach.

Round Second



Arvind Pandey, Partner


Talked about himself, food, asked about experience till now, outlined that we’ll start with a case and then move on to any doubts I have about BCG


Problem statement: Leading cement manufacturer is facing declining profits; prices have halved in the last few months and facing decreasing prices further as well. Suggest emergency measures for next few weeks. Case analysis: Spoke about the business, market, the competition and how everyone else was coping. Talked about how the business worked; distribution and sales network, retailers and incentives and breakup in terms of branded, unbranded cement. Twist in the case, BCG says increase prices; profits fall by 12% more and take a hit. Now what? Structure: Value chain + market scenario, focused on issues like rising costs, raw material sourcing, manufacturing difficulties, expansion possibilities but were discounted. Went on to retailers and distribution and his eyes lit up, literally. Focused on region wise distribution, why there were discrepancies in individual dealers selling different quantities given same consumption patterns, focused on price prediction patterns and inventory holding practices by different retailers. Summary: Was stopped after this, talked about BCG, consulting as a career and how the partner found his calling, how BCG contributes in making real change in the world




I was informed later it was a stress interview. Since I got offers from both firms, seems best to be clear, calm and logical on the day and not let anything bog you down, least of all, the pressure and reputation.


Interview Experience 7 Company The Boston Consulting Group Name: Mustafa Rangwala Name of interviewer and designation

All interviewers were with partners

Round First Brief Profile :

Did B.Tech in Electronics Engineering from VJTI. Worked in JP Morgan for 21 months


Asked me why I wanted to join Consulting and not stay in finance as my CV was fin-oriented. Also asked I whether I would join McKinsey or BCG (Be ready with the answer to the last question as it is going to be asked).


Problem statement: The client is a financial services company. It has started a wealth management business five years earlier. The business is not performing nicely. Should the company keep on making on investments in this or exit. Structure: First asked about the industry. The industry was growing but the company was losing share. This meant that the problem was with the company. Structured to find about the revenue and cost structures of the industry and the firm in particular. Tried to gather as much background information on this as possible. Talked about training the employees, any new adverse regulations, competitor offerings, etc. In short covered a lot of different angles. Finally he asked me to give 10 recommendations to solve the problem. This was difficult as we had barely discussed the case for 10 minutes. Took 5 minutes to write down my suggestions. Structured my answer in three areas: Customers, employees and business improvement. Gave 3-4 suggestions in each bucket.


I was able to give 10 recommendations which required a lot of idea generation


Idea generation requires a lot of practice. Make sure you do abstract cases which involve idea generation. Also have questions for the interviewer ready for at least 3 rounds of the process.


Interview Experience 8 Company The Boston Consulting Group

Name: Vinay Doshi

Round First

Brief Profile :

UG : Shri Ram College Of Commerce (2011)

Stream: Economics

Work-ex: 0 months


Just a little chat about where you’re from, what you like doing and stuff. Of course, it began with the quintessential -“Why don't you tell me something about yourself?”

Well, the simple approach I took to answering this question each time was to link the major points on my cv and answer “Why you for BCG?” I do not think speaking about only one particular instance or event is a very good idea, unless of course, the interviewer himself/herself probes the area


Problem statement: About a potato chip manufacturing company


Well I didn’t really end up “cracking the case” as well i could have. That was really a big negative I thought. But i hindsight, the fact that i got an offer only affirm that there is no such thing as “cracking the case”- they only judge your approach to problem solving, and as you very well know there is no one correct solution


I really made a connect with the interviewer I felt. Let him do more of the talking bit as i sat listening. It really helps, because in the end, the interviewer will inevitably end up dropping those crucial hints that shall help you reach a conclusion.


You really need to be calm and only then will the analytical skills and creativity really show. But do not worry - the interviewer shall go out of his/her way to make you feel so.

Just be you and try to establish connecting with the


interviewer. A smiling face comes in handy too.

Also, there is a lot of buildup on campus to the start of day zero- just remain calm during that time. It’s easy to feel over pressurized, especially with all the short-lists coming in, but just relax. It’s going to be fine.

Round Second


1. Although the partner did not ask me any questions specifically, I started talking to him about his day, job and used this as an opportunity to highlight the points in my work experience which I wanted to share (remember they will not always ask you everything and do ensure that you connect it wherever possible)


Problem statement:

The client is a large cement company with the highest market share. The second close player is cutting prices. To match the prices the client has also reduced its prices and is facing declining profits. The client has given us 3 weeks to solve the problem.

Structure:

I asked him about the dynamics of the industry. He explained that there is not much difference between the products as well as the cost structures of the company. This meant that even the competitor is losing money by the price war.

I suggested 2 alternatives to solve this: first involved analysing the cost structure and trying to reduce costs. But the interviewer told me that the client has used all the cost efficiencies possible (this indicates that the interviewer does not want me to go deeper).

Second option that I suggested involved was the Game Theory approach. This involves indicating to the competitor that we will not reduce our prices even if he does so. This I suggested could be done by issuing some way of communication to the competitor. But he said that the competitor is not willing to talk. I could not think of what could be done so he suggested


that the client should increase the prices. This will show to the competitor that the client is serious.

Then the interviewer said that after one week, the sales of the client had declined drastically and the competitor had not reduced its prices. This created a problem of inventory.

To solve this data was collected geographically and analyzed. It was found that some dealers had reduced the stocks of the clients cement. The clients did this as they expected the price increase to be temporary and thus wanted to postpone the purchase. I suggested increasing the prices again. This will signal to the dealers that the price increase is not temporary.

Finally he asked me to give some suggestions about the same. I suggested that the dealers should be given discounts based on the average volumes they generate every week and month. This will help in inventory planning. Secondly whenever the price is increased they should be increased all at once and any decrease should be spread over a larger period. This will not allow competitors and dealers to pre-empt the client.


I was able to get the fact that the problem related to Game Theory.


The case had only one solution but I could not exactly pinpoint that


Even though the ideas might sound outlandish, get them across, they will give you the benefit of thinking out of the box. Try to involve the interviewer in the case as much as possible, if he is interested he will point you out more and more in the right direction.

Round Third


Started directly with the case. At the end of the case asked me about LBO (Leveraged buyout) and asked me to give an example in the Indian markets


Problem statement:

I was travelling in a taxi when the driver asked me about


switching his car and joining the radio cab service such as Meru. What is your advice?

Structure:

I said that we will compare the profits of the two methods and make our decisions based on that. I asked about the revenue and costs of the two and calculated the profit.

I proved that joining the radio cab was better. But the interviewer told me that was the wrong answer. He asked me to go back.

I took the current taxi and approached the different line items one by one. I suggested that if the driver installed an AC he will be able to charge more. But the interviewer asked me to suggest something else.

If the engine of the cab (which was currently diesel) could be replaced by CNG (the radio cab used CNG) the fuel cost reduced drastically making the current cab more profitable. I showed him the calculations.


I was able to get to the required answer.


He expected me to get to the answer much quicker.


Try to be receptive to the hints given by the interviewer in the process. They are extremely important to get to the solution quickly.


KPMG


Interview Experience 9 Company KPMG Name: Abhishek Mani Tripathi Round 3 rounds of case interviews Brief Profile : NIT Trichy, ECE, 2years Analog Devices Personal interview questions

1. Why Consulting? 2. Why KPMG? What are your expectations from the internship programme? 3. What would you do for conflict resolution 4. Questions for the interviewer


Problem statement: Round 1: A company which has a market share of 60% saw reduction in its revenue for last 3 years due to intense price competition. Competitors are reducing prices and the company is not able to compete since cost of production is higher than prices quoted by competitors. Machinery employed for production is old and labor costs have been rising over years. Customers have been very loyal to the product. Round 2: A multinational insurance company wants to enter into Indian market. They offer life insurance, general insurance and fire and damage insurance. Company has been offering insurance in its parent country through online mode. Round 3: A company wants to set up an automobile manufacturing unit in India. Do a cost-benefit analysis for the company. I was not allowed to ask questions in this round. I tried to analyse this case taking into account factors like location, government regulations, market size, availability of labour, transportation etc. ( Time limit : 3 minutes ) Case analysis: First case : I proposed that since machinery has not been replaced since years, quality of products has degraded. Secondly, competitors have reduced their prices by outsourcing it to countries like China. Second case :


Analyse it by separating life insurance, general insurance and fire and damage insurance. Give inputs on mode of delivery (online mode is not very feasible in Indian scenario). Also, take into account role of brokers and agents in case of fire and damage insurance.


I was able to provide solutions to first 2 cases and the interviewers looked satisfied but couldn’t do well in third case


Was not able to provide a good solution to third case


First of all read complete case carefully. Ask questions and try to get as much information as possible. Communicate your answers to interviewers and keep them involved.

Interview Experience 10 Company KPMG Name: Rashik Gupta Round There were 4 rounds and each round followed a similar

pattern – HR questions followed by a case Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc. )

BITS-Pilani, Chemical Engineering, 8 months at ZS Associates


1. Tell me about yourself 2. Do you know about the work that KPMG does 3. Experience at IIM Lucknow 4. Describe the project that you did at ZS Associates – This question was followed by many questions about my project 5. Short-term and long-term goals 6. Personal goals in life


The only thing they were looking was how you structure your analysis and your line of thinking. They were not looking for any detailed analysis and in all the cases I was stopped after I had discussed my overall approach. Case 1: Problem statement: Samsung has come up to you with a business proposition i.e. they want to start an insurance company for electronic goods.


How will you help them? Case Analysis: The only thing they were looking was how you structure your analysis and your line of thinking. I started with asking questions about the new business model to extract some information like target customers,, how is the value proposition different from a warranty, how much can Samsung expect to charge its customers for insurance. My first step was to analyze the business model and establish the financial feasibility. This was followed by target customers – who are the target customers and are they sufficient to justify investment and why will they be interested in our product. Third step was to deal with operational issues of providing this product. Case 2: Problem statement: A foreign bank wants to open its branch in India. They have hired you as a consultant. How will you approach this? Case Analysis: My first step was to inquire about the bank. So I asked them about their current scale of operations, countries where they are operating, their market share and reputation among clients. I then explored what are the different areas of banking where the bank can start its operations and based on the answers to above questions, narrowed down on 1 area. Next step was to deal with operational issues, how they will start operations. I focused on 2 questions in this:

1. Who will be the customers immediately after starting? 2. How will be getting those customers and build

trustworthy relationship with them? After an approach was finalized to start operations, I also briefly discussed how they will proceed in short term to expand their business in India. Case 3: Problem statement: You want to open a petrol pump. Proceed. Case Analysis:


In this case, my questions were not answered and I was told that it is your business, make necessary assumptions. So I took up 3-4 options like highways, a busy market in a city and similar other options. Then I followed a guesstimate approach for calculating the demand in these locations. Comparison of demand or revenues with investment gave me the best possible option for the petrol pump. Case 4: Here they followed a slightly different approach. Before the case, I was told that no questions will be allowed. I have to make necessary assumptions by myself and I have 5 minutes to present my ideas and they won’t allow me to complete if I am not done in 5 minutes. Problem statement: A US car manufacturer wants to setup a plant in India. You are hired as a consultant. Help them. Case Analysis: I started with stating my assumptions to make sure that all of us are working in the same framework. My assumptions were:

1. They already export their cars to India: This helped me to simplify my case as now I am aware of my target customers and what is my position in the market. Also I know how my product is viewed in Indian market.

2. It is amongst the biggest car manufacturers of US: This simplified the problem of establishing trust among customers as the company was a big brand name and enjoyed a good position in the market.

So I started with the reasons of investing in India. Possible reason can be increase in demand and lost sales because imports are not able to meet demand or increase in competition and therefore for reducing costs, I have to operate in India rather than import my cars. I stated all the possible reasons and assumed one reason to be the valid one for further analysis. Let’s say the reason is increase in competition. So we have decided that the motive of investing in India is to reduce costs. Now next step was to decide on a location that will help me in this regard. So I looked at 2 possibilities for this.

1. My customers are uniformly spread throughout India.


In this case, my only concern about the location will be investment costs i.e. cost of land, cost of setting up a plant etc. and the tax rebate that I will get from state government.

2. I have most of my customers located in a particular area. In this case, I must strike a balance between above mentioned investment costs and my logistics costs i.e. plant must be located close to my biggest market.

Since the reason for investing in India is increased competition, my last step was to analyze how I will use my cost savings to deal with competition. I analyzed pros and cons of different options mentioned below:

1. Increase my marketing budget to attract customers 2. Decrease prices by passing on the savings in

manufacturing to customers 3. A mix of both the strategies


Case analysis is very important. Make sure that you prepare a structure and show them the structure of analysis before starting.


Mckinsey & Co.


Interview Experience 11 Company McKinsey & Co. Name: Aman Bhatnagar Name of interviewer and designation

Rajat Dhawan, Partner

Round First Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)

IIT Delhi Electrical Engineering (B. Tech) Entrepreneur, 17 months


1. About yourself – one of my interests is TED talks, talked about the model of TED, how it works, qualities I talked about resonated with consulting, led the interview from there on, asked about mood on campus, preferred recruiter, dream jobs 2. Consulting fits, where do you see yourself in McKinsey, your career goals, 10-15 years down the line? 3. Talking about the AIR 147 in IIT-JEE, coaching institutes, and then questions to him


Problem statement: NA – No case




Relax. Be yourself. Talk like you would to a senior colleague at a swanky restaurant when it’s his treat.

Round Second Name of interviewer and designation

Gautam Kumra, Senior Partner


1. About yourself – about TED talks, structure of TED, about my venture, how it started up, how it evolved, current state, future plans

2. Told him about a question Rajat asked, discussed about that for a bit, and then he asked about other offers, shortlists, interest in finance etc.

3. Questions about BCG vs McKinsey, detailed discussion on Collaborative team spirit, Evaluation patterns, presence in almost all sectors where other firms are next to absent e.g. Healthcare, Impact in terms of setting up organizations like the ISB, PHFI, dealing in a scale which others could never hope to achieve, always being the innovators, the trailblazers as well as facts about compensation.



Problem statement: NA – No case



Interview Experience 12 Company Mckinsey & Co Name: Tejas Choudhari Name of interviewer and designation

Mr. Sikka, Associate Partner

Round 1st Round Brief Profile :

BTech(IT) from VJTI, Mumbai Fresher


1. Tell me about yourself. I had practiced this answer many times so was able to say it fluently and perfectly 2. Asked questions about my entrepreneurial venture and what was my role in it. Current situation of the venture and future prospects. General questions, nothing specific 3. Some questions on my cricket career during school and college


Problem statement: As he was talking to me about cricket, he started talking about how we could estimate cricket ball sales in the country for one year. Basically, I was given a guesstimate first up. Case analysis: First, I confirmed whether he was talking about leather cricket ball. Thereafter, I started talking about where a cricket ball will be used and who will buy a cricket ball. At each juncture, I kept on checking with Mr. Sikka so as I’m not deviating from the solution. Then I told him that I would estimate sales of cricket balls for Mumbai and then extrapolate it to the whole country. I calculated number of matches played in one day by estimating number of grounds in Mumbai (having played on most of the grounds, it was easy for me). Then I separated one day matches and 20-20 matches as one day match requires 2 balls and 20-20 requires 4 balls(As two 20-20 matches are possible on a single pitch in one day). Also, considering that each ground hosts practice session 2 times a day and this will also contribute towards the sales.


Then he stopped me and said fine. He did not go into depth of the guesstimate as it could have got complicated with other parts of the country to be considered for contribution towards the sales of cricket balls.


I was able to connect with the interviewer. I asked him questions on which we spoke for 15 minutes and he seemed interested.


No idea as such. I guess he needed something more from the guesstimate. More number crunching could have helped.


Please practice your cases as well as guesstimates. Also, know your CV in and out. Always connect with the interviewer.

Interview Experience 13 Company McKinsey & Co. Name: Amit Deshpande Name of interviewer and designation

Rajat Bhargava

Round First


We started the interview by talking about the video conferencing facilities in IIM L, since there was a VC setup in the interview room. We talked about it for a while and then we started the interview. He asked the most standard question: tell me something about yourself. I gave him a long and descriptive answer since he wasn’t engaging me much. We ended up talking about badminton since both of us were badminton players.


Since I am passionate about badminton, he asked me to estimate the no. of badminton courts in India. I started off by dividing India into rural and urban areas, and confirmed with him that I can ignore the rural areas for this guesstimation. I divided the urban areas further into tier 1 and tier 2 cities, and started with Mumbai as an average for tier 1 cities. The rest of the case was pretty straightforward, since I took an average number of people per badminton court and multiplied it by the population. I took a percentage of the number in case of tier 2 cities to arrive at the total number.


Structure was good. I clarified key assumptions with the interviewer before proceeding.

What do you think I overestimated the total number the first time, but corrected


went wrong in this interview?

the number after a reality check.


Draw out an MECE structure before starting analysis of the case. Reality checks are essential.

Round Second


Amit Kheda


The interviewer was extremely informal. He was talking how weird the interview process is these days, as compared to the process in his days. We talked about how big the interview room was and how difficult it is to focus while sitting in a comfy couch! He didn’t ask me any personal questions since he said he had already been through my CV a million times.


The case was about a fertilizer manufacturing company based out of the US which was receiving complaints regarding its poor customer service. I started by asking details about the company, its operations, its customers, the competitors and the market in general (barriers, trends etc.). After the initial questions, I realized that the problem was in the supply of fertilizers to the customers (which were 5 major distributors across the US). So, I broke down the case into the supply value chain, i.e., raw materials (procurement and transportation), manufacturing process and inventory handling. This led me to the problem which was their inventory handling methods. Specifically, the demand estimation was way off; they estimated demand on an annual basis and it was a word-of-mouth contract with the customers. Besides, despite geographical variations within the US, the demand was estimated by one sales team centrally. This was the key issue and I got to it pretty quickly. The pace of the interview was very fast and the interviewer did not let me talk for long periods of time; basically he was testing me on my speed of option generation. I thought I did pretty well and suggested seasonal demand estimation based on geography and that the contracts with customers should be on paper.


Good case overall. I got the structure right which helped me arrive at the solution fast.


Nothing really. However, I really had to think on my toes because the interviewer was constantly interrupting me and trying to disturb my thought process.

Round Third



Gautam Kumra


Very serious interview. He was completely straight-faced right from the word goes. Immediately asked me to tell him something about myself. After hearing me out, he asked me to tell him something about my work experience at the Bain Capability Centre. This part went pretty well.


He didn’t really give me a case. He asked me which sector I followed in India, to which I replied the retail sector. We then entered into a discussion into the retail sector in India. I had very little sector knowledge and retail was my best bet. SO after giving him some facts that I had read, he asked me what a retail company think should about while entering the Indian market, i.e., the key success factors. I told him that we should consider the target customer segment, the product offerings, the retail format and the locations. The interview was pretty OK till this point. However, then he started getting into details. He asked me what a company should do to compete with the huge unorganized sector, and wasn’t convinced with my answer. I knew that I’d blown it. Finally he ended the case and asked me if I had any other shortlists before I left.


HR answers.


Everything else. Sector knowledge let me down.


Please prepare one sector thoroughly, not just facts, but to have a business opinion about it.

Interview Experience 14 Company McKinsey & Co

Name: Srinath Nagarajan


Gautam Kumra, Partner


First

Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details,

Chartered Accountant, BCom(Hons) from SRCC, Delhi University. Prior work ex as a Tax Consultant with Ernst & Young, a Visiting Faculty at St Josephs Colleger, Bangalore


etc. ) and then as a Ratings Analyst with CRISIL Ratings


1. Tell me about yourself – Had a 1 minute intro prepared highlighting specific aspects about myself that I wanted to bring to his notice

2. Tell me what you did in CRISIL – I explained that I was engaged in assigning Credit Ratings to Corporates under Basel II Regulations

3. How would you go about Rating a Company, lets say Bharti Airtel Because it was Bharti Airtel I had to give an answer tailored to what the approach would be for a Telecom company would be. While answering I was conscious of 2 things – One, that I have a clear structure to my answers and Two, tried to keep it as simple and jargon free as possible. 3.1 (An Offshoot from something I had mentioned in the

earlier answer) What are the ratios that you would look at? Here I mentioned the financial ratios that I would look at stating specifically why I would look at each ratio. He probed me on a few ratios here and there. The intention appeared to be more to check my articulation of a financial concept. Eg: What is a Current Ratio? I explained the formula. However I did not stop there. I went on to explain that it was used to assess the liquidity position of the company. Then I went on to explain to the logic behind the usage of the ratio – Simply put, it tells us if there is likely to be sufficient inflows of funds over the next one year to meet the maturing payment obligations. So a current ratio of less than one means the company has more to pay than what is coming in, a liquidity problem (Based on the approving nods that I was getting, I felt he liked those portions of my answer where I endeavored to de-jargonize or simplify complex concepts)

4. So Tell me, how would you increase the revenues of Bharti Airtel That was my case, it had begun. However, at that point I thought it was just an extension of my previous discussion and I started rambling. One sentence in, I realized that this was my case to solve and I wasn’t doing any of the things had rehearsed - probing questions/ 2 minute time out etc. In fact I did not even pick up the pen and the paper. I will discuss the case in the next session, but what I learnt is that the case can come at you un announced just be alert


enough to grab it and not ramble on


Problem statement: How do you increase the revenues of Bharti Airtel Case analysis: Preliminary questions - We all know Bharti Airtel and the services it offered quite well – So there was no need to ask preliminary questions. Also, since I wasn’t aware that I was doing a case I did not have the opportunity to ask preliminary questions. Structure: The Structure that I used was fairly simple – Increase in Revenues can in Existing markets or through expansion in new markets. I explored the existing markets first. Here increase in revenues could occur through increased market penetration, increased usage of basic services among current users or increased usage of Value added services among existing customers. He asked me a couple of questions on how these things can be done and I gave him some off the cuff answers. For the New markets, I suggested that the company could look at inorganic expansion through acquisitions or through establishment of Greenfield operations in new markets with high market potential.

The entire case was more like an informal chat. There were a few follow up questions on some of the options I had generated. The case did not last very long – about 10 minutes at the max.


I thought the pre-case portion of my interview went of really well. I was on top of all the points I had mentioned in the CV, so any discussion on my past experiences especially work ex went well. The thing I felt worked for me the most was my ability to describe the entire rating process without using complex financial jargons and my ability to explain things from a layman’s perspective


I did not do the case analysis particularly well. I did not use the pen and paper. This meant that I was generating options thinking on my feet rather than providing carefully considered alternatives. This to a very large extent inhibited my creativity and did not give me enough opportunity to demonstrate my structuring skills.



Know your Resume well. At no point in the interview should you ramble on. All answers must be natural (ie, must not appear rehearsed), brief, structured and to the point.

Retaining composure through the interview is critical. Mistakes may happen during the interview, but it is important to pick you up and keep at it. People rarely have perfect interviews where everything has gone right and interviewers don’t expect it either.


Second


Chartered Accountant, Bcom (Hons) from SRCC, Delhi University. Prior work ex as a Tax Consultant with Ernst & Young, a Visiting Faculty at St Josephs Colleger, Bangalore and then as a Ratings Analyst with CRISIL Ratings


5. Tell me about yourself – Had a 1 minute intro prepared highlighting specific aspects about myself that I wanted to bring to his notice

6. You have mentioned that you sing on a Band in Bangalore, what do you do here exactly? I explained the kind of music that we played and where we performed. I also explained the future plans that we have. I think he liked the fact that it was not something of the past and that I had a vision for the band in future also

7. How do you manage singing on the band, now that you are in IIM Lucknow I mentioned how we exchange tracks over the internet and how we perform and do studio recordings when I visit during the breaks

8. All right Srinath, let’s start with a case shall we? I nodded and we moved on to the case


Problem statement: I am the manufacturer of Tata Nano. While setting up the plant I expected to have sales of around 5 lac Nanos per annum, but now the number is way below that. Can you help me find out why Case analysis: Preliminary questions – Since it was Tata Nano, lot of the background questions were not required. I clarified whether the problem was a lack of bookings that they received. He agreed. Structure: The Structure that I used was not the best but it did get me to the problem. I started off by saying the lack of bookings could be on account of 3 reasons – One, a lack of


awareness of the product among the target customers (Marketing problem), Two, Being aware of the product but not being able to place a booking (Distribution problem) or a Three, being aware of the product yet not interested in the product (I called this the product problem). He asked me to ignore the first 2 (he did not seem highly impressed) and explore the 3rd the product problem. Here I again broke it up in to 2 further branches – Problems that the Car has by itself (Internal factors) and problems in the external environment mainly competition, etc. I deep delved in to the Internal factors. Of the internal problems I mentioned, he agreed that the negative publicity from the steering wheel catching fire was an issue and comfort factor was another issue. As and when he acknowledged a problem, I made a separate note of it. Eventually when he asked me to explore the external factors, I used these points to do a quick summary of the key takeaways up to that point In the external problem, I divided it into competition from other cars and two wheelers. I asked a few questions here trying to pick up a clue or 2 of how to proceed from there but he just refused to shell out any information. At this point he also took out his Blackberry and acted uncooperative. I went on to analyze for myself that given that the price of the next cheapest car was over a lakh higher than this car the issue lay more with the 2 wheelers. I went on to list factors why people would prefer 2 wheelers to a Tata Nano. Of the factors I listed, he acknowledged that the high running costs and availability of easy financing options seemed like the distinguishing factors. He said I seemed to have arrived at the problem, He now asked me to tell me how he could provide financing options for the Nano. This I felt was like a guess estimate problem. I said I would work backward to solve the problem. This is how I solved it – I said the average Nano target customer would earn Rs 10000 per month (he had given me that number in an earlier discussion, he liked the fact that I had noted it down and was using it again) I said, given the average savings rate of the country is at 35%-40% (this is from the RBI website I think). That meant a saving of about Rs 4,000 per month. No one would be comfortable giving up their entire saving, so if we considered 50% of this, the customer will be willing to pay an EMI of 2000 per month. The company would want to complete the financing within a period of 4 years cause


after that the car may be worthless in case of repossession. So this meant roughly a down payment of 20,000 followed by 4 years of EMI of 2000 pm approximately (I took his approval on all of the numbers I used, so he was comfortable with this number). Summary: I began to summarize all my recommendations to that point but he stopped me saying that I didn’t have to absolutely nail the case.


My explanation of the stuff related to music on my CV really worked for me. I tend to get a little excited when I speak of my music and that must have come across as genuine to him. This I know because when I met him at the end of the day, he remembered my band’s name which showed that I had piqued his interest on that topic.


In my attempt to keep the structure exhaustive I dwelled in to a lot of aspects that may not have been required. He seemed unimpressed by my suggestions of it being a marketing/ distribution problem. Then again that may have been a put on reaction merely to unsettle me.


The most important thing to nail a consult interview is composure and confidence. With this in place, half the job is done.

In all HR answers it is important to show genuineness. No answer must come across as fabricated.

Interview Experience 15 Company McKinsey

Name: Nirjhar Varshney


Anuj Agarwal, Engagement Manager


First


BTech, IIT delhi

Fresher



1. Tell me something about yourself?

2. Sharing same IITD and IIML background he asked my observations about similarities and differences among 2 institutes?


Problem statement: A company bidding for contracts of Metro construction is stagnating in a industry with growth rate of 15%? Figure out a way for them to double their revenue in next 3 years?

Case analysis: Got the working model of the firm. The bidding model. Eventually came to revelation that they are not winning bids in last 2 years.

Structure: Analyzed bidding structure ( COST + MARGIN).

Broke into typical cost analysis and identified different cost heads.

Required to provide innovative solutions for decreasing cost.


Got the initial structure of industry right. Asked information about an unknown industry before starting to solve it.


Unable to provide innovative ideas in end.


Practice a lot of cases with diverse people to open your analytical approach.

iiml casebook 2014-15

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