IIMC 53rd Batch Consulting Interview Experiences-1

IIM Calcutta Consulting Club
Presents
Batch of 2018
Consulting Interview Experiences

A compilation of successful case interview experiences from students of
the 53rd batch of IIM Calcutta, placed with some of the top consulting
firms for their summer internships.
Editors
Abhishek Thakur
Arnav Das
No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic,
mechanical, photocopying or otherwise - without prior consent from the Consulting Club, IIM Calcutta.

A Note from the Editors

IIM Calcutta Consulting Club is delighted to present this latest version of Consulting Interview
Experiences.
46 students of the 53rd batch, having secured summer internships in firms such as McKinsey & Co.,
the Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Co., A.T. Kearney, Accenture, Alvarez & Marsal and Deloitte,
have contributed over 70 cases, and we thank them for their time and effort.
We hope this will be a valuable resource for students preparing for similar interviews. It offers not
only a variety of cases, but also a feel of how an interview proceeds, what interviewers expect, and
how even simple things can seem complicated when the pressure is on.
To preserve that feel, we encouraged contributors to avoid describing the case as ‘they would would
have approached it’ second time around. We want you to see that even the best can sometimes
struggle, but that there is no substitute for strong preparation when under pressure.
As such, this is more of a compendium of interview experiences, with insights.
The Casebook – due out March 2017
We will also release a Consulting Casebook in March 2017, which will include an overview of the key
frameworks and approaches, and some selected cases with comprehensive solutions. We hope it
will complement this publication, and the two can together address both theory and practice when
it comes to case solving.
Using this book
The best way to go through a case, needless to say, is not to read it, but have someone administer it
to you. This is why a case group comprising 3-4 people is ideal. For every one person who reads a
case, three others could get live practice.
With upwards of 70 cases, a group of 4 would easily allow each member to practice over 50 cases.
That said, reviewing a completed case is often far more useful than quickly moving on to the next
one. This is one place where quantity will never substitute quality, so do ensure that you revise the
cases thoroughly. Administering it to someone else after you have completed it, is one very good
way to revise.
With that, we leave to enjoy the consulting interview experiences of the Batch of 2018.
- Abhishek Thakur & Arnav Das (editors)

- IIM Calcutta Batch of 2018


Contents

McKinsey & Co.

1. Nishchay Budhiraja 1
2. S Siddharth 6
3. Arnav Das 10
4. Kunal Suraiya 13
5. Shubham Prakhar 17
6. Tushar Bhasin 22
7. Ruchika Dasgupta 24
8. Shreyansh Jain 27
9. Raghav Sharma 31
10. Rahul Gupta 33

The Boston Consulting Group

1. Amit Warrier 35
2. Rachit Agarwal 39
3. Yash Chaudhary 42
4. Larunika Gaur 45
5. Keshav Bagry 48
6. Anik Khandelwal 50
7. Sanchit Garg 53
8. M Lakshmi Meenakshi 55
9. Shantanu Tewari 59
10. Nupur Mittal 62
11. Shantanu Dasgupta 64

Bain & Co.

1. PVS Suryanarayaan Raju 66
2. Abhishek Thakur 71
3. Abhaas Mohan 78
4. Amarnath M 83
5. Mahek Chheda 87
6. Aashima Singla 92
7. Chinar Radke 95
8. Shivam Rajvanshi 97
9. Lalithya Bonthu 101


A.T.Kearney

1. Abhishek Tayal 103
2. Abhinav Siwach 110
3. Bhawna Setia 114
4. Harshit Chopra 117
5. Vikas Mittal 121

Accenture

1. Abul Aala Nalband 124
2. Aditya Arora 127
3. Vaibhav Bhatnagar 131
4. Mohit Manaktala 133
5. Praveen Nagalla 137
6. Rachit Thukral 140

Alvarez & Marsal

1. Jackson Joseph 141
2. Mrigaunk Pillai 145
3. Manpreet Singh Mokha 147

Deloitte

1. Abirban Mukherjee 150
2. Arnab Maity 154


1
INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES
Name: Nishchay Budhiraja
Interviewing Firm: McKinsey & Co.
Under-graduation (Stream & College): IIT Roorkee
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Nil
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
What makes you a better candidate than the rest of the people I am seeing today? Give
Personal/Preliminary
me an example where you showed leadership skills, and the interviewer went into a lot of
questions:
detail.
Case type: Market Entry + Acquisition
Interview style: Friendly
The client is a farm equipment manufacturer with presence in multiple countries. He

Case problem wants to enter the Canadian market by acquiring a particular tractor manufacturer,
statement: because their stock price is low as they are not earning enough profits. Should we make
the deal?
The client is a farm equipment manufacturer with presence in multiple countries. He

wants to enter the Canadian market by acquiring a particular tractor manufacturer
Interviewer:
because their stock price is low as they are not earning enough profits. What should we
do?
Candidate: Paraphrased the question and asked what my objective is.
Interviewer: You need to tell me how you will decide whether you will buy this company or not.
What exactly do we manufacture? What constitutes farm equipment? What is our

Candidate:
geography of operation? Which part of value chain do we operate in?
Various kind of farm equipment, but ignore everything other than tractors. We operate in
Interviewer:
USA, Europe and Latin America. We only manufacture these tractors.
Candidate: Why do we want to enter a new market? What are our objectives? And why Canada?
Interviewer: We want to expand. It seems like a good market.
I will divide the factors into two major buckets. First, we will decide whether we want to
Candidate:
enter the Canadian market or not, then we will look at how we want to enter.
Interviewer: Fair enough. Go ahead.

2
Listed factors such as –
• Growth rate vs our required rate of return

Candidate: • Competition
• Substitutes
• Pricing
• Product differentiation
Interviewer: After analyzing all this, we decide that we want to enter the Canadian market. Now what?
Based on the govt. regulations and barriers to entry we will look at how we wish to enter.
If we decide that we want to enter by acquiring an existing player, we will look at the
following factors –
• Why their stock price is low? Why are they not able to earn expected profits? Is it
Candidate:
something which we can resolve?
• Difference in product line, whose products we will sell
• Possible synergies which can be tapped
• Brand image of the Canadian manufacturer and whether it will affect our image
globally
Ok, good. Now have a look at this exhibit. Calculate the change in land usage from 2012-
Interviewer:
2015.
Exhibit had a table which had values corresponding to total farm land, cultivable land, and
price index for 4 years. I clarified all the terms before jumping into solving the question. I
gave him a wrong answer and he asked me to show him my calculations. He told me that
Candidate:
he was looking for percentage change and clarified all the terms again. I realized my
mistake and asked whether he wanted an estimate or a precise answer. He was looking
for a ballpark figure and I answered correctly this time.
Have this new exhibit. Conclude whatever you can from this.
Farms using Farms using Farms using Farms using

tractors of only tractors of only tractors of only tractors of only
Brand A Brand B Brand C Brand D
Interviewer:
Small Farms 60% 55% 60% 50%
Medium Farms 50% 45% 50% 40%
Large Farms 40% 35% 40% 30%

I asked for a minute to come up with various inferences that I could think of.
I cannot say anything about the absolute number of tractors sold by any of these brands
Candidate: but I think A and C are the preferred brands. This may lead us to believe that small farms
use more tractors/farm but that would be a wrong conclusion as it is possible that large
farms could be less brand loyal and be using tractors of different firms.
Interviewer: Ok, that’s interesting. Do you have any questions for me?
Candidate: Asked him a question that I had prepared before the interview.

3
What went well? I was calm and comfortable with numbers. The approach was structured.
I answered incorrectly initially as I didn’t understand his question initially. I was a little
What didn’t go well?
uncomfortable in initial leadership questions as he was probing into it.
Prepare for the clichéd personal questions. Be calm as things can be unexpected as I had
General Interview
never expected McKinsey to give me a case with multiple exhibits. Be prepared for
Notes:
everything.
ROUND 2
The interviewer was a partner and headed the pharma practice in India and told me about
how she used to work at McKinsey, went to an investment bank and is now back at
McKinsey. Before beginning the interview, she asked whether I wanted to ask her
something. I asked about her career choice and similarities in the two roles as both were
questions:
advisory roles. She answered and then asked why I wanted to join consulting, my
strengths, and what my friends thought about me. I mentioned the startup I had worked
for in one of my answers and we talked about it in detail.
Case type: Guesstimate + Market Entry
Case problem The client is a pharma company and wants to introduce insulin drug in the market.
statement: Estimate the size of sales force required to make it available to the leading hospitals.
The client is a pharma company and wants to introduce insulin drug in the market.
Interviewer:
Estimate the size of sales force required to make it available to the leading hospitals.
In what form are we planning to launch it, tablet or injection? How is it different from the
Candidate: existing products? Is it over the counter or a prescription medicine? Does it have any side
effect? Are we already present in India? What is our brand image?
Injection. It is more efficient. Prescription only. Minimal, similar to what existing products
Interviewer:
have. We sell 2-3 generic medicines in India and have a good image.
So, this means we will have to target doctors as they will prescribe them to their patients.
Candidate: My approach would be that I would estimate the number of doctors that we need to
target, frequency of meetings, and the average number of doctors that a sales person can
cover in a day.
Assume we need to cover only major primary health facilities and not small health care
Interviewer:
centers, since only the larger ones prescribe and use injections. Let their number be 2000.
Ok, I also need to take into account the average length of meeting with a doctor, and the
time consumed in travelling. Also, since these hospitals would be in different cities, we
Candidate:
will have to see whether sales force will be inter-city or we will need separate people for
different cities.
Average length of meeting is about 10 minutes, but the main problem is getting those 10
Interviewer: minutes. Assume all doctors to be in the same city, a sales person can meet 2 doctors in a
day. We need to meet 40% doctors once a month and the rest twice a month.

4
This implies that there will be a total of 3200 visits from our sales force in a month. Since
Candidate: a sales person can meet 2 doctors in a day and assuming 25 working days, we require a
sales force of 64.
Interviewer: Assume 20 working days.
Candidate: Ok, the required sales force would now increase to 80.
Good. Now, let us assume we want to expand to smaller clinics as well. How will you go
Interviewer:
about it?
Before going into how will we do it, let us first see whether we should do it or not. You
Candidate: stated that only large hospitals use and prescribe injections. Why is that the case? What
do smaller clinics prescribe?
Small hospitals and individual practices generally use tablets and are reluctant to use
Interviewer:
injections.
Is it because they believe tablets are better or are they not equipped enough to give
Candidate:
injections or the patients they cater to do not prefer injections?
Injections are required when sugar level reaches above a threshold, and people visiting
small clinics generally do not have such high levels. Even if they have, they are sent to
Interviewer:
larger hospitals. Though, some doctors have a bias against injections and some patients
are not aware about it.
Ok. So we will have to look at what proportion of these doctors would be willing to give
Candidate: injections. And also, we will need to spread awareness among the patients so that they
themselves start demanding our product when required.
Interviewer: How can we spread awareness?
We can do it by two ways. First, we can ask government to do it for us, either by launching
a new scheme or using funds of an existing scheme. Second, we can do it in collaboration
Candidate: with our competitors who sell similar products in market, but some of them might not be
interested as this could cannibalize the sale of their insulin tablets. Do, I need to go in
further detail?
No, that is great. Now let’s say we come up at 100 new sales people required to target
Interviewer: these doctors. But our cost is exceeding our profits. Is there any alternative that you can
think of?
Candidate: I gave 3 to 4 suggestions for reducing the cost of our sales force.
After doing all this our return on investment has increased but it is still not satisfactory.
Interviewer:
Can you think of something else?
Candidate: So, basically you want me to think of an alternative to this whole sales force method?
Interviewer: Yes, correct.
Candidate: I asked for a minute to list down various suggestions.

5
We can look into something of the sort of gathering nearby doctors in an area so that we
can distribute and educate them about our product in one go. Is that possible?
You are on the right track. This is an actual case I am working upon right now. What we
Interviewer: have done is, we have used social media to educate them and services like WhatsApp to
communicate with them regularly in groups. Do you want to ask something?
Using medical representatives is something pharma companies have doing for some
Candidate:
decades now. Why hasn’t been there any innovation in this field?
She described how the industry has not evolved at all in terms of the sales force method
and how it will change in the coming years.
Interviewer:
The final recommendation was using WhatsApp and other social media platforms to
aggregate the doctors so as to reduce the client’s costs.
Asked logical questions at each step, understood the actual problem instead of directly
calculating the sales force required for smaller clinics. In the end, she told me that I had
What went well?
good instincts in pharma industry and she would definitely take me on her team once I join
McKinsey.
Try to understand the problem you are solving. Never be afraid to ask questions and don’t
proceed until you are crystal clear with everything.
General Interview I was called by another partner which seemed to me, the third round. I was wondering
Notes: whether I had screwed up my previous interviews.
After some personal questions, he asked whether we should do a case. A little worried, I
agreed. Instead of giving me a case he extended the offer. He informed me that he was
asked to make me an offer but wanted to know me better since we had not met before.

6

Name: Siddharth Srikanthan
Name/Designation of Interviewer: Jaidev Rajpal (Partner) & Vikash Daga (Senior Partner)
Under-graduation (Stream & College): IIT Madras – B.Tech (Electrical Engineering)
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Fresher
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1

Tell me about yourself. (He was given the wrong CV, so I had to explain everything.)
What is the biggest challenge you have faced?
questions:
How do you deal with team members not pulling their weight?
Case type: Quality improvement
Case problem
Improvement of quality of Indian pharmaceutical exports.
statement:
6 CEOs of large Indian pharmaceutical companies want to improve the quality of

Interviewer:
exported products, and have approached us for advice.
Repeated the problem statement

Candidate:
Is there anything else that we plan to look at?
Interviewer: No, that’s pretty much it.
Alright. To begin with, I’d like to get a basic understanding of the problem. What kind of
Candidate:
products are we talking about, and what do we mean by increasing quality?
Let’s consider oral pills, both OTC and prescribed, for this case. By quality, we’re referring
Interviewer:
to the effectiveness of the drug. Keep in mind that our clients do need to be profitable.
Right. I think there’s nothing else I need to know at this point, so here’s how I propose
we go about solving the problem.
We can look at all the steps involved in creating and distributing the pills, and in each
step, propose measures to improve quality. Two steps that I can think of are:
Candidate:
1. R&D

2. Setting up (and operating) the supply chain.
Is there anything else you’d like me to look at?
Interviewer: That sounds good. There is another step after the drug is developed though. R&D is
normally done in very small quantities, so there’s a process known as ‘scaling up’, which

7
involves moving from those quantities to mass production of the drug.
I’ll add that to the list. Starting with R&D, I’ll divide it into a few stages, namely
1. Identifying a need
Candidate:
2. Developing a drug to fulfil that need, and

3. Testing the drug and getting things such as FDI approval.
That’s right, but I’d like for you to look at solutions that could tackle all the stages at
Interviewer:
once, and not at a micro level for each step.
Alright, for that we’d probably need to take a bigger picture approach to things, perhaps
Candidate:
try changing the structure or culture of the organizations themselves.
Great. Let’s focus on the people in the organizations. How do you propose to measure
Interviewer:
culture in an organization?
I am not entirely sure, but let’s say culture is a set of shared values, and there are a few
ways I can think of to measure it.
1. Looking at how employees treat all stakeholders in the process. Stakeholders

here include other employees (both from their division and others), customers,
suppliers, and other stakeholders like the environment and government.

2. We can look at the degree of collaboration between employees and between

Candidate: divisions. Take for example R&D and Scaling up. There may be a conflict of goals
as R&D’s objective is to create an effective drug, while Scaling up’s job is simply
to mass produce it at low cost, which could compromise on effectiveness. I
propose that we measure this by looking at the amount of information shared
between the divisions.

3. We can also look at the vision that the leadership has for the company, and how
they put it forward to the employees. Essentially look at the values that
employees are encouraged to espouse.
Interviewer: Great. It looks like we’re out of time, so let’s close the case here. Any questions?
Despite being a vague case, I remained calm and managed to give Jaidev a wide variety
What went well?
of ideas. The case itself went quite smoothly.
It took me longer than it should have to realize that he wanted a solution that focused on
What didn’t go well? people, and not the process. I wasn’t MECE when it came to the culture bit, but I’m not
sure if that’s even possible
General Interview Jaidev was very friendly throughout, and seemed to want a discussion rather than a
Notes: structured case. He didn’t look at my paper at all.
ROUND 2

Tell me about yourself (Once again, he didn’t have my CV, so this took a while)
Personal/Preliminary How was your first term? (We ended up discussing my academic performance)
questions: How do you define success?
What PoRs do you plan on taking up at Joka?

8
Why McKinsey?
Case type: Market entry
Case problem
Multiplex player looking to enter the packaged foods market.
statement:
A pan-India multiplex player, think PVR, is looking to enter the packaged foods market,
Interviewer:
and have come to you for advice.
Repeated the problem statement

Candidate: I’d like to start by getting some background information. Is there any particular reason
for wanting to enter this market?
The client feels that there’s a lot of potential in the market, and is looking to set up a
Interviewer:
1000Cr business in 5 years.
Alright. Have they decided on what products they want to sell, and what their business
Candidate:
model is going to be?
They have not yet decided on a product portfolio. They plan to sell the products both in
Interviewer:
multiplexes as well as through regular retail channels.
The first thing that our client would need to do is to identify the product(s) that they are
Candidate:
going to sell.
Right. Rather than product, let’s look at the segments in the packaged food market.
Interviewer: Some of them are Ready to eat, chips & crisps, dairy products, namkeens and chocolates.
How would you go about deciding which to enter?
The factors that I would consider are
1. Market size of the segment, and growth rate. The growth rate itself can be
predicted using consumer trends. For example, there’s a trend toward healthier
snacks, as well as towards premium snacks.
Candidate:
2. The competitive scenario. Within this I’d look at the split of market shares
amongst the competitors, to get some idea of how much of the market we can
capture. Other things we could look at are the profitability and the profitability
distribution amongst competitors, but since we’re concerned only with revenue,
that might not be necessary.
Alright. Let’s take the Namkeen market for example. Say it’s a 20,000Cr market today,
Interviewer: growing at 15% YoY. Competitor A has 20% market share, B and C have 10% each, and
the rest is fragmented.
60% of the market being fragmented sounds pretty attractive. Given our brand name
Candidate:
and the nature of the market, we could perhaps capture 5% of the market in 5 years.
Interviewer: That’s a bit too optimistic. Let’s say 2%.
Candidate: Sure. 2% of 20,000Cr would be 400Cr, which isn’t really close to our goal.
Interviewer: Would you like to take another look at that?

9
Oh, the market is growing at 15%. In that case, our revenue in the 5th year would be
Candidate: 400*(1.15)^5. I have no idea what 1.15^5 is, so I’m going to take the first two terms of
the binomial expansion of (1+.15)^5, which gives me 1.75, implying a revenue of 700Cr.
Laughing
Interviewer: Fair enough. The correct value is actually almost exactly 2, which would make it 800Cr.
Based on this, should the client enter the market?
If we are certain about the growth rate, as well as our ability to capture 2% of the
Candidate: market, it makes sense to enter as this would cover 80% of our targeted revenues. We
can certainly make the other 20% in another segment.
Interviewer: Alright, how would you capture 2% of the market?
To capture 2%, we would need to generate a corresponding demand for our product,
Candidate:
and be able to supply those amounts. Is supplying 2% of the market an issue?
Interviewer: No, it isn’t.
Let’s look at the factors that would generate demand. If I were to put myself in the
customers’ shoes, these would be the things that matter.
1. Awareness and Perception – Nobody is going to buy the product unless they are
aware of it, and they need to have a good impression of it. This can be achieved
through advertising and promotions.

2. Accessibility – People who want the product must be able to buy it. We need to
Candidate: ensure that a solid distribution network is set up to generate the required sales.

3. Value proposition – Here we can look at three things. Firstly, the price of the
product. Second, it’s functional value. For a food product this would include
taste, health factors, shelf life and packaging. And third, I’d look at brand value.
Given that our client is a pan-India chain, they are a well-known brand, and that
can be leveraged. For example, it would be a much better idea to sell popcorn
than dairy products, as it would align with our brand better.
Interviewer: That’s pretty thorough. Let’s close the case here. Do you have any questions for me?
I think I mentioned all the factors he was looking for, and went about in a structured way.
What went well?
I went at a good pace which allowed me to cover everything in some depth.
Forgot about market growth during the calculation until he asked me to recheck. My final
What did not go well?
growth figure was off by about 12% as well, but he seemed happy with the approach.
General Interview
Don’t neglect your personals.
Notes:

10
Name: Arnav Das
Name/Designation of Interviewer: Prasad Lad (Associate Partner), Sujit Chakrabarty (Partner)
Under-graduation (Stream & College): Mathematics, St. Stephen's College, New Delhi
Management Consulting, Takshashila Consulting (20 months),

Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Project Manager, OYO Rooms (13 months)
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
• Please tell me about yourself.

• Tell me a little in detail about what you did while working at OYO Rooms.
• There is a lot of hype about joining such firms (start ups) - so why do you want to
move away from here?
Ending questions after the case - since someone walked in and said we still have 5 mins
questions:
left
• Do you think start-ups are a bubble like in the 2001 dot-com or is it sustainable
this time around?
• What is your understanding of unit economics and when is it unstable?
Case type: Valuation of sports team and sub-cases
Case problem
Asked to do a valuation of my favourite IPL team.
statement:
Interviewer: Tell me your favourite sport.
Candidate: Tennis.
Interviewer: What about your favourite team sport?
Candidate: Cricket.
Interviewer: Do you watch IPL? Name your favourite team. How would you value it?
Took some time to think.
I would like to look at the following two aspects of valuation:
1. Tangibles
Candidate: 2. Intangibles
Intangibles included brand value, past performance, value associated with individual
brand of players, coaches, owners.
Tangibles included net profit which is a function of cost and revenues.

11
Interviewer: Was asked here to only elaborate on revenues.
Revenues can be broken down into
1. Ticket sales
Candidate: 2. Winnings
3. Merchandise sales
4. Advertisement revenue (both in stadium, off stadium, on field, on player),
5. Central revenue sharing from BCCI.
Tell me more about advertisements? If you were to sponsor your favourite team, how
Interviewer:
much would you pay for this? What are the drivers which define the sponsorship amount?
Talked about list of players in the team and intangible values around them, including their
synergy with the advertiser's brand, visibility in terms of where the advertisement/logo
Candidate:
would be displayed, and its relative visibility - size of logo, visibility to cameras/viewers,
etc.
Interviewer: Tell me about player valuations, how would you value a particular player?
I would look at the following factors:
1. Player performance (overall, recent, in the same geography as IPL),

2. Need for the player (position in team and need for someone of his experience,
Candidate: leadership talent, etc),
3. Age (fitness, looming retirement)
4. Marketability (popularity, camera presence and skills),
5. Does he get along well with rest of team or not (no past spats or ego issues)?
Unstructured question
Interviewer:
Do you think an IPL team should look at ticket sales as a revenue driver?
Spoke about the long term impact of brand building and how the number of spectators
Candidate: actually affects all other revenue streams and fits into valuations. Hence ticket sales should
not be a revenue driver - the objective should be to maximize volumes.
Interviewer: Thank you. That will be all.
What went well, The case was in my comfort zone since IPL is something I have followed extensively in the
didn’t go well? past.
General Interview The interviewers are friendly and helpful - keep smiling all through and maintain
Notes: composure.
ROUND 2
• Tell me about yourself

Personal/Preliminary • Give an example of when you showed leadership skills
questions: • Explain your PORs in 2 mins and what your role was
• What is your CGPA at IIMC like and what approximate rank would that be?
Case type: Guesstimate

12
Case problem
Estimate the number of flights taking off from the Kolkata airport
statement:
Interviewer: Read the problem statement.
Got excited since I had practices the same case before. Started off on supply side, with the
Candidate:
number of runways.
I guess you know the approach, so let’s change the case. Tell me if I had to fly 10,000
Interviewer:
aircrafts from the Kolkata airport daily, what would be the constraints?
Candidate: Demand would be a constraint. Kolkata does not have that many travellers.
Interviewer: Let's assume demand can be arranged - then?
Candidate: Airspace would be a constraint. And operationally managing it.
Interviewer: What do you mean operationally managing it?
I was a little confused - he prodded and asked me to think about what I see when I go to
an airport.
Candidate:
You would need runways, cleaning and maintenance staff, terminals, baggage belts, staff,
security, etc.
Perfect, that is what I was looking for.

Interviewer: I am sorry this case will be so short (it was 6-7 mins) but I have been interviewing for many
years and I can usually judge very quickly!
The interview happened in a larger classroom and the interviewer decided to walk all
What went well? around class - I think I did well by not taking a seat and positioning myself in the center to
try and maintain eye contact while standing.
Lost my composure for a minute when I was asked to define 'operational management' of
the airport.
The interviewer's end words were ominous and did not give any indications of whether they
General Interview were positive or negative.
Notes:
But I was extended an offer after 3-4 mins waiting by my first interviewer.

13
Name: Kunal Suraiya
Under-graduation (Stream & College): B.Com, Maharaja Sayajirao University/C.A.
Finance & Controlling, M&M Ltd/ABB (India) Ltd/Rajda Industries

Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months):
Private Limited, 53 months
Number of rounds: 3
ROUND 1
Tell me something about yourself. What is the one thing you like about Kolkata?
questions:
Case type: Evaluating Quality Culture
Interview style: Conversational & Friendly
Case problem The client is a pharma company. The CEO has approached you to help them better
statement: understand the quality culture of the organization. How will you go about doing that?
So begin by telling me what is it you will look at while trying to understand the quality
Interviewer:
culture of the organization.
So I would like to understand a little more about the organization first. How long has the
Candidate:
organization been in existence?
Interviewer: The organization is more than fifty years old.
What exactly is the pharma company engaged in? Is it more into research or selling of APIs
Candidate:
and generics?
Interviewer: Like most pharma companies in India, it is engaged solely in selling of generics.
Thank you. I will first list the factors that I believe will influence the quality culture of the
Candidate:
organization and then look at each component individually in detail. Is that fine?
Interviewer: Sure.
So I believe that the qualities of top management, the vision and the mission of the
Candidate: organization, the organization structure and finally the nature of the production process
and product quality will influence the quality culture. Is that a fair assessment?
Yes that is fine. But, for the purpose of this discussion, please ignore the production
Interviewer: process and the product. Concentrate more on the other factors. How will you determine
whether all the employees have the same understanding of the culture?

14
I drew a rough organization structure first.
Candidate: I will have a look at the vision and mission statement of the organization. Then, I will try
to understand from each level of management, what expectations they have of their
subordinates. How do view the roles and responsibilities their subordinates.
Interviewer: That is good. Please go on.
After this, I will try to understand from the subordinates what they believe their job
responsibilities are and what are the goals that they are supposed to work towards. I will
Candidate:
then compare the responses and try to understand how much of a similarity there is. After
this, I will compare this to the goals of the organization and gauge whether there is a fit.
That seems to me like a good way to proceed. Now tell me, how will you understand the
Interviewer:
mindset of the employees in the organization?
Candidate: Is there a possibility of engaging the employees in conversation?
Interviewer: Yes, there is.
Candidate: So one way of doing this is organizing a survey to collect information.
Interviewer: Ok. Can you think of some other way of doing this?
Another way is to organize a brainstorming session. This meeting will involve some people
from top management, some from middle management and some people drawn from
Candidate: non-management cadre. The objective of the meeting will be to discuss matters relating
to quality and problems faced across the different levels of the organization. There will be
no concerns of hierarchy so that people will discuss ideas freely.
Very good. That seems like a good way to approach the open ended question raised by
Interviewer:
the CEO. Do you have any questions for me?
The fact that I made the case as much of a discussion as possible. I kept engaging the
interviewer whenever possible and kept building on the cues or the direction he gave me.
What went well?
Even though the case was a bit off-beat and nothing related to the kind of cases I had
practiced, I did not panic.
What didn’t go well? Not much really.
General Interview The key is to remain calm. The interviewer will always be willing to help out in case you get
Notes: stuck.
ROUND 2
Personal/Preliminary Start off by telling me something about yourself. Tell me something about the kind of work
questions: you did during your previous employment. How was the first term at IIM Calcutta?
Interview style: Conversational

15
Case problem
Estimate the number of cabs in Kolkata.
statement:
Interviewer: This includes all kinds of cabs – Yellow cabs as well as radio cabs.
Do I have to estimate the number of cabs that are plying the road at a point of time or all
Candidate:
taxis regardless of whether the driver is on duty or not?
Interviewer: Take into account all taxis. Also, consider the time period as right now.
Sure. So I will approach the case by dividing the population of Kolkata into high, medium
and low income households. Then, I will ascertain the number of households that own
Candidate: some kind of private means of transportation. Thus, the rest of the households will be
dependent on some means of public transport. I will then estimate the number of
households that will be using cabs as a means of public transportation. Is that ok?
The method that you have adopted will tend to be off from the actual number by 20-30%.
Interviewer: Think of some other means to calculate the number of taxis. How will you ascertain the
total number of passenger cars in Kolkata?
One way in which we could do this is by estimating the number of petrol pumps in Kolkata
Candidate: and then determining the number of cars serviced by a single pump in a day. Then, we can
estimate the fuel consumption of a car to arrive at a rough estimate of the number of cars.
Ok, what if I told you that cabs use only CNG as opposed to other cars which run on either
Interviewer:
petrol or diesel?
Candidate: Then we would need to consider only the CNG pumps in the city.
Interviewer: Ok. Give me five other ways in which we could arrive at the number of cabs in the city.
Candidate: We could devise some way to observe the number of different cabs in the city.
Interviewer: How would you do that? What is it that differentiates one cab from another?
We could tag the number plates and verify the records available with the RTO to identify
Candidate:
whether the car is registered as a cab or not.
Interviewer: Ok. What about the next method?
We could verify the records available with the showrooms to determine the number of
cabs sold in the city during a particular period. Considering the average life of a cab and
Candidate:
the number that would not be exchanged for a new one, we could arrive at a figure of the
number of cabs.
Fair enough. Let us go back to the method you had suggested upfront. I am going to give
Interviewer:
you some figures. I want you to come up with a figure.
Sure.
Candidate:
The interviewer gave me a bunch of figures. I did a number of calculations and made a
small error in the last figure. However, I realized this immediately and corrected my

16
mistake.
I have an estimate of the total number of cars in the city and I can do a sanity check.
No that will not be necessary. Give me another method to determine the number of cabs
Interviewer:
in the city.
If the drivers are required to register with some sort of driver union, then we can access
Candidate:
the records available with them.
Interviewer: Good. We will end the interview now. Thank you.
The fact that I kept engaging with the interviewer and that I could keep coming up with
What went well?
different ways to arrive at a figure.
What did not go well? The fact that I made a small calculation error at the final stage.
General Interview Practice keeping up with different methods during practicing guesstimates. The ultimate
Notes: figure is not important; rather the approach is what will decide your fate.
ROUND 3
The entire round was centered on personals. Tell me something about yourself. Describe
a situation from your personal or professional life where you took a stance and stuck to it.
Would people describe you as an aggressive person? What would you do if you were
questions:
confronted by a person who was very angry? What makes you think consulting would be
a good fit for you to achieve your goals? After the interview, an offer was made.

17
Name: Shubham Prakhar
Puneet Chandok (Partner, Technology Practice) (Round 1);

Name/Designation of Interviewer:
Suvojoy Sengupta (Partner, Energy) (Round 2)
Under-graduation (Stream & College): B.E., NSIT
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): 22 months, BCG
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
Interviewer told me he had already gone through my CV and asked me to briefly introduce
myself. Since, my previous work experience was with BCG, he questioned me a bit on what
questions:
kind of projects I had worked on, and why McKinsey was my choice over BCG.
Case type: Profitability
Case problem
Investigate declining revenues of a movie theatre.
statement:
Since you are from Delhi, consider one of your friends has a movie theatre in South Delhi.
Over the last few months, his revenue has been constantly declining. So, he has come to
Interviewer:
you for advice.
How would you go about helping him?
Candidate: Okay. I would like to start by asking a few preliminary questions.
Interviewer: Okay.
You mentioned that the revenue has been declining over the last few months.
Candidate: What was the trend like before that?
And, is it an industry-wide issue or just affecting our client?
Issue is just affecting our client. Revenues had been relatively stable before the decline
Interviewer:
started.
Candidate: Where is the theatre located? Is it located in a mall or as a standalone complex?
Interviewer: The theatre has a single-screen and is located as a standalone entity, i.e. not in a mall.
Candidate: What are the revenue streams for the theatre?

18
The sales of tickets plus the ancillary services like sales of snacks typically found in any
Interviewer:
movie theatre are the revenue streams.
Is there any particular kind of movies that we specialize in?

Candidate:
Have either we changed this recently or has any new competitor come up?
We typically play Hollywood movies. Given our single-screen setting, we generally go for
Interviewer:
one of the chart-toppers.
Candidate: Has the client changed anything in our offering in the period being considered?
No, the client hasn’t changed anything.

Interviewer:
While we are at it, could you also do a quick guesstimate of the revenues?
Candidate: Did a quick guesstimate.
Interviewer: You can proceed.
Thank you! With this knowledge, I would like to go ahead and lay down the structure for
Candidate:
the analysis.
Interviewer: Sure, go ahead.
We can split revenues into the two main streams that the theatre has – sales of movie
tickets, and sales from the snacks.
Candidate:
Do we have any information on how they have changed, have they both gone down or
only any one of them?
Interviewer: Both have gone down, actually.
Since, revenues for both the streams can be thought of as Revenue/Customer x No. of
Candidate: Customers, to isolate the problem, I would like to know if the Revenue/Customer has gone
down or is it the number of customers?
Revenue/Customer hasn’t changed much actually. But, you are correct on the other front,
Interviewer: Number of Customers has gone down.
Why would that be?
Candidate: Right. This can happen from either the Supply side or the Demand side.
Interviewer: Yes.
Supply side constraint would imply that we are not able to accommodate all the
customers.
Candidate: This could happen due to a part of the theatre either undergoing renovation or being
reserved for VIPs or some other category but usually remaining vacant, while the rest has
more demand but we aren’t able to satisfy it.
Interviewer: Okay. Now the demand side.
On the demand side, since, this is only affecting us and not the entire industry, the reasons
Candidate:
could be related to customer perception of our offering.

19
To understand how our offerings affect the customer, I would like see at what points do
we touch the customer.
Interviewer: Sounds good. Let’s focus on the demand side.
Okay. As a customer, my first brush is in the form of advertisements about the theatre.
Candidate:
Have we changed anything on that front?
Interviewer: No, we haven’t. Let’s walk through the entire chain quickly.
Sure. So, once I am aware of the theatre, I have to decide if I want to visit this theatre or
any other.
This depends on accessibility of the theatre, and the in-theatre offerings (movie and
Candidate:
snacks) and the ex-theatre offerings like in case of theatres in malls.
Since, accessibility is unlikely to have changed drastically over the last few months, would
I be correct in ruling it out as a potential reason?
Interviewer: Yes, that’s correct. We can ignore that.
Has there been any change or negative publicity regarding our in-theatre offerings – the
Candidate:
quality of the movie screenings or the quality of the snacks?
Interviewer: No.
In that case, it seems that our offerings haven’t changed per se, instead the change in
demand is stemming from an external factor – in this case, likely from the fact that
Candidate: customers would prefer theatres in malls as they offer additional experience of shopping
pre- or post-movie.
Does that sound reasonable to you?
Yes, that is indeed the issue. Now that we have identified the issue, do you think your
Interviewer:
friend should sell the theatre or he can turn it around?
Given that the issue is stemming from a demand-side problem which in turn is stemming
from a relatively-weaker offering as compared to the mall-based theatres, it is a difficult
proposition to turn it around. He has 2 options:
1) To sell the theatre and instead shift to a mall-based theatre: Would require huge
investment. If the capital is a problem, this option may be problematic.

2) To continue operations: If the NPV of all the expected future cash flows is greater
than the amount to be realized by selling it, it would make sense to retain the
Candidate: theatre and continue operations.

However, it is important here to consider if there is any other project, in which we
could instead invest the amount received on selling and get a better ROI.

In case, operations are to be continued, it would make sense to develop the
theatre into a complex with some options similar to those available at the mall-
based theatres. This would lessen the differences between the perceived offerings
of the two.

20
Capital is indeed a problem and the client isn’t looking to exit the theatre business. Your
Interviewer: suggestion about developing the complex makes sense to me.
Do you have any question for me?
Asked some questions based on the discussions earlier. Was then asked to wait in the room
Candidate:
for the next interviewer.
Gave convincing answers to why McKinsey over BCG, where I had worked earlier.
What went well,
didn’t go well? Even though the interviewer wasn’t engaging in a lot of conversation, consistently kept the
dialogue open from my side and didn’t go in a shell trying to crack to case all by myself.
Throughout the interview, the Partner kept noting things in a folder that he had, and didn’t
General Interview
engage in a lot of conversation. But, do not let anxiety of what he is writing get to you -
Notes:
stay calm
ROUND 2
Please walk me through your CV.
questions:
Case type: Energy strategy for Govt. for India
Case problem The Govt. of India wants to decide if India should remain coal-based or if it should become
statement: renewables-based by 2022.
Interviewer: Read out the problem statement.
The case was very unique in the sense that there was a lot of data.
So much so that while he was explaining the problem statement to me, an entire sheet had
Candidate: filled up with data and numbers.
Since, this was a sector I didn’t have too detailed an idea of, and given that there was a lot
of data, I had plenty of questions.
Interviewer: Was very helpful in all clarifying questions and patiently explained the industry.
Candidate: Tried a cost benefit analysis on both sides - and soon the interview moved into a free-
flowing conversation with the interviewer
Now that we have discussed this for a while - can you please summarize key points from
Interviewer:
our conversation
Candidate: Took a minute to structure my thoughts and mentioned all relevant points to him
It was important to remain calm and solve through first principles, in spite of being
What went well, did bombarded with all the data and figures.
not go well? My remaining unfazed and engaging in conversation with him asking intelligent questions
helped.

21
Due to the nature of the case, structuring it at the outset was difficult due to many unclear
components.
Clarifying on them made the interview a discussion and that’s how it went for the most
General Interview part, with the structuring bit coming only in the end at the time of synthesizing the analysis.
Notes: So, it is important not to start worrying about the discussion not going in a steadfastly
structured fashion as done during the case prep period.
If the interviewer gives the signs that he is happy to engage in discussion due to the nature
of the case, then it is okay to carry on.

22
Name: Tushar Bhasin
Name/Designation of Interviewer: Ankur Modi (Partner) and Sujit Chakrabarty (Partner)
Under-graduation (Stream & College): Electronics and Communication Engineering, NSIT
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
The partner said that he had already seen my CV so we should jump right into the case.
questions:
Case type: Multiple caselets
Interview style: Stress interview
The partner told me the format of the case beforehand, saying that he was going to ask
Case problem
questions from different industries and different functions, and would switch between
statement:
them as and when he wanted. I had 4 cases in this round.
Case 1: Financial Industry: He asked me if I knew what gross margin was. Then asked me
Interviewer: that the company wanted to increase its gross margin but the constraint was that the price
of the product couldn’t be changed and the cost of producing a unit couldn’t be changed.
I asked a few clarifying questions to gain clarity about the constraints. I talked about how
we could probably introduce a new product and how that could increase our GM. He then
Candidate: changed the industry.
In retrospect the more obvious answer is to reduce discounts and reduce returns.
Case 2: Supply Chain Management: You are the supply chain manager and have to do three
things simultaneously:
(i) Service should be done properly i.e. if the customer wants x number of packages
Interviewer: delivered, he should get all of them on time
(ii) Reduce inventory holding period
(iii) Reduce transportation cost
I was stumped and couldn’t come up with any solution that could do the above three
simultaneously. I was also getting very little to no help from the interviewer. I just asked
Candidate:
some questions to understand the problem better and came up with a couple of partial
solutions.
Case 3: Logistics: There is a fully loaded truck which has to be delivered from Paris to Zurich
Interviewer:
(straight line) and we have to reduce the transportation cost by 25%.
I structured the case and came up with different components of the cost. Didn’t come up
Candidate:
with a final solution but I think the interviewer was mostly testing the structure.

23
Case 4: FMCG Market Entry: J&J wants to enter Africa with Baby Soap. Which country
Interviewer:
should it enter.
Candidate: Structured the case and came up with all factors that could be considered.
What went well? I tried to structure it as much as possible and didn’t come under any sort of pressure.
What didn’t go well? I couldn’t come up with a final answer in any case
General Interview
Final answer is not important. Keeping calm is. This interview was a pure stress test!
Notes:
ROUND 2
Personal/Preliminary Tell me about yourself. Why you couldn’t make it to IIT? How is life at IIM Calcutta? How
questions: are you doing academically here?
Case problem He said that this was going to be a short five minute case wherein I had to estimate the
statement: number of flights landing or taking off from Kolkata Airport.
Candidate: How many runways are there at Kolkata Airport?
Interviewer: Assume 1.
I listed down the factors that I thought would influence the turnaround time of a plane. He
Candidate:
gave me the number, after which the case was simple math.
Interviewer: Now, magically more runways are created tomorrow. Will your answer change?
I told him that would depend on the traffic at the airport. We then had a two-minute
Candidate:
conversation about this, post which the case ended.
What went well / did It was a good interview barring the fact that I took a little time to assess the new
not go well? information he gave me.
General Interview
Just make sure you understand the data quickly and ask the right clarifying questions
Notes:

24
Name: Ruchika Dasgupta
Name/Designation of Interviewer: Harsh Chhaparia (Partner), Puneet Chandok (Partner)
Under-graduation (Stream & College): B.Tech, IIT BHU
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Management Consulting, KPMG (12 months)
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
Tell me about yourself, state your biggest achievement till date. (Also, the interviewer was
able to recall me from our interactions during the formal dinner)
At the end of the quick case - went back to personals:
Personal/Preliminary State your biggest achievement till date. Tell me the top 3 things that you’ve done. I started
questions: providing basic context about the situation (he stopped me midway) – and asked the top
3 actionable things that you’ve done which made the difference. Structured my answer
accordingly and listed my contribution.
Any questions for me? I asked a question regarding a point he made during the formal
dinner.
Case type: Revenue increase
Case problem An automotive player in India has witnessed stagnant sales for the past 3 months. Analyze
statement: the situation and come up with recommendations.
Asked preliminary questions around the company (financials, client mix, product mix,
production capacity, distribution channel etc.), industry scenario (growth rate, market
Candidate:
share etc.), competitive benchmarking etc. Spent a good 3-4 minutes understanding the
situation.
Answered all the questions.

Interviewer:
How do we proceed next?
Sales would depend on
1. Price
2. Volume
Candidate: 3. Product mix
Through the preliminary questions, I was able to identify that the client’s product mix did
not match the industry patterns. Market demand was high for 2-wheelers (Vespa, Activa
etc.) while they comprised of only 10% of our revenue v/s our 40% for our competitors.
Interviewer: How does this impact our distribution channels and clients?

25
Mapped our existing channels (exclusive stores, dealers etc.) to other market dealers,
Candidate: discussed customer purchase patterns and how distribution networks are affected by
them.
Good. Now that you’ve analyzed the problem. Summarize the case till now and let’s look
Interviewer:
at the recommendations.
Took about 20 seconds to structure the recommendations.
Let’s look at top three measures which we can take.
Short term recommendations include:
• Incentivizing the sales of 2-wheelers through discounts,

• Altering the pay structure for store manager etc.
Candidate:
Long term recommendations involve
• Analyzing expanding production capacity for 2-wheeler after factoring in timeline/

capital constraints.
We further discussed prioritization of recommendations based on ease of implementation

and impact on sales (2X2 matrix).
Interviewer: How do we leverage digital as a channel? Can we diversify into other segments?
Spoke mainly about customer engagement through digital media and increasing
awareness by reaching out to a younger segment of the population.
Also, discussed the potential use of promotional campaigns through social media/ website/
Candidate:
app for both customers and dealers etc.
For diversification, I recommended revamping and launching the product in another region
with a market similar to India (demographics, consumer preferences etc.)
The interview lasted for about 25 minutes & the interviewer was looking for presence of
What went well? mind and whether I’ve covered all the aspects qualitatively, which I was able to do well
given the time constraint.
General Interview Most of the interview cases are similar to buddy calls and practice cases done before. The
Notes: idea is to keep calm and stay confident on the interview day.
ROUND 2
The interview briefly introduced himself and spoke about his tenure with the firm. We had
a 10-minute discussion on his field of specialization and exposure across different sectors
Personal/Preliminary during his tenure with the firm.
questions:
I asked about ‘My McKinsey’ policy and how he was able to get the best out of it through
the years.
Case problem A luxury automotive player from UK is planning to enter the Indian market. How do we
statement: advise them?

26
Followed the market entry structure to discuss some preliminary points around
• nature of parent company,

Candidate: • motivation to diversify geographically/within India,
• potential for target industry,
• government policies, and
• possible barriers to entry
Interviewer seems satisfied with the approach.

Interviewer: Now estimate the market size in terms of number of premium cars sold over a period of
three years.
I used a top-down population approach to identify the number of households with relevant
income, average life span and number of cars with the such households, existing players in
Candidate: the market (distribution network, brand affinity, accessibility, etc.) and aspirational value
of our client.
The interviewer was looking for a numerical value.
Okay good. I’ll tell you the number of cars sold for the non-premium segment, maybe that
Interviewer:
will help you get some idea.
My final answer from the estimation case was off by a factor of 2. I took some time and
Candidate: listed down 3 other factors which had not been considered and would affect the final
number.
The interviewer was also very friendly throughout and kept providing information
What went well/did whenever probed.
not go well? My initial number was off by a considerable factor, but I was able to identify that early and
give reasons on what additional factors are required.
It’s advisable that you pick cues from the interviewer to identify a mistake early on. If you
General Interview
suspect an error in the final answer/ calculation, immediately flag the interviewer about
Notes:
the same.

27
Name: Shreyansh Jain
Name/Designation of Interviewer: All three were Partners with the Firm
Under-graduation (Stream & College): St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata
Number of rounds: 3
ROUND 1
Tell me something about yourself?
Personal/Preliminary Why do you want to do consulting and not finance?

questions: Do you like to be around new people?
What do you want to do in long term?
Case type: Product launch including guesstimates
Case problem
Analyze all that goes into a Pharma company’s drug launch.
statement:
There is a pharma company which is planning to introduce a new drug for treating
diabetes.
You as a consultant are required to look into the factors which will affect the introduction
Interviewer:
of such a product, secondly you are required to calculate the sales force needed to do the
same.
There were further questions on the case which will come later on.
I asked the clarifying questions about
• the company,
• its other products,
Candidate: • the new drug,
• where it wants to enter exactly (any specific city as such),
• any competitors to this new drug,
• any specialty about the new drug,
• any previous competencies which can be leveraged.
The drug has to be introduced in 4 metro cities and the drugs were sold over the counter.
The drugs are expensive and hence could be purchased only by the higher income group
Interviewer: people. The company was already selling other drugs and had an existing sales force but
that couldn’t be leveraged as this drug required special knowledge for the salesmen.
Could you please lay out the factors which would affect the entry into the market?

28
The factors I would consider are:
• market size
• costs
Candidate: • price point at which it can be sold
• the incidence of disease
• the number of doctors prescribing such drugs
• the way consumers in India purchase drugs
Interviewer: Can you please calculate the market size of this new drug?
Candidate: I went about doing the guesstimate and calculated the market size of this drug.
Interviewer: Now calculate the sales force required to sell the drug?
Candidate: I went about doing the guesstimate for sales force.
Now knowing both the main cost drivers (sales force cost and cost of drug) please do a
Interviewer:
cost benefit analysis based on the market size calculated before?
I did the cost benefit analysis and computed the revenues and costs. I was getting a loss
Candidate:
and the plan was coming out as not feasible.
Interviewer: Since there is a loss, should the company introduce the drug?
I explained how a loss currently could still result in profits in the future when the market
grew. I also asked about other drugs the company was thinking of launching in near future,
Candidate: in which case the costs could have been shared and hence it would become feasible.
This really made the interviewer happy as I didn’t rush directly into the conclusion that the
project should not be carried out.
Interviewer: Can you suggest me ways to make this project feasible?
I suggested ways to make the project feasible.

Candidate:
The interviewer was impressed on hearing the suggestions.
For a change the case went perfectly well for me as both the guesstimates were almost
What went well,
accurate and then the final suggestions were also good. The case proceeded in a very
didn’t go well?
logical manner.
Never jump into conclusions too early and try to be as innovative as possible in your
General Interview
answers. Overall whenever you are stuck, you can directly ask for hints from the interviewer
Notes:
in a subtle manner.
ROUND 2
Similar to round one.
questions:

29
Case problem
Investigate the causes behind a cinema hall’s losses and make recommendations.
statement:
Your client has a cinema hall and it has been running into losses for the past few years.
Interviewer: Client wants us to analyze the cause of falling profitability and suggest measures to
counter the same.
I went about asking the preliminary questions about the company, its location, number of
Candidate: halls, type of halls, types of movies aired, other entertainment facility if any, other sources
of revenues, locational disadvantages, competition if any.
The movie hall was in South Delhi and was a single screen theatre. It was located in small
Interviewer: lane. It was charging prices similar to other single screen theatres. It had shown decreasing
profits for the past 2 years.
Candidate: I analyzed the costs and revenues.
Interviewer: Please suggest some ways to tackle the issue
Candidate: I suggested numerous ways to tackle the issue.
What went well, did It was an easy profitability case and the standard structure helped in tackling the case
not go well? perfectly.
Please follow a structured approach and that should keep you in safe shores for most of
General Interview
the cases. At the end of the day all that matters is how you approached the problem rather
Notes:
than whether you exactly identified the issue.
ROUND 3
None
questions:
Case problem
Estimate the number of flights landing and taking off from Calcutta airport.
statement:
I went about solving the guesstimate using different approaches and all the methods gave
almost the same answers. Some of the approaches which may be adopted are as follows:
Approach 1:
• Assuming there to be 6 metro cities and 30 tier 1 cities.

• Further assuming each metro city is connected to 5 tier 1 cities.
Candidate: • Then assuming that there are 4 flights to each metro city and 2 to tier 1 cities.
• Assuming that there are hopping flights to another 2 tier 1 cities.
• Now assuming that there are 4 carriers which operate within such cities.
• Assuming no international flights.
• So total flights coming to Kolkata would be: (5*4+5*2+5*2)*4= 160
• So flights leaving would be another 160.
• Total flights landing and taking off = 320.

30
Approach 2:
• Assuming that there is just one run-way.

• And each plane takes 2 minutes to take off and there is a 2 minute switching time.
• Assuming that the airport operates for 18 hours
• So a ball park figure based on this would be 18*60/4= 270
Both the above ways can be further detailed to include various other intricacies (like
international flights, busy time periods at airport, other tier 2 cities etc.) based on the
discussion with the interviewer.
The round was more of a formality as I was told that I had got an offer, and then suddenly,
upon entering the room I was given a guesstimate. I kept my calm and solved the
guesstimate.
For a moment I was taken aback when I was given the guesstimate as I had entered the
What went well,
room thinking of getting an offer as I was told the same outside. But I kept my calm and
didn’t go well?
things panned out well.
General Interview
Don’t panic.
Notes:

31
Name: Raghav Sharma
Under-graduation (Stream & College): Information Technology, NSIT, University of Delhi
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): NA
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
A brief introduction.
questions:
Case type: Valuation
Case problem
Valuation of FC Barcelona
statement:
Interviewer: How would you estimate the value of FC Barcelona?
Talked about how I would try to predict future cashflows and evaluate different
Candidate:
parameters.
Interviewer: Asked me to focus on profits.
Split profits as a function of revenue and cost

Candidate:
Charted out an exhaustive list of all possible revenue streams and cost drivers
Asked me to focus on stadium ticket revenues, and discussed different kinds of tickets:
• differential pricing for home and away

Interviewer: • single match versus season tickets etc.

• broadcasting rights and how there is huge disparity among football clubs in La Liga
when it comes to sharing revenues generated from there.
What went well? I could create an exhaustive structure and pick up most of the cues given by the interviewer.
What didn’t go well? Could have been more composed in the beginning of the interview
General Interview Listening and following the cues of the interviewer is critical.
Notes: The rush to arrive at immediate solutions should be avoided

32
ROUND 2
A brief introduction.
questions:
Case type: Governmental reform
Case problem Indian government wants to reduce the number of ministries. How will you approach this
statement: problem?
Interviewer: A brief introduction followed by the problem statement.
Tried to list down all the major functionalities across key ministries – created a simple
matrix with all functionalities and ministries listed across columns and rows.
Candidate:
Then tried to group different functionalities based on different parameters and allocate
them across the desired number of ministries.
Had a brief discussion on some of the listed functionalities and the rationale behind
Interviewer: clubbing them. Told me about a similar case that came up when the current government
came to power
I took hints from the interviewer to structure the problem and was comfortable once that
What went well?
happened
What did not go well? Could have been more structured in explaining the thoughts
General Interview Remain calm when you get something unconventional. They just want to see how you
Notes: think, how you break it down.

33
Name: Rahul Gupta
Name/Designation of Interviewer: Interviewers were a Partner and a Sr. Partner at the firm respectively
Under-graduation (Stream & College): Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
"Tell me something about yourself.

questions: (Right at the end) Among all the things you have done, what is the one thing you are best
at and what is the one thing which drives you?"
Case type: New product launch
Case problem Multiplex firm wants to enter packaged foods segment. How should we go about it?
statement:
I started by asking the basic questions about the firm and the objectives of the firm for
Candidate:
entering the packaged foods segment.
The firm wants to diversify. The firm has been operating in India for 10 years. They have
Interviewer: multiplexes in Metropolitan, Tier-I, Tier-II cities. They have no packaged foods as of now
apart from their food being served at the multiplexes such as Pop Corns, Bhel Puri,etc.
Next, I asked some questions about the Packaged food industry in India such as growth
Candidate:
rate, major players, level of competition, etc.
Interviewer: The interviewer provided the necessary details.
I then started with breaking the packaged foods industry to see the lucrativeness of each
segment. At first level, I broke into solid foods and liquid foods. Within solid foods, I broke
Candidate:
into modern snacking items, traditional items, etc. Within liquid foods, I broke into Juices,
Beverages like Pepsi, etc., Water, etc.
At this point, the interviewer started cross questioning about why are you breaking into
Interviewer: this segments and what food will you include in all these segments. He tried to confuse by
quickly asking a lot of food items.
After this, I told the metrics which I will use to evaluate each segment. The interviewer
Candidate: asked why are you using these metrics and why not some others. I justified my position
and then evaluated some of the segments.
Interviewer: The interviewer stopped me in between and asked me to make recommendations.

34
When the interview was trying to confuse me, I gave logical answers and maintained my
What went well?
confidence. I also accommodated his suggestions in the structure from time to time.
ROUND 2
Where are you from?
questions:
Case type: Guess estimate
Interview style: Stress
Case problem Guesstimate: Estimate the number of emergencies in India.

statement:
I started by dividing the emergencies in Medical, Non-Medical, Fire Emergencies. Within

Interviewer:
that I divided into emergencies in rural areas and urban areas.
The interviewer asked whether you will use households or individuals to calculate the
Candidate:
number.
I told him in which emergencies, I will use households(such as theft and robbery) and in
Interviewer:
which I will use individuals(such as medical emergencies)
Then he bombarded with me with numbers such as growth rate, etc. and asked me to
Candidate: calculate the emergencies at the end of five years. He also asked me to calculate some
percentages such as what percentage of total emergencies is urban emergencies.
This was a sort of stress test - but I stayed calm and did the calculations as needed slowly.
What went well,
didn’t go well? This round was calculation intensive. I took some seconds extra, but came with the right
answer in the first instance every time which impressed the interviewer.
General Interview Remain calm so that you don’t get stuck with calculations. It is necessary you get them
Notes: correct.

35
Name: Amit M. Warrier
Interviewing Firm: The Boston Consulting Group
Under-graduation (Stream & College): B.Tech. Electrical Engg. IIT Madras
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Telecom Software, QualComm, 20 months
Number of rounds: 1
ROUND 1
Personal/Preliminary How do you deal with stress? Questions about my hobbies and what I would do should I
questions: not go into Consulting.
Case type: Two oral case-lets based on interest areas and one guesstimate
Interview style: Comfortable. Interviewer led the conversation in directions where I was at ease
1. Why has the technology of the driver-less google car not yet translated to the
airplanes industry?
2. Japanese car manufacturers, who have built their brands around strict quality
Case problem control, have recently suffered setbacks in the brand image due to major product-
statement:
recalls recently. How could this happen?
Estimate the amount of data that is transferred in and out the campus per second at a
particular moment.
Interviewer: Hi Amit. I’m sorry to keep you waiting for the last 30 min or so. Did it make you nervous?
It would’ve, but under stressful situations like that where I’ve got nothing to do but wait,
Candidate:
I can easily distract myself. It eases my nerves.
Interviewer: Tell me. What do you in such situations?
Candidate: Talked about a hobby of mine, and how I think about that under stressful situations.
Now, Amit. You’ve had a lot of opportunities to interact with your seniors, your buddies
and the partners of various consulting firms; and I’m sure you’ve figured out what you like
Interviewer:
about a career in consulting and why you’d want to do it. Let’s say, for some reason, you
don’t end up in consulting. What is your plan B?
Talked about my prior interest in Data-driven Operations before I came to campus.

Candidate:
Mentioned my choice of Uber as a dream company.
So you’re interested in Analytics, and data-driven operations right? I’m sure you’re aware
Interviewer: of the driverless google car. Could you tell me why this hasn’t translated to the Airplane
industry yet?

36
First-of-all, I observe that most flights have a significant amount of automation in them. It
Candidate:
is only for take-off, landing and turbulence that the pilot takes over.
Which is significantly more than needs to be done by a driver in a google car. The google
car can take you between any points A and B so long as a car can physically take said route
Interviewer:
without any intervention from a driver. But flights still need pilots to be physically present.
Why is this so?
There could be a few different reasons for this. One thing I’d look at is the feasibility of
incorporating some of the features of the google car in airplanes.
One major advantage of the google car is its ability to communicate with other nearby
google cars at light speed in ways that human drivers cannot; basically acting as constant
Candidate: traffic signals towards each other, thus reducing both the necessity of actual traffic signals
and the possibility of traffic jams and accidents.
A lot of these signals would be processed centrally. But for an airplane that would be flying
across continents 10,000s of feet in the air at 800kmph, central processing and dispatching
info becomes more difficult.
That should ideally not be a concern. Flights having intersecting flight paths are regular
Interviewer: occurrences nowadays, and enough systems are in place to help them communicate with
each other and take action whenever necessary.
Okay. Then another major concern could be the actual cost-to-benefit ratio of
implementing these systems. It could be that the self-driving car is a profitable venture
simply because of the number of cars that are driven across the world.
Candidate: The airplane industry just may not be big enough to warrant putting in place systems that
require constant satellite communication and monitoring of flights. The benefits only
show up where there may be the possibility of pilot inefficiencies during turbulence, take-
off and landing that probably aren’t big enough to warrant such a significant cost.
It’s possible. But consider the possibility of all flights controlled through self-flying
systems. An airplane makes money only when it covers ground as it flies between cities.
It loses money when it sits idly in the hangar and even when it circles above an airport
Interviewer:
waiting for a window to land. If all planes were fully self-flying, all scheduling will be better
optimized. From a cost perspective, one would think that the airplane industry has every
incentive to incorporate the self-flying analytics.
I understand. But these benefits can only truly be realized if a majority of the players in
Candidate: the air-travel industry were to use it. A first-mover may see greater cost than benefit early
on.
That may be. But a major airplane manufacturer could always introduce this technology
and give their customers in the air-travel industry the requisite benefits. There would be
Interviewer:
enough of these self-flying planes around that it would make a difference in cost-savings.
Is there any other reason you can think about?
There is also the concerns of the end-consumer. Self-driven cars have already proven to
be better and less accident-prone than human drivers, if not completely error-free. But
Candidate: the end-consumer is reluctant to give such control to an AI, which is why self-driven cars
have yet to reach to its potential. The same could apply to air-travel; an industry where
there are already a lot of people unwilling to give up control.

37
If you are in a taxi, you do not have much control over the behavior of your driver. In an
airplane, you have even less control. This particular obstacle should be smaller for air-
Interviewer:
travel than it is for cars. And yet we haven’t so much as heard of companies testing out
planes with self-flying capability. Any other thoughts?
Took a moment to think.
There is something about the airplane industry that strikes me as funny. Commercial
airplanes have seen very little innovation for a long time. The only innovation in design,
Candidate: since the 1960s, have been in the interior of the plane. Even today, planes are being
tracked by radar like the MH370 and they need to be fished out to collect the Black Box
instead of tracking and collecting info via satellite. For some reason, the airplane industry
is averse to technological innovation.
You are right. The airplane industry is heavily regulated, and that is why innovation is
Interviewer:
minimal. Let’s move on. Is there a particular sector that you are interested in?
Candidate: (Chose the automobile industry)
Japanese car manufacturers, who have built their brands around strict quality control,
Interviewer: have recently suffered setbacks in the brand image due to major product-recalls recently.
How could this happen?
To understand this, I’d look at the value-chain as a whole. As good as their quality checks
may be, they can only exercise that over the value-chain that they have direct control over
Candidate:
the issue might spark from those areas of the value-chain that they have little control over.
It could be that some of the components they acquire aren’t up to standard.
As you mentioned, their quality checks are the best in the business. One would think that
Interviewer:
these quality checks would also be applied on the inbound materials.
Then I’d look at the outbound logistics. Could there be a problem with their shipping? Any
Candidate: particular reason the car that the end-consumer buys isn’t of the same quality standard
as the car shipped out of the plant?
Shipping of heavy goods are a fairly standardized process right now. I doubt that it would
Interviewer:
be a concern.
Well the problem lies within their own processes then. Another concern with having an
overly-extensive quality-check system is how it makes the overall R&D process more
sluggish. Could it be that there is a change in one of their markets, and the Japanese
Candidate: players have been unable to react quickly enough to said change? Do we know where this
recall happened exactly?
Yet to use pen and paper for both case-lets up until this point.
We’re short on time. I want you to estimate the amount of data that is being consumed
Interviewer:
per second from IIM Calcutta as of this moment.
Broke down the demography of the students across campus based on how they might be
Candidate: using data at this point. Broke them down into
• PGP2s+students on-campus who are in their hostels.

38
• Members of residential quarters who are still at home.

• Staff, faculty and Offices.
• PGP1s in L3.
• PGP1s tied up in interview rooms.
• Company officials on-campus.
Estimated what percentage of them would be actively browsing and what they would be
browsing to estimate the average amount of data bandwidth required by each person.
Purely qualitative, no calculation.
Interviewer: Do you think the choice of device used will affect the total estimate?
Yes, for multiple reasons. Many sites have a data-conservative version for mobiles as
Candidate: opposed to for laptops. Also, people who browse using mobile data might be more careful
with their data usage as opposed to one who uses the institute’s internet bandwidth.
Interviewer: What about Android vs iOS?
I’d expect minimal difference between the two. Even if a difference exists, it would
probably be purely behavioral. There is a stereotype that exists around Apple users in that
Candidate: they tend to use the default device settings, while android users tweak with their phones
a lot more. This could result in greater background data usage for iOS users. But I’d expect
minimal change.
Interviewer: Do you have any questions for me?
Asked about the possibility of one of Facebook/Google/Microsoft acquiring a major

managerial consulting player who lacks the same analytics support that BCG has, and how
Candidate: BCG would react to a situation like that.
Made to wait in the interview room alone for 2 min before the campus champion entered
the room and broke the news of my selection.
The ideas kept flowing, immaterial of whether I was doing well or not. That may have
What went well?
worked in my favor. The guesstimate went very well. I was calm the entire time.
A lot. I didn’t solve the 2nd caselet, and I was rushed into the solution for the first. Didn’t
What didn’t go well? even realize the cases had begun and approached both caselets without pen and paper. I
didn’t lay out a structure for either caselet.
Stay calm, and let the ideas flow. Structures help in covering as much ground as possible,
but it pays be creative while considering your options during a case.
General Interview
Understand that if you are only as good as everyone else on the partner’s team of
Notes:
consultants, then there is nothing new you’d bring to the table and you are of little use to
them. Show them how creative you are with your cases and solutions, while not losing too
much grip on your case structures.

39
Name: Rachit Agarwal
Name/Designation of Interviewer: Principal
Under-graduation (Stream & College): B.A.(Hons.) Economics , Hindu College , University of Delhi
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): 20 Months (Transfer Pricing -Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP)
Number of rounds: 1
ROUND 1
• Tell me about yourself in 1 minute

• Why Transfer Pricing after college? Detailed discussion around recent
developments in this field.
questions:
• Why did you Join IIM Cal over ISB? (I had an offer from ISB and the interviewer had
done his MBA from ISB).
Case type: Diversification & market entry
Your client is a healthcare giant which is looking to enter the cement industry. A cement
Case problem
plant is up for sale in east India and the client is looking to enter the industry by acquiring
statement:
this plant. Please advise.
Interviewer: Read the problem statement.
Before I proceed I would like to clarify the problem statement. As I understand our client
is a healthcare giant which is looking to enter the cement industry. There is a plant which
Candidate:
is up for sale in east India and the client wants our advice on whether he should go ahead
with the acquisition or not.
Interviewer: Yes.
Candidate: Can you tell me more about our client and his operations?
Your client is one of the biggest healthcare player in India. It is operating at a Pan India
Interviewer:
level.
Candidate: Why is the client looking to enter the cement industry? What are the objectives?
The client wants to diversify its business and is looking for opportunities to enter into
Interviewer:
cement sector. The objectives are to maximize revenues and break-even in next 5 years.
Candidate: Thank you. May I have a minute to lay down the structure?
Interviewer: Sure.
Took a moment to note some things down. Under opportunities I wrote the following:
Candidate: a. Industry attractiveness (Cement)
b. Competitive analysis

40
c. Business Evaluation (Revenue/Cost/Profits)
d. Financial consideration
Under threats I wrote the following:

a. Regulatory concerns
b. Impact on our primary business (healthcare)
Interviewer: Good. Please proceed.
As the client is looking to enter the cement industry, I would like to know how the cement
Candidate:
industry is doing currently, what is the growth rate (trend) in this industry.
Interviewer: The cement industry in India is doing fine. The growth rate is around 5-6%.
As mentioned, there is a plant up for sale in east India which our client is looking to acquire.
Candidate: Are there any other plants for sale in India? Also, why are we not looking to enter this
industry conventionally?
Good Question!
The cement plant in East India is owned by a global cement player who has to sell it
Interviewer: because of regulatory reasons. Thus, I want you to evaluate the prospects of acquiring this
plant only.
For the purposes of this case, look only at the East India market.
How is the competition within the industry? How many players are there and how are they
Candidate:
differentiated? Also, how is the potential plant (the one we are evaluating) placed?
The industry is fragmented and there are 3 big players which cater to 65% of the market
and the rest are local players. The plant has a 25% share and the other 2 have 20% each.
Interviewer:
The big players produce higher quality cement but are expensive while the local players
sell cement at a relatively lower price.
I quickly drew the value chain and went into each part of it. I was then asked to focus on
Candidate: the post production side only.
Who are our major customers, retail sale or big builders.
Interviewer: We sell 75% through retail channel and the rest is to small and big builders.
Ok. How do we sell the cement? Is it through a network of retailers? Also, with regard to
Candidate:
builders do we have any contracts with them?
We sell cement through a network of retailers.

Interviewer:
Now, I would like you to list down would be the biggest risks if we acquire this plant?
Took a minute to think.
I would look at the following:

Candidate: 1. Brand Risk
2. Capacity utilization risk
3. Regulatory risks
4. Impact on primary business
Interviewer: Brand risk is what I am looking for.

41
Assume if we acquire this plant what is the brand risk that we face?
Since we are not present in this business, using our own brand to market the cement could
impact our brand image.
Candidate:
Also, a major part of the revenue of this plant comes from retail sale, and changing the
brand name would affect the sale and market share of this plant in East India market.
Interviewer: Ok. Can you quantify this risk.
Asked for a moment to think.
We can talk to retailers to figure out how are the sales impacted through brand.
Candidate:
We can also look if any company has entered into the cement business this way in the past
and how has the brand risk affected the company.
Yes, there was a similar situation in the past when a big conglomerate in India had entered
Interviewer: into the cement business. However, can you suggest any other way to quantify the brand
risk?
Candidate: Do Market Research to find out how brand impacts sale.
Yes, Market research is what is generally done in such scenarios. Now can you suggest
Interviewer:
some ways to mitigate this risk
We can do the following:
1. Run a large marketing campaign to make people aware of our brand

Candidate: 2. We could also enter into a deal wherein we use the name of the existing company
and slowly phase out their name with our own.
See if we can acquire other cement plants wherein we also buy the brand.
I think these would be helpful. Now leaving aside the financial consideration, tell me
Interviewer:
whether your client should enter the cement business or not?
Herein I tried to re-state the opportunities and threats that we had discussed in the case
Candidate: however I was pressed for a direct answer. I said that a lot depends but given the current
situation the client should go ahead with the acquisition.
Interviewer: Ok. Can you please summarize the case.
Candidate: Summarized.
Interviewer: Thank you Rachit. It was nice interacting with you. Do you have any questions for me?
Candidate: Was prepared with a question.
Interviewer: Answered the question, and asked me to wait for two minutes. After 2 minutes, an offer
was extended.
What went well, The initial 5 minutes of personal questions set the tone for the entire interview. Also, I had
didn’t go well? some prior industry knowledge which came out to be very useful.
General Interview Be calm. Don’t be nervous. Prepare personals very well. It’s important to keep the
Notes: interviewer engaged in the case.


42
Name: Yash Choudhary
Under-graduation (Stream & College): IIT Kanpur, Metallurgy
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Consulting, ZS Associates, 22 months
Number of rounds: 1
ROUND 1
Personal/Preliminary Tell me about yourself. Elaborate on the PORs held. What was one key challenge you faced
questions: while working on PORs?
Case type: Market Entry
Case problem The client is an automobile manufacturer, currently present only in India. It is looking to
statement: expand and enter country X. What factors will you analyze while entering the market?
Our client is an automobile manufacturer currently having operations only in India. They
Interviewer: are looking to expand their operations and enter country X. What factors will you analyze
while entering this market?
Re-stated the problem statement to check if my understanding is correct.

Candidate: What is objective for entering Country X, and is there any metric which can be used to
decide to enter the market or not?
The objective is to increase sales and profits. Client wants to break even in 3 years post
Interviewer:
entering the market
Candidate: What are the products that our client has?
Interviewer: Our client has only one product – a motorcycle
Laid down the overall strategy here.
First, I will analyze the market potential for motorcycles in Country X. Then by assessing
Candidate: the competition and PODs for our product I will understand the market share our client
can get. Based on this I will find the sales for our product and then analyze costs to find
profits. If the profits are sufficient to break even in 3 years, we will look at establishing the
value chain i.e. whether to enter market organically, establish JV or acquire.
Interviewer: Alright. What data will you need to find the market potential for motorcycle in Country X?
First I’d like to know the population of country X. Then I’d segment it by Rural/ Urban,
Candidate:
after that understand the average household size in Country X by Rural Urban.

43
This will help me find the number of households. Then I’ll segment the households by
income levels and find the segment which can afford a motorcycle.
Fair enough, assume that the no. of motorcycles sold in Country X last year was 1 crore,
Interviewer:
and there is a growth of 10%.
So I’ll assume that market size when our client enters the market is 1.1 crore motorcycles.
Candidate: Now, I’d like to assess the market share our client can capture. To understand this I’d like
to know more about our product, competition, and consumers in Country X.
Interviewer: What information will you need?
Who are the major players in Country X? How is our product compared to the competitor’s
product in terms of - engine capacity, riding comfort, mileage, and price? What are the
Candidate:
factors that drive consumer purchases in country X – is it performance, comfort or
mileage/ price?
There is one major player in Country X; they also have only product i.e. One model of
motorcycle. Our product is quite similar to that of the competitor; however there is a
difference in price and mileage. Our product is priced at 50k, whereas competitor’s
Interviewer:
product is priced at 35k. Mileage of our product is 50km/ltr whereas that of competitor’s
is 35km/ ltr. The consumers are concerned only about price and will take the product
which is cheaper irrespective of other features.
So our product is expensive by 15k, and has better mileage than our competitor’s.
Candidate: However, you mentioned that consumers are only concerned about price. Is there any
way we can reduce the price of our product by analyzing costs?
No, the client does not want to reduce the price of the product, and costs are also
Interviewer: optimized. What will you suggest to our client? Should they not enter the market as
consumers will not purchase an expensive product?
No, we can market our product differently. Instead of showing our upfront price of 50k,
we can market in terms of total running costs. By total running costs, I mean that over the
Candidate:
life of product consumers can benefit from better mileage of our product and hence save
in terms of running costs.
Interviewer: Alright, sounds reasonable. What information will you need to do this analysis?
I’d like to understand the average distance driven in a year, the price of petrol in Country
Candidate:
X, and average duration a motorcycle is owned?
Assume that on an average a person rides 10,000 kms/year, price of petrol is 100/ ltr, and
Interviewer:
owns a motorcycle for 7 years before disposing/selling it.
Based on this information, running cost every year for competitor’s product will be 10k
divided by 35 multiplied by 100 which comes out approx. 28k. For our product it will be
10k divided by 50 multiplied by 100 which is 20k. Hence, on an average a customer will
Candidate:
save 8k/ year in running costs by owning our product. Hence we can market our product
in a way that during 7 years of ownership, customers will save 56k compared to the
competitor’s product and sell our product at a premium of 15k.

44
Sounds good. Assume that based on this strategy, our client is able to capture 10% market
Interviewer: share. How will you go about analyzing the break even, just give me your methodology
since we are running out of time?
If our client captures 10% market share in first year, our sales would be 1.1 crore multiplied
by 10% multiplied by 50k, and I’ll assume it to grow by 10% every year which is growth of
Candidate: market. Now, I’d like to understand our variable costs to find our contribution margin per
unit sales. Once I have the contribution margin, I’ll analyze the fixed costs to find the no.
of unit sales required to break even in 3 years.
Alright, we can end our case here. This was a case on which I worked last year, and our
Interviewer:
solution was also on similar lines. Any questions?
Asked a couple of questions about the current trend in pharma industry since the
Candidate: interviewer had experience of working in pharma industry and I had also worked on
pharma projects in ZS. The discussion went on for 10 minutes and was quite interesting.
What went well? I was able to come up with a market entry strategy for the client’s product quickly
Be comprehensive with your list of factors.
Do your case prep well; it helps a lot. Doing different type of cases will help you create a
General Interview database in your mind of different situations and make you familiar with handling different
Notes: scenarios. Also, go through the evolved case frameworks given in IITB casebook, they are
very streamlined and can be tweaked easily to apply in various scenarios.
And, research about the firm well so that you can ask some good questions in the end.

45
Name: Larunika Gaur
Under-graduation (Stream & College): IIT Bombay
Galaxy Surfactants Ltd. - 2.5 yrs (Chemical Core + Gen Man)

Auctus Advisors - 1.5 yrs ( Consulting)
Number of rounds: 1
ROUND 1
Started with generic chit chat, then moved on to tell me about yourself.
Personal/Preliminary Then asked a little more about my first firm - What do they do? etc.
questions:
Then asked me about my work at my second firm - describe a few projects. Asked a
question about a specific project.
Your client is a furniture manufacturer who has been seeing a decline in profit per unit.
Case problem
Find out why?
statement:
Make recommendations.
Interviewer: Read out the case statement.
Candidate: Where is the client located?
Interviewer: Maharashtra - supplies Pan-India
Candidate: What kind of products do they manufacture?
Interviewer: 3 different types.
Candidate: Is this a segment specific problem?
Interviewer: Yes, only OPOS Office cubicle segment.
Candidate: Are our competitors also facing similar issues?
Interviewer: No.
Okay, let me structure my thoughts.

Candidate:
Made a tree - Price, Cost and Mix.
Mix is not relevant as cost and price are the same of all. Price is; we had slashed price to
Interviewer:
match the competitors’ price.

46
Okay, as competition had lowered their price without any effect on profits per unit, they
definitely have a cost advantage.
Candidate: Therefore, now I would like to look in to the various cost factors and identify the reason
behind our problem.
Started drawing value chain and identifying factors.
Interviewer: Focus on raw materials.
Candidate: What are the various raw materials that we use?
Interviewer: Ply-wood boards
Candidate: Do we use multiple varieties or just one?
Interviewer: Multiple.
Candidate: Are our suppliers same as our competitors’?
No, we buy our raw materials from Indian suppliers, while our competition buys them from
Interviewer:
a Malaysian supplier.
As our costs are higher, I am assuming the Malaysian supplier charges a lower price for the
Candidate: raw materials. Is there a particular reason why we are not procuring from the same
vendor?
Importing requires a lead time of 2 months while local procurement takes only 3 weeks.
Interviewer: Our client cannot afford such a long lead time as demand is variable in nature, and our
client places order for raw materials after receiving the order for furniture.
How is the competition managing it? Are they keeping inventory? Do they have long term
Candidate:
contracts? Also, are our competitors making all similar products?
Actually, our competitors only make furniture of one color, while we provide a wider range
Interviewer:
of colors.
Okay. Therefore, it’s riskier for us to keep the inventory. How much do these colored
Candidate:
products contribute to our total sales? Also, do we sell them at the same price?
About 40% and yes, we charge the same price for them. I think you have identified why
Interviewer:
the profits are declining. Can you give some recommendations and summarize?
Our client is fraught with declining profits. This decline in profits is due to the revision in
our selling prices, which we had to decrease in order to match our competitor's price.
Our competitor is able to manage the low price due to cheaper imported raw material
from Malaysia.
We cannot procure the material from the same source due to long lead time and potential
Candidate: inventory issues as we produce more variety of products and we place order only after
getting confirmation from our clients due to high fluctuation in demand.
To improve profits, we can:
1. To improve profit per unit, we can concentrate on only one color variant just like
our competitors, however, that will hit our revenues as colored variants comprise
a significant portion of our sales

47

2. We can import the raw material only for the normal variant, this should marginally
improve our profit.

3. We can align the customers about the lead time of our products and then change
the vendor.

4. We can use option 2 and additionally increase the price for the colored variants
and as we are the only ones providing them, we can command a premium
Interviewer: That sounds right. Thank you.
Good preliminary questions to isolate the problem. Keeping the interviewer aligned with
What went well?
my thought process.
Was a bit nervous at the beginning, but was able to stay calm after the personal questions
round.

48
Name: Keshav Bagri
Under-graduation (Stream & College): SSCBS, Delhi University
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Consulting + Finance (Goldman Sachs, The Smart Cube,34)
Number of rounds: 1
ROUND 1
Personal/Preliminary Why Consulting? In a consulting setup level which level delivers the maximum impact in
questions: a study? Typical team structure in a consulting project?
Case type: Growth plus retaining market share
Interview style: Friendly, Conversational
Client is a public sector oil company which retails petroleum products and has a 60%
Case problem market share. Lately Govt. has deregulated diesel prices, and it is facing a threat with the
statement: entry of new private players. He wants us to help him to retain his market share and help
him grow.
Interviewer: Read out the case statement
Asked some clarification questions to scope out the problem. Covered geography, market
share, reasons for being market leader, type of threat from private players (price,
Candidate: technology), impact of deregulation on industry.
Understood that the firm has a 60% market share with pan India presence and pumps in
Rural/ Urban/ Highway areas.
Interviewer: Tell me how you will proceed now based on the data given
Asked for some time to draw out the structure. Listed that I will try to look at the
Industry, Company, Target Segment, Threats Internal (Complacency due to being market
leader?), External (Impact of price deregulation on industry dynamics and our profit
Candidate:
structure), Competitors (Factors at which they might be better than us: Technology, Price,
Fuel Quality/ Mileage etc.), Revenues (broke it down into Number of pumps * Volume
sold per pump)
Interviewer: Good, let us now drill deeper into the revenue aspect which you mentioned.
Touched upon number of pumps, which was fine. Mentioned that we could try to
penetrate the under-served areas if they still existed.
Candidate:
Moved onto steps to increase volume sold per pump – mentioned loyalty schemes, mile
points, additional revenue streams such as convenience stores and linking the purchase
with petrol sold. (multiple knocks on the door)
All these are already in place and being adopted by the client. What other factors will
Interviewer:
you look at?

49
Here I was a bit clueless and tried to look at other factors I had mentioned initially. Based
Candidate:
on the cues which he provided I probed into competitors branch further.
Interviewer: He gave an approving nod and told to go on
Told that since competition would come from private players, we could look at their
existing model in other countries (if any) and their key differentiating factors. Quickly
drew a matrix like structure wherein I listed a few parameters (quality, service,
Candidate:
technology, cost etc.) and told that we could benchmark ourselves with the competitors
on each of these factors to understand which metrics might pose a suitable threat for us
and in which ones we need to retain our dominance.
Seemed satisfied. One final question on what is the difference in playing style between
Interviewer:
Volleyball and Basketball. I had been a district level volleyball player in school.
Mentioned that Volleyball is more a strategy based game where in the player’s position,
rotation, synergies and capitalizing on other team player’s weaknesses are crucial.
Candidate: Basketball is more a skill based game where you need to use your best players to the
fullest, cover court at all times and give frequent shoot opportunities to the best
attackers
Told to wait for 2 minutes (seemed the longest wait then!). Post that a company
Interviewer:
representative came to congratulate me and extended the offer
I could capitalize on the initial question on Why Consulting and also give a good answer
to the last question. So my opening and closing was pretty good which helped. During the
What went well?
case discussion I involved the interviewer, took his approval at each stage and tried to
keep it conversational.
The case structuring, analysis and targeting the right issues could have been much better.
What didn’t go well? Although I was able to build from the cues of the interviewer, it was probably the
nervousness due to which the case analysis was not the best.
Being calm, confident and composed is what will help you in the interviews. It is easier said
than done during the D-day when the stakes are high and you can get swayed away but
try to keep yourself calm and confident. The first 5-10 minutes of personals are when you
want to develop a friendly bond with the interviewer so that he can guide you/ offer cues
later on in the interview if you get stuck. During the case analysis very important to keep
the interviewer involved as he will get irritated if you go down the wrong line and further
do not check your approach with him.
General Interview Interviewers are looking for reasons to hire you especially during the 8am slot. If you have
Notes:
prepared well for personals, genuinely motivated in consulting and that reflects in your
answers and case structuring, analysis and synthesis then you have a great shot to convert.
For any other queries, feel free to mail.
Interactions are extremely important especially if you have shortlists from majority of the
Big 4. Formal/informal dinners help you understand the firm and people and post dinner
interactions help you build connections and be remembered. Buddy cases again are
extremely important. Ensure you have done basic case level practice and done some
mock cases before your first buddy case.

50
Name: Anik Khandelwal
Under-graduation (Stream & College): DCE - IT
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Paytm – 36 months
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
The interviewer did not go through my CV and so It started with tell me about yourself
questions:
Case problem
Estimate revenue potential of Zomato.
statement:
Since you have worked in a startup and we have our green shoots program let’s discuss
Interviewer: about a startup. We have estimate the revenue for Zomato from ads, table reservations
and food delivery in metro cities.
Candidate: Sure. Before starting I just want to know some details.
Interviewer: Sure. Go ahead.
Do we have to consider the current Indian market with the current mobile penetration
Candidate:
rate.
Interviewer: Yes, let’s do that.
So the population of Delhi is 40 million and dividing them by income group and then by
age group we have a number X (not very sure of the numbers). Now considering the
Candidate: mobile penetration rate across different income sectors, and acceptance factor of
Zomato, we have a number Y (X multiplied by the mobile penetration factor).
Interviewer: Fine, so is this per day, per week week or annually.
Candidate: Sir, this is the total annual value at the moment.
Interviewer: Fine, Let’s focus on one week.
Sure. So if we are talking about just ads, for each age group of different income sector the
usage will differ.
Candidate:
We then moved onto calculating the total average weekly consumption for a person. So
now we have a figure Z the daily value will be Z/7.

51
Ok. Now you have the weekly/daily visits. Calculate the total revenue of all restaurants in
Interviewer:
Delhi.
Ok. I start by assuming the average amount spent per customer to be Rs. 500 (this was
Candidate: wrong but luckily I was asking the interviewer before every assumption so I wasn’t in
trouble). The total revenue will be visits per customer * 500 * target audience.
Interviewer: Now calculate the total number of restaurants in Delhi.
Since we have the consumption rate and the total revenue, let’s assume a restaurant to
have average seating capacity of 100.
Candidate: Now depending upon different time the occupancy rate will be different so assuming
occupancy rate to be A, B, C ,D between 9-12, 12-4, 4-8, 8-12, we can calculated the value.
The count came to around 20000.
Good. You are close. It’s 18000 in Delhi. Now back to the problem what is the revenue
Interviewer:
potential?
Since we have the revenue and the total revenue contributed via Zomato, taking a 10%
Candidate:
commission rate, the value is E.
Interviewer: Now through reservations.
Since we know the target audience for ads, our target for reservation can be deduced by
Candidate: just tweaking the acceptance/usage factor. I came up with figure. Now considering 10-
20% commission rate, the revenue is F.
Interviewer: Good, now through delivery.
Did the whole process again with a different commission value and came up with the
Candidate:
answer.
Interviewer: Good, do you want to check something
The revenue figures are quite high, just give me 2 minutes to re-check. The average
Candidate:
expenditure is very high, I’m not sure this is the correct value
Interviewer: Yes, let’s change it to 100. Now what’s your final answer
Take 1/5th of all.

Candidate:
The final value now reduced by 20%.
Interviewer: Now recommend how to change/improve the revenue from these channels only.
Gave recommendations based upon per user taps, total occupancy contribution by
Candidate:
Zomato, higher commission on high amount orders.
Good Anik. I think you did it pretty well and covered all the aspects. Just wait here for a
Interviewer:
while.
What went well, Kept the interviewer involved the entire time. A discussion about our common interests
didn’t go well? initially helped set the tone.

52
Take your time be MECE at all points. There is no hurry. Just maintain your composure and
General Interview
be confident. Stress on details and be very clear in your head about what you are doing
Notes:
and why you are doing that.
ROUND 2
How are doing?
questions:
Case type: Pricing Case
Interview style: Friendly.
Case problem Suggest the technique to price a new product in cow feed.
statement:
Interviewer: So, let’s directly start with the case. How would you price cow feed?
I asked basic questions to understand the product, how is it used, frequency, the location
Candidate:
of launch.
He answered a few and then cut the rest. Let’s forget the preliminaries, just tell me your
Interviewer:
approach.
We’ll look at the market and the competitors first. Then we’ll look at the pricing part and
do it in 3 ways:
Cost based – Depending upon the amount we have spent producing on it, so as to after
adding a margin get the minimum price to sell it at.
Candidate: Competitor based – Depending upon how the competitor is pricing it we’ll know have a
range of price with the cost-based price being the lower bound, and the competitor-based
being the upper bound.
Value based – Depending upon the quality of the product, its value to the customer, and
the price elasticity. This will help us choose a value in the range we have earlier defined.
Good. That’s the correct approach now let’s do another case.

Interviewer: Your client is a steel manufacturer and wants to set up a new plant. Suggest how will you
choose the new location. I don’t want anything else but the drivers.
Candidate: I suggest 5 drivers.
Interviewer: Good. One of your drivers, the customer. Give me 5 drivers based on customers.
Candidate: I suggested 5 drivers.
Interviewer: There was some cross questioning based on the drivers, at which point the interview ended.
What went well, Being confident helped I was able to justify all my points and even when I was asked to
didn’t go well? move away from the structure I was able to think straight
General Interview Never lose your composure. Just don’t get nervous in case the other person tries to put
Notes: pressure on you.


53
Name: Sanchit Garg
Name/Designation of Interviewer: Partner
Under-graduation (Stream & College): Delhi University, BA (H) Economics
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): 0
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
Personal/Preliminary Tell me about yourself, followed by the interviewer introducing himself and a 2-minute
questions: ice-breaker.
Case type: Increasing volume.
Interview style: Formal.
Case problem
Your client owns a sea port and wants to increase their volume of the goods.
statement:
Candidate: Asked some clarifying questions, about

1. the clients
2. what services they provide
3. target customers
4. geography
5. basic process
Interviewer: Explained the process.

The shipment arrives at the dock via a vessel where it is unloaded. The customer hires
crane services to load the cargo and transport via a private contractor.
Candidate: Started with the basic equation. Volume of goods transported = order volume/customer *
order volume/shipment * no of customers
Interviewer: You are missing something in this equation. Can you figure it out.
Candidate: Tried to figure out the problem. But couldn't do so even after 2-3 minutes. The interviewer
moved on to other aspects of the case. He didn't tell me if I had said the right thing or not.
Interviewer: If a customer is shipping X tons via your client's port and Y via some other port, what can
be the reasons for it?
Candidate: There can be three reasons for it. Firstly, the factory or warehouse of the client is located
at two different places.
Interviewer: Assume just one factory.
Candidate: Then it can be either due to better prices or faster processing time.

54
Interviewer: Can you calculate the total cost to customer in our port and another competing port A?
He gave the charges per day of different aspects and also average lead time for each port.
Candidate: Calculated the total cost to customer.
Interviewer: Can you make some inferences from it?
Candidate: I don't remember exactly what I said, but the total cost to customer was higher in the port
which had lower prices per day.
Interviewer: Can you summarize the case.
Candidate: I summarized the case and gave my recommendations.
Interviewer: Any questions?
Candidate: Was it a real life case?
Interviewer: Yes. All the cases we ask are real life cases. He went on the explain what recommendations
they suggested. They were broadly similar to what I had suggested.
What went well? I followed the hints given by the interviewer and kept my cool.
What didn’t go well? My start was weak.
General Interview
Prepare you cases really well. Try to explore as many sectors as possible.
Notes:
ROUND 2
questions: None.
Case type: 2 short cases with only structure.
Case problem It was a short interview where the interviewer asked me two cases. Only the
statement: structure/layout was expected - not the solution
Interviewer: Case 1: Your client is launching cattle feed in the Indian market. How will you price it?
Candidate: Briefly mentioned the various pricing mechanisms.
Interviewer: Case 2: Your client is a steel producer and wants to expand in the Indian market. How will
you devise a growth strategy.
Candidate: Briefly mentioned various growth strategies using ideas from the Ansoff matrix.
What went well? I believe that my opening questions were my strength. I made sure that I didn't miss any
relevant information about what the client actually does. Previous industry knowledge
helped.
What did not go well? Nothing is specific. The interview was really good.
General Interview Prepare opening questions well. A mistake at the start can jeopardize the entire case. Keep
Notes: a list of exhaustive questions in your mind and tune it according to each case


55
Name: Mangipudi Lakshmi Meenakshi
Under-graduation (Stream & College): IIT Madras
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Consulting in Analytics Domain, EXL Services, 22 Months
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
None. I was asked to solve a case directly
questions:
Case type: Analyzing competitive threat
A metals manufacturer in India, (single manufacturer for the whole country) got to know
Case problem
that some competitor X is trying to enter the market. Analyze the situation and suggest
statement:
recommendations.
Interviewer: Gives the problem statement and says nothing.
Summarized the question.
Candidate: From my understanding, I would like to proceed by understanding our business,

competitor’s business and suggest recommendations based on that. Do you want me to
proceed in any particular way other than this?
Interviewer: Go ahead.
Our business is related to manufacturing. Who are our end customers? And where exactly
Candidate:
do we fit in this metals’ business.
We make one type of alloy sheets and sell to construction companies. These companies
Interviewer:
are fragmented and there is no major player.
Candidate: Can I ask about the demand in the metal’s business? And how much are we supplying?
There is growth in the metal’s business. Currently we satisfy only 70% of the demand and
Interviewer:
the rest is from imports.
Since we have been in this business for a long time, I assume we have good reputation
Candidate:
and would like to move to understand the competitor? How good is he at the business?
He is into different alloy making. With respect to this specific skill set, we are slightly
Interviewer:
better.

56
Candidate: Will our costs be lower when compared to the competitor?
Interviewer: No.
Thought for some time.

Candidate:
Where do we operate in India and where are the customers located?
Let’s divide the customers into 5 regions. North, west, south, east and central. Our plant
is located in Jharkhand.
Interviewer:
Customer demand is 15%, 30%, 30%, 10%, 15% (approximate numbers) respectively in the
5 regions.
Candidate: Where will the competitors set up their plant?
Interviewer: In Western India.
Since he is in the Western zone, he will be able to satisfy the needs of west and south
Candidate: better with lesser transportation costs. While the central part is neutral to both plants,
our market share could easily decline to 40% or below because of the distance.
Interviewer: Yes. Can you suggest recommendations?
Listed down 2-3 recommendations, then change to SWOT analysis

Candidate: Based on these strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company, I would
like to make some recommendations. How feasible is it to shift the plant location?
Interviewer: Might be difficult. What are the other recommendations?
Extending the product line is one option. Since he is the single player, he can control prices
and make entry difficult. He can start some other business along similar lines. He can
Candidate: create long term contracts with the construction companies.
He can acquire the competitor to make the business strong in western zone. Since only
70% of the demand is met, he can ignore the competitor for the rest 30%. Etc.
You have covered 90% of the recommendations. What about selling to the other
Interviewer:
countries?
Candidate: Yes, he can also do that.
Interviewer: Can you summarize the case?
Candidate: Summarized
Interviewer: Please wait for further instructions.
What went well? Asked correct questions.
What didn’t go well? Could have made more recommendations.

57
Overall the case was ok. Listen to the interviewer and take his inputs at every point. Initially
General Interview
I was a bit nervous. But as the case progressed, got involved with it. Keep calm and smile
Notes:
as much as possible.
ROUND 2
Asked about the previous round. I said that it was fine but that there was scope for
improvement. Looked at my resume and asked about the two great things I feel about my
questions:
resume. Then proceeded to the case.
Case type: Growth strategy
Case problem A steel tubes manufacturer in the country (established 50 years ago) is experiencing
statement: stagnant growth. Your take is to assess the scope for improvement in his business.
(After summarizing) I want to understand our company, what are our products, where are
Candidate:
we located in India and who are our customers?
There are 3 products we manufacture. Say A, B, C. We cover almost entire India and we
sell our 3 products to different types of costumers.
Interviewer: Type 1: for pipes
Type 2: for non-structural components of the building
Type 3: for nuclear reactors’ business
Candidate: Can I understand more about these 3 products and their share in revenues?
Interviewer: Tells their share. One particular product is having high share.
I notice that this product is having high share, do we have information regarding the
Candidate:
factory utilization, for the 3 products?
Interviewer: Gives the factory utilization .Factory is used more for another product with lower share.
Can we change the factory utilization to produce more of Type 1 which is having high share
Candidate:
in the revenues?
Yes, we can do that and but after that profits will decline further. Is there any other
Interviewer:
parameter to look at?
Thought for some time.

Candidate: How much time is required to make Type 1, Type 2 and Type 3? If Type 1 is taking so much
time, then instead of that we can produce more Type 2 and Type 3 for better profits.
Interviewer: Yes, that was the problem. Can we look at other aspects?

58
Candidate: I would like to look at pricing. Maybe if the prices are changed, we can get better profits.
Currently we price the product at 1.2 times the competitor because we produce a
Interviewer:
premium product.
Candidate: Can I look at increasing price part because ours is a premium product?
Interviewer: Yes. If the price is increased by x amount, the volume decreases by the same x amount.
Looks like revenues might not get effected that much.
Realized I had made a mistake.
Candidate: It actually depends on the price and volume values. If increasing price and decreasing
volume lessens the number distance between the 2 numbers, then revenue is increased
Based on if the sum is constant, multiplication value is optimum when the two numbers
are equal.
Interviewer: Yes, that is fine with respect to the revenues. Let’s look at the costs.
Candidate: Do we have numbers on the fixed and variable costs associated with this?
He gave details regarding fixed costs, variable costs, current prices and volumes.
Interviewer:
How do we find the optimum price?
Candidate: We can write the profit equation and differentiate it to find the optimum price.
Interviewer: Yes. Can you write the equation and find optimum price?
Did the calculations and messed up the sign.

Candidate:
Looks like I am having difficulty with the sign.
Interviewer: That’s ok. Ignore the sign and tell me the final number
Candidate: Told the final optimum price.
Interviewer: Cool. The case is over. Please wait for some time.
What went well? Logic was correct at all stages.
What did not go well? Calculation mistake could be avoided.
General Interview It is ok to make mistakes. Ask interviewer for time and correct them. I was not expecting
Notes: numeric cases. Be prepared for everything.

59
Name: Shantanu Tewari
Under-graduation (Stream & College): Electrical Engineering, IIT Kanpur
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): None
Number of rounds: 1
ROUND 1
Tell me about your undergraduate internship. Describe one problem that you solved
Personal/Preliminary during your internship.
questions:
Spoke briefly about the overall work done.
Interview style: Serious
Case problem The client is a furniture manufacturer based in India and has been experiencing reduced
statement: profits. Identify the reason for the same and suggest solutions.
Let us start the case. Our client is a furniture manufacturer based in India and has been
Interviewer:
experiencing reduced profits. Identify the reason for the same and suggest solutions.
Sure.
Repeated the problem statement and then took a short while to note down a checklist for
Candidate:
basic questions.
Apart from profits is there anything else I should take care of?
Interviewer: No, the profits are of concern here.
To start with, I would like to ask some basic details so that I understand the problem well.
Candidate: I would like to know about the products we manufacture, Also, where are we in value
chain, whom do we sell to, and is it pan-India?
We make every type of furniture for customers throughout India. We manufacture and
Interviewer:
then sell it to retailers.
Candidate: This includes office furniture and furniture used for personal use?
Interviewer: Yes.
Candidate: Are there different types of retailers and how does the value chain works?

60
Assume we sell to retailers like Fab Furnish. They place an order directly through our
Interviewer:
system whenever they need new units and we deliver them within ‘x’ days.
Candidate: I would like to know about our competition too.
Interviewer: There are other players like us but that won’t be important.
Great. I would now like to understand the problem better So is it only us who are facing
Candidate:
this issue and from how long?
Yes, it is only us and we are facing this issue since few changes were implemented 6
Interviewer:
months ago.
Interesting. So can you help me with more details regarding these changes that were
Candidate:
implemented?
Sure. 6 months ago several systems were updated to improve our operations. This
Interviewer:
included updates in manufacturing processes and a new ERP system for the firm.
Great. I’ll see if this information becomes important later. Now, I would like to take some
time to develop a structure for my approach.
I had realized that I had already taken quite some time for these basic questions. I took
Candidate:
few seconds to draw a very basic profit = revenue – costs structure and explained how I
would like to go about it.
Sir, do you want me to start with revenue or costs first?
Interviewer: You can choose any.
Candidate: Sure. Let me start with revenues first. Is there any decline in revenues?
Interviewer: Yes.
Candidate: Is it restricted to any particular product, location or retailer?
Interviewer: No, there has been an overall decline.
Is the decline within the number of direct customers (retailers), volumes per customer or
Candidate:
revenue per unit volume?
Interviewer: Volumes for all retailers have declined.
Candidate: Listed few factors which can be responsible which included supply and demand side issues.
Interviewer: Yes, in fact there have been frequent stock-outs due to which the volumes have declined.
Sir, as it was earlier mentioned, retailers place orders through our system and we deliver
Candidate: in next ‘x’ days. So do stock-outs result in a delay in delivery and that is why we are losing
orders?

61
Actually, when they place an order online, the system informs them about the stock-out
Interviewer: in our inventory and hence they cancel the order. This is resulting in less number of orders
for the company.
I am having a hunch that one problem can be due to the new ERP system mentioned
earlier but I would like to take this in a structural way and see what is the actual issue.
Candidate: Please give me a moment.
Listed few factors under two categories: Physical and Digital issues, and explained how
they could result in such a problem.
After listening to my structure.

Interviewer: YeS, the issue is in ERP system. It is showing stock-outs even when there are required
number of units in inventory.
Sure, so the possible reasons could be in the system itself or the personnel since this is a
Candidate: new system that was installed recently.
Spent more time making in a general discussion about this and some other factors.
Interviewer: Now can you give some recommendations regarding these issues.
Sure. Please give me a moment to list down few recommendations.
Candidate: Noted solutions under 2 categories: System and personnel and gave 4 recommendations
for short-term to control the current situation and long term action to correct the problems
faced.
Interviewer: That would be fine. Thank you.
Halfway through, I recognized that the issue can possibly be similar to the one in my
What went well? internship project and thus mentioned the probable issue explicitly. This helped me reach
the issue quickly.
I was not able to give as good a structure as I would have liked. This was probably due to
What didn’t go well? a feeling that I had already taken a lot of time in initial questions for basic details and thus
tried to hurry through the structure.
Try to give a structure within recommendations. Stay calm, this cannot be said enough.
General Interview Use the initial conversation to get comfortable with the interviewer.
Notes:
Keep an eye out for any relation of the case with your initial discussion with the interviewer,
particularly around your work-ex or internship. This helped me with ideas in the discussion.

62
Name: Nupur Mittal
Name/Designation of Interviewer: Principal
Under-graduation (Stream & College): IIT-BHU
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): 2 years, Product
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
Tell me about yourself? Your passion?
questions:
Case type: Strategy
Case problem
A Telecom industry player has 3 product lines. Devise a strategy for next 5 years.
statement:
Candidate: When you say strategy, what is the expectation?
He explained the case and data for 10 minutes. The data was provided on a laptop (too
Interviewer:
much data). How should the company proceed?
I calculated the profits for the 3 product lines and the market share. It was a direct
Candidate: calculation. I just needed to find the right data from the figures provided. Then asked for
competitor's data.
Interviewer: Showed a different data set with competitor data in a similar format.
Did quick calculations for their profits as well.

Candidate: Started by organic and inorganic growth and proceeded with both options. He was cross-
questioning on each strategy.
What went well,

Performed calculations without a mistake. Came up with a new idea.
didn’t go well?
General Interview
Practice a few quantitative cases.
Notes:
ROUND 2
Walk me through your CV.
questions:
Case type: Strategy for digitization

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Case problem A furniture company wants to bring in digitalization. Calculate the change in market share
statement: and revenue. How should the company proceed with digitalization?
Candidate: Gave me some answers and guided me towards doing a guess-estimate.
Interviewer: Did a direct guesstimate - calculating the market share of the company. Started by dividing
into rural and urban, then by income group.
Asked questions in between about the price of the product, the life of the product, how
frequently people change etc.
Finally came up with the number of housewives that will be buying every year. Then
calculated the revenue.
Candidate: Was satisfied with the number and then asked me for suggestions on digitalization.
Interviewer: Provided few ideas as to how the company can bring in digitalization. Launching an app,
introducing virtual store, people visiting homes to customize the product based on the
consumer needs (by taking pics then modifying the same to show how the new product will
look in the current setting) etc.
What went well, did It was more of conversation than a case. They were just looking for a structured approach
not go well? to new ideas.
General Interview
Practice guesstimates
Notes:

64
Name: Shantanu Dasgupta
Under-graduation (Stream & College): Mechanical, Delhi College of Engineering
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Consulting, McKinsey Knowledge Center(CoC), 24
Number of rounds: 1
ROUND 1
Personal/Preliminary Can you walk me through your CV? What do you know about IOT? Then some specific
questions: questions related to my projects from my prior work experience.
Case type: Market Entry
Case problem
If GAP plans to expand in the Indian market, how should they go about it?
statement:
So you have worked for Retail Clients earlier. Let’s say a new Retail player is entering
Interviewer: Indian market or let’s assume GAP is expanding in the Indian market (considering GAP is
in the very early stage in India and nearly non-existent), how should they go about it?
First asked some preliminary questions regarding the business and current presence in
different geographies. Came up with the initial structure for market entry and broke it
down to 4 major parts:
Candidate: 1. Barriers to entry,

2. Industry Attractiveness,
3. Value Chain feasibility
Ways to enter
Interviewer: Let’s assume that barriers to entry is none, please go ahead.
Ok, so within Industry attractiveness I will look into prospective opportunities we have
for our client. Then we will try to identify the best locations based on few factors to
Candidate: decide the optimal entry/expansion plan for GAP.
Came up with a mathematical equation to show the dependence and how we can select
the appropriate location.
Interviewer: Sure, makes sense, go ahead.
Then we will look into the value chain feasibility to understand if the expansion can take
Candidate:
place as planned or do we need to look for solutions to specific constraints.

65
So looked into Production-Distribution-Marketing (Customer Demand) aspect.
Interviewer: Really well. Anything else?
After this I will like to decide how they would like to expand in India, through a franchise
Candidate: model as it typically does presently, or directly by owning stores or tying up with a
suitable partner like Starbucks did with Tata.
Interviewer: Very good, you seemed to have covered all aspects that I was looking for.
Engaged the interviewer. Was really calm during the entire process and had started the
What went well? interview on a funny note, so it created a very good start. Also he was very happy to see
my structure as it covered all aspects.
Did not know much about IOT. But the good part was I accepted it before answering, and
was clear about my limited knowledge on the subject.
Prepare your case structures well and present the structure at the beginning before
General Interview
diving into individual aspects. Stay calm and composed and keep talking to the
Notes:
interviewer to keep it engaging.

66
Name: P. V. S. Suryanarayana Raju
Interviewing Firm: Bain & Company
Under-graduation (Stream & College): IIT Madras, B.Tech, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
Personal/Preliminary Tell me a little bit about yourself. Why consulting? Tell me about your undergraduate
questions: internship. Are there any sectors or industries that you know about well?
Case type: Valuation, profitability, market sizing
Interview style: Very friendly and collaborative
Case problem The CEO of a steel manufacturing company has approached you because he believes that
statement: the firm has not reached its true potential with respect to the valuation.
I see that you are a fresher, but is there a possibility that you have some knowledge of any
Interviewer: sector or industry? I think we should do a case that revolves around something that you
have an idea about.
I interned at Deutsche Bank’s Investment Banking division last summer, so I think I do

Candidate: know a bit about that sector. Also, I did a project on a steel plant as part of my course in
metallurgy.
Great! This is the case I want you to do. The CEO of a steel manufacturing company has
approached you because he believes that the firm has not reached its true potential with
Interviewer:
respect to the valuation. Help him and his firm realize this true potential he speaks of. You
can assume that the firm operates one steel plant, and sells steel rods.
All right. Just to make sure that we’re both on the same page with respect to the business
Candidate: model and value chain, I assume that this steel plant is completely integrated? It takes in
iron ore, extracts iron, processes it into steel, and then rolls them into bars, correct?
Interviewer: Yes, it is an integrated steel plant that does precisely what you said.
All right. With respect to valuation, I’d first like to get a better idea of why our client says
Candidate: that the firm hasn’t reached its full potential. I’d like to look at the ways one can value a
firm, and then identify the drivers that may be affecting the lower valuation.
Interviewer: Sure, that seems like a good approach.
So, a firm can be valued in two broad ways – Intrinsic and Extrinsic. Extrinsic valuation will
include accounting for share price (if it is a publicly traded firm), trading multiples
Candidate: compared to competitors (EV/EBITDA, EV/EBIT, etc), and transaction comparables. Where
we look at previous transactions, in which the firm was bought or sold for a certain value.
Intrinsic valuation would be based purely on performance – DCF valuation.

67
That’s quite comprehensive. We know that the markets seem to be doing well, and the
investor sentiment is strong with respect to the steel industry, so the problem does seem
Interviewer:
to lie with the DCF valuation itself. Our cash flows are lesser than what they can be. Let’s
take a look at that.
All right. I assume that we have no say in the interests and taxes we pay. Shall I use EBIT
Candidate:
as a proxy?
Interviewer: Let’s go with EBIT, if you wish to.
Candidate: Great! So what I’m going to do is look at revenues, or cash inflow, and then our expenses.
We know that we cannot cut down on costs or any expenses at all. We are a lean
Interviewer: organization, and the trend setter when it comes to keeping costs low. Let’s look at
revenues.
Ok. At this point, I’d like to get an idea of our revenue streams. You had earlier mentioned
Candidate: that we make and sell steel rods, right? Do we have any other products? And are there
different kinds of steel rods that we sell?
No other products except steel rods. You’re a student of metallurgy, do you want to take
Interviewer:
a shot at guessing the varieties of steel rods?
To be honest, I worked only on the blast furnace and ladle furnace side of steel plants as
Candidate: a part of my project, and not on the rolling mills. But I vaguely remember that the steel
rods are broadly classified into Standard, Reinforced and Ribbed.
Fair enough, but we’ll keep it simple. Assume we have three kinds – Standard, Branded
and Customized. The standard is the cheapest, as it is nothing but just steel rods. Branded
Interviewer: rods are tougher, and carry the name of our company, and are more expensive.
Customized are for special uses, and are the most expensive. Which of these products do
you think we should invest more in?
Well, I’d like a couple of minutes to look at each option, and run a simple cost-benefit
analysis to see which has the best potential and profitability. Before that, I want to get a
Candidate:
better idea of the demand for each product, our costs of manufacturing each, and how
much we are willing to invest.
Good approach, I’m sure you’ll come up with a solid answer. For now, let’s just consider
Candidate:
the demand of the branded rods. Could you estimate the market size for these rods?
I think the main market for branded steel rods would be in the construction business.
Further, because it is branded and more expensive, I assume that only the well-established
Interviewer:
builders and construction companies will use them, say for construction of office spaces
and high end apartment complexes. Is that all right?
Not completely. Why do we have brands? What is the one thing that draws people
Candidate:
towards a brand?
Interviewer: A brand’s purpose is to convey a sense of quality to the consumer?
Exactly. Brands are built on trust. Now, if you were to build your own independent house
for your family, would you not be ok with spending a little more for branded construction
Candidate:
material? So, I think you should look at construction of office spaces, apartments and
independent houses in tier 1 and tier 2 cities.

68
Yes, that makes sense. Now what I think I’ll do is to look at a city that I know a little about,
Interviewer:
and estimate the demand there. Then, I’ll scale it up.
Sounds good. Now, the demand for one tier 1 city would be different from another, simply
because of the difference in the mix between apartments and independent houses. How
Candidate:
would you estimate the number of apartments and number of houses that will come up
in, say, the next 5 years?
One way is to look at the population, the population growth and income levels. This will
give us an idea of how much residential space will be needed. To see whether the spaces
Interviewer: will have more apartments or more individual houses, I think we can look at real estate
prices and space available. If the real estate prices are higher, and if you have lesser space
available, you will have more apartments like in Mumbai.
That makes sense. Is there any other factor that might influence the number of
Candidate:
apartments and the number of houses?
One thing that we did not consider was consumer preference. Some might prefer
Interviewer: individual houses due to the privacy, status or customizability. Some might prefer
apartments for added security and resale value.
Great! And how do you think we can factor this into our estimate? How do you look at
Candidate:
consumer preferences like this without doing surveys?
One thing that comes to mind is simply looking at previous trends. If, historically, a city
Interviewer: has shown preference towards either apartments or independent houses, we can expect
the trend to continue.
Yes, this seems intuitive, but can you tell me why past trends are a terrible way to estimate
Candidate:
what happens in the future, in this case of apartments vs houses?
Well, if historically we’ve had more independent houses, we will run out of space. That
Interviewer:
means, apartments will pick up in the future.
Precisely. Let’s close the case. Do you have any questions for me?
Briefly discussed my questions and concluded. Given that the case evolved into a discussion
Candidate:
that was not driven towards a particular problem and solution, no recommendations were
asked. The interviewer seemed more interested in the methodology and the thought
process
Despite it being an off-beat case (not many are valuation based cases) which evolved into
something completely different, I think I did a decent job by giving it a structure that I could
What went well?
follow. After the case broke down into a discussion, there was no scope for a structure, but
I did manage to stay on track and take cues from the interviewer.
I think I could have approached the guessstimate for demand a little better. My
What didn’t go well? assumptions were off mark, and I should have driven the discussion on apartments and
houses a little better.
Make sure you know everything on your CV. Have a few questions ready, in case the
General Interview interviewer asks you if you have any. Be calm and composed, and do remember that
Notes: solving a case is a collaborative effort. Make sure you are communicating well, and clearly
state assumptions if you’re making them.

69
Valuation cases are very rare, and I was given one simply because of my previous internship
experience. That being said, Bain & Company does do a considerable amount of work with
Private Equity clients, and you might want to look at M&A cases.
ROUND 2
Tell me a bit about your life at IIT Madras, previous internship experience.
questions:
Case type: Short case on valuation
Interview style: Very friendly
Case problem
There’s a new telecom company that started very recently. How would you value the firm?
statement:
Given that you have interned at in I.B,, I want to see how you value a telecom player. Let’s
say that this telecom firm started a year ago, in India, and is privately owned. How would
Interviewer:
you value the firm? Do not get into the details. Just give me a methodology, and how you
would go about it.
Normally, I’d look at valuations under two different lenses – Extrinsic and Intrinsic. Under
extrinsic, I would look at the competitors, look at their EV/EBITDA or EV/EBIT or P/E ratios,
Candidate:
and then get an estimate of the value for our client. Intrinsic valuation, I’d look at
discounted cash flows.
Very good. You mentioned 3 different ratios – EV/EBIT, EV/EBITDA and P/E. Which do you
Interviewer:
think you would use if I said you could only employ one?
I’d go with EV/EBITDA. As we move down on the income statement, there is more scope
for the numbers to be fiddled with, as there is a higher dependency on the firm and its
Candidate:
accounting principles. Since the telecom sector requires large capital, D&A will be
considerable, and each firm might account for it differently.
Fair enough. EV/EBITDA is a good metric to use. Apart from these methods of valuations,
Interviewer:
is there something else you have to consider when valuing a firm?
Candidate: I guess we must look at market sentiment and investor outlook?
Interviewer: That is true, but the market sentiment is already worked in your trading ratios, right?
Yes, it will be accounted for in the extrinsic valuation. I’m not too sure what else I must
Candidate: look at. All the company’s metrics will be accounted for in the intrinsic valuation, and all
the extrinsic factors will be accounted for when using trading comparables.
Let’s take a step back. Whether extrinsic or intrinsic, what is the fundamental thing that
Interviewer:
we are basing the valuations on?
We are looking at the past performance of the firm, and are estimating how much the firm
Candidate:
is worth by either comparing it to other firms or forecasting growth.
Interviewer: Exactly! Do you see a problem with this approach?
Well, there will be a considerable error because we are basing the whole valuation past
Candidate: data, and are making assumptions on the future. We assume what the future growth rates
will be like, and also assume that the financial markets will not see any massive changes.

70
Yes. We cannot account for anything in the future with 100% accuracy. Do you think this
is a big issue with respect to telecom? You do know that the methods you already listed
Interviewer: are the ones that banks use to value firms, so they can’t be completely off the mark. But
is there something we should consider about the future, especially for sectors like
telecom.
I am a bit lost on this, to be honest, but if I were to take a guess, I’d talk about government
Candidate:
regulation and spectrum auctions?
Interviewer: It is a regulated sector, but there’s something else that might happen.
Candidate: I’m sorry, but I can’t think of anything.
No issues, I didn’t expect you to know it anyway. The telecom space is subject to large
Interviewer:
disruptions. Reliance Jio entering the market earlier this year, was a huge disruption.
Candidate: Right, that makes sense.
Talked about a concept called disruption curve, and where the telecom sector lies on the
Interviewer: said curve. Explained how the curve works, why different industries lie on different points,
and how to factor this into decision making.
My basics were strong, and I was confident while answering technical questions at the
start. After he mentioned the disruption curve, I sounded interested and we had a long
What went well?
discussion on the curve after the case was closed. I’m sure that this interest I showed
helped.
What did not go I was completely lost towards the end, and barely understood what the interviewer was
well? asking for.
Again, know your CV in and out. Try to think logically and do not lose sight of the big
picture. Do try to keep things you already know about the sector in mind. Don’t get thrown
off if you do not know the answer to something, and do make sure you look like you’re
General Interview willing to learn.
Notes:
I was given a valuation case because of my previous internship, and you might not get one.
The case itself was very short, and this might not be a good indicator of what to expect at
your interview.

71
Name: Abhishek Thakur
Under-graduation (Stream & College): Computer Science, IIT Delhi
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Sports Journalism, Family Medical Practice
Number of rounds: 3
ROUND 1
Personal/Preliminary Tell me something about yourself.

questions: (Usual ‘breaking the ice’ for a couple of minutes and we drove straight into the case).
Case type: Investigating low sales
Case problem A tractor manufacturer who has been suffering from low sales in rural Bihar and UP. Need
statement: to understand why and make recommendations.
I was in Patna recently working with a tractor manufacturer who has been suffering from
Interviewer:
low sales in rural Bihar and UP.
Because we are focusing on the revenue side, would it be correct to ignore the cost side
Candidate:
of the equation?
Interviewer: Yes that would be fine.
I would like to understand more about our client’s business. In particular, where they
Candidate:
manufacture, and where they sell.
They manufacture in 2-3 locations across India, and also sell all over India. For now, we
Interviewer:
can focus on Bihar and UP.
Candidate: Thank you. And how long have they been suffering from low sales?
Interviewer: Since they started doing business in these areas.
(I am now thinking of the 4Ps, but I don’t try to force fit yet because I want more
information on price and product type)
Candidate:
Since the price and the quality/nature of product play a large role, I would first like to
understand how these vary compared to the competition.
The product is fairly standard across the industry. The prices are also similar. You can
Interviewer:
assume that these two are not a factor.

72
At this point, I would like to break down the factors that could be influencing sales.
They are
• Product
• Price
Candidate: • Sales and Marketing
• Distribution
• Financing (separately from Sales given rural segment)
We have already looked at Product and Price. Is there an option you would like me to look
at first?
Interviewer: Let us look at Distribution and then Financing.
Thank you. On distribution, I would like to understand our client’s position in the value
Candidate:
chain? In particular, what kind of involvement do they have when it comes to distribution?
Interviewer: They do all their distribution themselves.
I would first like to consider the density and location of these dealerships, as these may
Candidate:
be quite crucial to sales.
Interviewer: Good. What else?
Candidate: I would like to consider the quality and number of staff at these dealerships.
Interviewer: Fine. What else?
I got the feeling at this point that I was struggling a little because I had not gone MECE
here. I mistakenly mentioned discounts here which should have been under sales, and was
Candidate: gently corrected. Interviewer was helpful, and I tried to pick up cues.
Local partners may be very important when it comes to distribution, because a lot
depends on local credibility in rural areas. Word of mouth is also very important.
Interviewer: Yes, that is correct. This is an important issue. We can now move to Financing.
Candidate: I would like to break this down as per the value chain of the Financing process.
Interviewer: Are you sure there isn’t something you are missing here?
Paused. This was an important moment. If you are asked if you think you have missed
Candidate: something, you HAVE. Thought for about 10 seconds which felt like ages.
I would like to understand who offers financing for our tractors.
Interviewer: Yes. We have a channel partner that takes care of this.
Looked at the entire chain of events for a financial firm in the business of making vehicle
Candidate:
of home loans (in this case the collateral is the property itself). Considered:

73
• Paperwork & Application

• Processing & Decision
• Instalments & Customer Relations Management
• Possible default & Negotiation
• Possible acquisition and sale of Collateral
We discussed these issues for a while and focused on the last option, particularly problems
with the sale of collateral. Because of the low demand in the first place, the resale was also
difficult for our financial partner. This in turn made them more reluctant, creating a vicious
circle.
Interviewer: So what can our client do about this?
There are three parties, so we could approach this in three ways.
Candidate: • Financial Partner Side

• Our side
• Farmer Side
Interviewer: Fine. What would be your recommendations.
Firstly, we could offer to buy the tractor from our financial partners, thus breaking this
vicious cycle. Secondly, we could find a way to work with farmers, perhaps cover some
Candidate:
payments after some renegotiation. Given that they are dependent on the monsoons, this
would also create good word of mouth publicity.
Interviewer: I think that is fine. Do you have any questions for me?
We had gone overtime, and had already been interrupted.

Candidate:
No thanks. I am good.
Didn’t get flustered when I realized I had not gone MECE on distribution. Accepted help
What went well?
from the interviewer.
Lost my structure once inside the distribution part of the problem, and started to struggle.
Should have stuck to value chain of distribution and gone MECE.
General Interview Be VERY coachable. They want to hire you. They are looking for reasons to do so. When in
Notes: doubt, look for a way to go MECE. Even if you don’t get the answer, you WILL get rewarded.
ROUND 2
You seem like someone with quite a bit of work experience. Why don’t you tell me about
Personal/Preliminary it?
questions:
This led towards Goal.com, and then towards a brief discussion on healthcare. We spoke
about an up and coming chain of private clinics in Mumbai for a few minutes.
Evaluating an investment portfolio, followed by a discussion on margins, volumes, and

Case type:
volatility.

74
Interview style: Conversational. Pen and paper barely required.
Case problem Shown bubble chart representing an investment portfolio. Tested on understanding,
statement: diagnosis of possible issues, and recommendations.
I am going to show you a chart. I want you to tell me what you think.
Interviewer: Showed me a bubble chart with margins on Y-axis, revenues on X-axis, and volumes
represented by the radii of the bubbles. The chart had around 40-50 data points.
Explained how I understood the chart, discussed low and high margin products, and quickly
zeroed in on the fact that high margin products were not generating high revenues.
Discussed the need to look at margins in some cases, and need to increase volumes in other
Candidate:
cases.
Discussed worries about products close to the bottom left corner (low margin low revenue),
and need to do something about that. No pen and paper required thus far.
I am now going to give you four cases. This is a simplification, of course, but I want you to
give me one action you would take in each case.
Interviewer: • High margin high volume

• High margin low volume
• Low margin high volume
• Low margin low volume
The high volume-high margin case worries me least. I would like to look at the low volume-
Candidate:
low margin case first because this could be a worry.
Discussed my worries about this product. Discussed
• Finding ways to improve margins or volumes

• Consider divesting or changing position in the value chain
Candidate: • Do nothing, if there is another strategic reason for this investment, such as
balancing risk or strategically waiting for something (life cycle), which got a nod
of approval.
I didn’t give one recommendation as asked, instead discussed my approach to the

question.
Interviewer: Ok. Which what would you want to look at next?
I would like to look at the high-margin low-volume (HM-LV) and low-margin high volume
Candidate: (LM-HV) together. Even though the strategies may be different, they could complement
each other somewhat within a portfolio.
Interviewer: How so?
Candidate: Consider the bathing soap line of HUL. They have Lifebuoy, which is LM-HV, and Dove,
which is HM-LV, and HUL are pretty happy with that. These are priced differently, target

75
different segments, and there is a role for both kinds of products in a portfolio. I could be
perfectly happy with both LM-HV and HM-LV.
Interviewer: That sounds reasonable. What else would you look at?
Digging into a specific product, I would want to assess the industry, see where we stand
in relation to our potential and our competition. I would go over our existing plans and
Candidate:
see if they need to be tweaked. I would also look at the long term prospects, and if there
are some future developments that we should prepare for.
Interviewer: Anything else?
I would also want to look at our costs and the price elasticity of demand, to see if we can
do something with our margins. If product is commoditized, there may not be much we
Candidate:
can do, but if there is some differentiation we can leverage to improve our margins, we
should consider that in our pricing and marketing strategy.
Interviewer: Now suppose our client comes to us with a problem of volatile margins.
Was a little surprised, as this seemed like a new sub-case almost 30 mins in. Took a
moment to think about it.
Candidate: The margin volatility could come two sources, the cost per unit side or the price side. On
the price side, I would look at both prices within the market and our pricing strategy. On
the cost side, I would look at volatility in one or more of our input costs. In particular, I
would first look for any raw materials whose price volatility mimics our margin volatility.
Interviewer: Would you consider competition?
Yes. Competition would also have a role. It could directly affect prices, or the cost side if
there is competition for input resources. However, increasing or decreasing competition
Candidate:
in a market would typically show up as a trend. The volatility could happen if a lot of
players are trying different things in a highly unsettled market.
Interviewer: Do you have any questions for me?
The interview had begun with healthcare, and my case was about an investment portfolio,
Candidate:
so I asked a question about PE in healthcare. We discussed that briefly before concluding.
Interviewer was happy with a free-flowing conversation. Kept that going. When asked for
What went well? one decision each for volume-margin scenario, realized that what he really wanted was
not the answer, but the process behind the answer.
I could have mentioned competition before being prompted, when speaking about volatile
What did not go well? margins. But because I mentioned the cost side and the price side, it was MECE. Price side
would have included the effects of competition so I wasn’t penalized.
General Interview Remember the 80-20 rule. The low volume-low margin was clearly the place to go first.
Notes: And, of course, always remember MECE, even when you feel you are on a roll.
ROUND 3

76
I was told after the second interview that I was ‘almost’ in, and that the third would be a
fit interview.
This interviewer was a senior partner. There was no case. It was all personals; they would
assess me for a senior position, and they wanted to ensure I was (a) right for this (b) sure
questions:
about this.
I was informed that I would be considered for a consultant’s role, and that the bar I would
have to clear to get a PPO would be very high.
Interviewer: You have been here about five months. How has your experience been?
Candidate: Spoke about my experiences, with a small example.
Interviewer: How would you feel working under people much younger than you?
Spoke about my Goal.com experience, including supervising people older than me. Posited
Candidate:
that age was just a number and it was attitude that mattered.
Interviewer: What is your greatest strength?
Spoke about being dependable. Spoke about why this was important to me as a person,
Candidate:
and how it had not always been the case.
Interviewer: Why Bain?
When I was coming here, I was told “Many companies will not shortlist you for the kind of
positions they offer because of your work experience. Some will shortlist you despite your
Candidate: work experience. Very few will shortlist you because of your work experience. Everything
about my interaction with Bain has told me that you value my experience. You always
want to work for a firm that values what you have to offer.”
Interviewer: Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
Candidate: Spoke about being involved with Bain and Healthcare, given my family background.
Interviewer: So you are looking at healthcare?
That would be the most obvious fit, but I have an open mind. For the first few years, I want
Candidate: to learn about everything, whether it is oil and gas or infrastructure, in order to become a
better all-round consultant.
We pick people with a view that they stay on after the internship. You understand that it
makes little sense to hire someone like you for a junior role. And the bar you will have to
clear for a senior role will be much higher.
Interviewer:
Your friends might have to check 6 boxes out of 10 for a PPO, because we have time to
teach them. You would have to check 9, or possibly 9.5. And the chances are less than
50%. Are you sure you want to take this chance?
Spoke about my performance when given responsibility, about rising to the challenge, with
Candidate:
specific examples. Re-emphasized the dependability factor.

77
You understand that this is not just about dependability as a character trait. It is about
Interviewer:
skills and abilities as well.
Acknowledged that I lacked the skills required of a consultant, and emphasized my

Candidate:
willingness and ability to acquire them quickly, with the right guidance at Bain.
OK. Give me a couple of minutes.

Interviewer: The interviewer steps out, and about 15 seconds later, the two senior partners (he and my
previous interviewer) walk in and make me the offer.
Pretty much everything. I thought I succeeded in presenting who I really am. It was a true
What went well?
personals interview. If I had been rejected after this, I would have had no complaints.
Pretty much nothing. Perhaps my most solid of the three interviews. Time spent thinking
about my personals delivered returns in spades.
Never ever ignore personals. If someone tells you to, listen politely and ignore them.
General Interview That said, your answers must reflect who you are, or you will get stuck on the follow-up
Notes: question. Know yourself, and figure out how best to bring that out through your answers.
More than half of my total interview time was spent on personals.

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Name: Abhaas Mohan
Under-graduation (Stream & College): B.A.(Hons) Economics; Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi University
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Financial Research, S&P Global Market Intelligence, 30 Months
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
Personal/Preliminary Spoke briefly about myself. Interviewer gave her introduction as well, offered Misti Doi and
questions: made the atmosphere really relaxed.
Case type: Declining Market Share + Guesstimate
Interview style: Friendly & Supportive
Case problem Pharma company with a new product which has not been doing well.
statement:
Our client, a pharma company has launched a new topical pain relief product, and it hasn’t
Interviewer: been doing as well as expected. They want us to figure out why, and give
recommendations.
Clarified the problem statement, and inquired for any other objectives.
Candidate:
By what parameter is the client judging the performance of the product?
Interviewer: They haven’t been able to capture market share. The sales have not met expectations.
Okay, first, I’d like to know where is the company located, where have they launched this
Candidate: product?
Our client is a U.S. based company, and they have launched this product in the US market.
Interviewer: Before going ahead, would you like me to tell you more about the US Pharma market?
Candidate: I have a brief idea, but I would like to know more.
Gave a brief description about the market, and more specifically, that our product is an
Interviewer: over-the-counter drug
Candidate: Thanks. I would like a few minutes to structure my thoughts.
Interviewer: Okay, sure.
Took a minute to structure my approach towards the problem, and the kind of preliminary
Candidate:
questions to ask

79
The way I would like to approach this problem is to first understand our client, its products,
and the competitive scenario. Then, go through the value chain to identify the problem
area. Would you like me to focus on any additional aspect?
Interviewer: No, this seems fine, go ahead.
Inquired about where the company operated in the value chain, Product, its form & USP,
Candidate: and pricing
It is a pain relief cream, it is mostly similar to other creams in the market, but it especially
Interviewer: focuses on arthritis. It is actually double the price of an average pain relief cream. The
client manufactures and sells it to pharmacies.
Thank you. Moving on to the competitors, how is the pain relief market at present? Is it
Candidate: fragmented or is there a clear market leader?
There is a clear market leader, whose product is similar to ours, but is priced more than
Interviewer: double of our product.
Oh, it is interesting to know that consumers are willing to buy that product despite a four
times markup over average market prices. Now, I would like to look at the value chain of
our product -
Candidate:
Production Issues àDistribution Pushà Customer Pull
First, I would like to know whether we are facing any production issues, if we are unable
to supply the market?
Interviewer: No, that is not the case, we have sufficient capacity.
Then I’d move on to the Distribution side of things. I would like to know what distribution
Candidate: channels we employ, and understand any potential issue there in terms of obstructions.
We sell our products primarily through Pharmacies, who purchase the product from us
Interviewer: and then sell it at their end. Their purchase depends on how much they need to sell. They
are currently stocking as much as they are able to sell.
So I think the problem lies within the Customer side of things. I’d like to look into two
Candidate: factors – internal & external, of consumer demand. I’d like to start off by looking into
internal factors, by first segmenting the target audience…<Interjection>
I am interested in your approach of segmenting the audience. Could you list them down
Interviewer: please?
Sure. Since our product has an arthritis focus, I believe senior citizens are our primary
Candidate: target. Second, athletics also sees a large utilization of pain relief products. Third, ..
Interjection
Right, could you quickly estimate the potential size of the primary segment, which is
Interviewer: arthritis patients?

80
Went into the guesstimate, primarily by first breaking down population by age, arrived at
Candidate: a figure which the interviewer seemed satisfied with
Interviewer: Perfect, now what do you think about their purchasing habit for pain relief products?
Talked about purchasing power and inclination of each segment, additionally with respect
Candidate: to medical insurance cover in each age segment.
Quickly corrected one of my incorrect assumption about US insurance coverage, but didn’t
Interviewer: really mind the mistake.
Right, I’d first start off by analyzing demand in this segment, using three metric –
Affordability, Availability, Accessibility. Affordability doesn’t seem like a prime suspect as
people are willing to purchase a more expensive product, and that insurance is also
comprehensive in most cases. We have already covered Availability under distribution
Candidate: side of things. Coming to Accessibility, I would first like to look under visibility. It is possible
that our product hasn’t been marketed/publicized properly vis-à-vis our competitor, and
given how loyalty factors in the demand is for drugs and medicinal products – people tend
to use a drug which works well for them in past…
Yes, that is the core issue. The product hasn’t been marketed well, and hence, consumer
Interviewer: awareness is low.
Candidate: Okay. Would you like me to look for other factors as well, or jump to recommendation
No, just list down the external factors you mentioned, I think we have already crossed our
Interviewer: time limit as well.
Candidate: Listed down some external factors, primarily around competitor actions, retailer actions
Interviewer: I think that would be all, it was nice interacting with you.
Candidate: Thank you. Same here.
I was not thrown off balance by the ‘guesstimation’ detour in between, and was able to
What went well? support the solution with consumer behavior insight.
Almost fumbled with a decimal point in guesstimation, which I caught while quickly going
What didn’t go well? over the calculation.
General Interview Staying calm and focused is the key to ensuring that you have a good structure tailored for
Notes: the particular problem.
ROUND 2
Personal/Preliminary Introduction
questions:
Case type: Cost Reduction Exercise
Interview style: To the point, fast paced to test whether I could keep up

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Case problem An Indian BPO company is looking to reduce its costs by Rs. 40 Lakhs. How would you go
statement: about it?
Alright, let us get to the case. The BPO is not actually in any problem, but would like to
Interviewer: reduce its costs further. However, you can’t touch labor. It’s a sensitive issue in India, and
any layoffs would negatively impact the client
Okay. First, I’d like to list down the various cost heads of a BPO- The largest head being
Candidate: Payroll for Labor, IT & Infrastructural Costs, Software Costs, Utilities, and
Interest/Insurance Expenses.
Interviewer: Do you think you are missing something?
Candidate: Oh right, rent for the office itself is a big expense as well.
Interviewer: Okay, let’s start at Labor. You can’t fire people, how do you ensure you cut down costs.
Candidate: How many offices do we have, and consequently, the employee strength?
Interviewer: Let us assume there is one office only, and it has some X number of employees.
If we can’t lay-off people to directly cut costs, we can try to increase the present
Candidate: productivity, such that there is more revenue earned per employee, and reduced costs in
terms of efficiency losses.
Interviewer: How do you increase productivity?
We can have existing employees handle more calls/requests per hour basis, reduce the
Candidate: time taken to cater to each calls by faster resolution of problem or quicker forwarding of
calls…
What do you think are potential issues if you raise the hourly targets from 10 calls to 12,
Interviewer: and how would you fix them?
Employees could get lax about service quality in order to quickly achieve target. This would
lead to a vicious circle, wherein poor resolution results in more calls by customers, hence
eventually resulting in no revenue earned, more costs, and poor customer satisfaction.
Candidate:
One could resolve such issues through gradual introduction, educating the employees
about such scenarios, adding riders about negative impact of repeat callers on employee
ratings, etc.
Right, suppose increasing call targets are not an option. How do you increase productivity
Interviewer: by modifying the call script received from say, your client Airtel, which you can’t modify in
any aspect.
Since these scripts can’t be cut down, we could try ensuring each employee perfectly
understands each scripts, through training modules, such that there is a mental flowchart
Candidate: established within their mind, hence the employee could quickly run through the script to
identify and resolve the customer problem.

82
Now that you have done so, how do you analyze the impact on productivity and
Interviewer: performance? List down some parameters
Listed down some vague ideas I could think of, the interviewer was called by someone, and
Candidate: left the room for a quick moment, after which I showed him my ideas
Um, that’s fine. What I was looking for was grading them on a normal distribution, and
then try pushing the bulge towards the right.
Interviewer:
But anyway, I am happy with your performance, and you did well on your first interview,
so we would like to make an offer.
What went well? I was able to keep up with the fast pace and regular interjections.
What did not go well? I had almost run out of ideas, and at times wasn’t fully confident of my suggestions
General Interview Again, focus and patience is the key. It is really easy to lose track of the interviewer’s flow
Notes: if you are not attentive.

83
Name: Amarnath M
Under-graduation (Stream & College): IIT Madras, Mechanical Engineering
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
Personal/Preliminary Tell me something about yourself. Tell me about your dramatics experience. (Interviewer
questions: was also in Drams cell at IIMC)
Case type: Increasing market share
I was initially very nervous. The interviewer calmed me down and made me comfortable.
Interview style:
She was very friendly throughout.
Case problem The client is a tractor manufacturer whose market share is low. Suggest ways to improve
statement: it.
This is a study I am currently working on. Our client is a tractor manufacturer. He has had
Interviewer: low market share. There are 2 bigger players in the market. He wants us to look at why
this is so and suggest measures to tackle this.
Could you tell me a little bit more about the company? Where do they operate and what
Candidate:
are the products that they offer? Are farmers the only clients?
They operate in North India and for the sake of this case, we can assume they can have
Interviewer: only one type of tractor that they sell directly. Farmers are the major clients. There are
other types of buyers but those form a very small share.
Is the only objective to increase market share? Is there any reason the client wants to do
Candidate:
this apart from just increasing market share?
Market share is the only concern. The client feels that there are some problems which are
Interviewer: holding back our tractor sales. He wants us to find and give suggestions to address these
problems.
In that case, I’ll go directly into revenues and split it as number of tractors multiplied by
Candidate:
price of each tractor.
Interviewer: Good. We’re only concerned with number of tractors. Price is uniform across competition.
Great. Number of tractors being low can either be a demand side issue or a supply side
Candidate: issue. Do we have an idea of whether we are able to produce enough tractors to meet the
demand.
Interviewer: Yes. Supply Is not an issue. The demand for our tractors among farmers is low.
In that case, I would like to split the demand side into 3 buckets. The factors that affect
Candidate:
demand pre-sale, during sale and after sale. Is it okay to first look into pre-sale factors?

84
Interviewer: Yes. What are the factors that affect demand pre-sale?
There are 4 main factors that I think affects demand pre-sale:
• Accessibility
Candidate:
• Brand Awareness, Brand loyalty
• Value proposition – quality of the tractor and price
• Sales Promotions
Okay. The factors are sound but I don’t think the problem lies in any of them. Could you
Interviewer:
clarify what you mean by pre-sale?
Definitely. I’m trying to identify the root cause of the issue and seeing if it’s something
that arose while the customer was deciding to buy a tractor and specifically deciding to
Candidate: buy our tractor in pre-sale. Problems that arise after pre-sale might still have an effect pre-
sale but I feel that the root cause of these issues would not be pre-sale and hence I would
like to look at them later.
Interviewer: Great. In that case let’s look at during sale factors.
There are 2 major things that I can think of here given that we sell to farmers. First is the
Candidate: credit services that we provide since farmers will not be able to afford up-front payment
for tractors.
Interviewer: That’s great. Let’s get into the credit issue further. How would you go about it?
Candidate: Before I delve further, could you give me an idea of how this credit system works?
Interviewer: We have an NBFC tie up who provides a loan to the farmer.
Great. I would like to look at it in 2 ways. Monetary and non-monetary(/process related)

Candidate:
issues.
Interviewer: Ok. Lets look at the monetary issues.
Great. The various factors that I can think of are:
• Up-front payment required : Portion of amount covered in loan

Candidate: • Interest
• Monthly rental amounts
• Time of contract
(Knock on door: Told to wrap up) Great. We cover a lesser amount of the loan. Let’s look
at why this is so. Why do you think a lesser amount of the loan is covered even though
Interviewer:
everyone employs the same NBFC. I can tell you this is something related to a relatively
unfavorable scenario for us.
I think the unfavorable scenario is when the tractors are repossessed in case of non-
payment. (Interviewer nods.) If our resale value is lower, then we would cover lesser
Candidate:
portion of the loan? (interviewer nods.) The resale value of our tractor I would say would
depend on what our brand image is since it is a resale.
Absolutely. There are other factors but I don’t expect you to know that. The main issue is
Interviewer: that since we have a lower market share, the resale value is also lower. Let’s close the
case. This is as far as we’ve reached as well. Do you have any questions for me?

85
My structure was good and the case went very well. Was told that I nearly had an offer at
What went well?
the end of the first round.
Even though structure was solid, the interviewer did not understand my structure at one
stage. Had to clarify it. Was very nervous at the start.
General Interview For a Bain interview, personals are not very important. Very basic personals prep is
Notes: sufficient. It’s all about case prep.
ROUND 2
Not much personals.
questions:
Case type: No proper case.
Interviewer: Walk me through your resume while I find a file on my laptop.
Candidate: Walked interviewer through resume. Talked about drams. Literary activities.
Opens a graph on laptop.

Interviewer: What do you observe? (It’s about the cement industry. It has the various firms and their
revenues and market shares in 2005 and 2010.)
The market is consolidating. The 3 biggest players are acquiring the smaller players and
Candidate:
hence their market shares are improving significantly.
Interviewer: Perfect. What are the implications?
Can I assume economies of scale? (Interviewer nods). Since costs of the players have gone
down, there is room for a price war to take place. The prices would probably come down
Candidate:
significantly since if one player decides to cut price, then everybody is obliged to follow
suit.
Interviewer: Perfect. Is there another scenario?
It might be politically incorrect but they could also collude and stick to older prices thus
Candidate:
increasing their margins.
Ok. Moving on, let’s look at the rubber industry. Particularly I want to look at the
Interviewer:
stretchable rubber industry. Can you estimate market size?
Candidate: Okay. Could you tell me what exactly stretchable rubber is? What is used for?
It is the stretchable rubber that is used in things like pyjamas, inner-wears, etc. I just want
Interviewer:
the approach.
I would start with the population of the country and split it age wise and income wise and
Candidate: see what portion of that segment would use the product. (Suggested a few numbers,
started calculating)
No need to calculate. What do you think is the supplier and the buyer power in this
Interviewer:
industry?

86
I think the buyers would have supreme power in this market. For the cloth manufacturers,
the rubber is a very small portion of the actual product. If we mess up even a little they
can easily dump us for our competition.
Candidate:
On the supplier side, I’m not entirely sure but they still would have considerable power as
they might have higher volume buyers. I would want to know about our volumes relative
to the industry to be able to go into more detail.
Interviewer: Okay. Do you have any questions for me?
Candidate: What sector do you head?
Automobiles.
Interviewer: He asks me some questions about the industry and how it’s changed. Made an offer at this
point.
What went well, Interview was a mix of multiple things. Was not sure what the partner was expecting. But
didn’t go well? I was very confident and I think that came across.

87
Name: Mahek Chheda
Under-graduation (Stream & College): Architecture, Sir J. J. College of Architecture (JJCOA), Mumbai
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Architect, SE-ARCH Architect, Mumbai; 25 Months
Number of rounds: 2 Rounds
ROUND 1
Personal/Preliminary Tell me something about yourself. Asked me about my work experience (Work experience
questions: with Sir JJCOA consultancy Cell and SE-ARCH)
Case type: Cost Optimization + Recommendations
Client is a large business house in US and they use the Chartered Planes for the business
Case problem trips of their CXOs. The Board of Directors of the company have hired you to analyse the
statement: costs involved and recommend the measure to optimize the costs for using the plane
service.
This was one of the cases solved by one of my colleagues. The client uses the chartered
Interviewer:
plane service regularly and concerned with the costs involved.
I would first like to understand the background of the case and then analyse the relevant
Candidate: factors. Starting with the case background. I would first like to know the specifications of
the flight used by the firm in terms of capacity and comfort.
The client uses a 12 seater plane with premium facilities and high comfort, as it is being
Interviewer:
used by the CXOs of the company.
Candidate: Does the client own the plane or is it rented?
The client leases the plane on the annual basis and incurs the total cost of 2 million
Interviewer:
annually.
Candidate: What is the frequency of the usage of the plane and typical flight hours?
The plane is used regularly and takes 200 trips a year. The typical tour duration is
Interviewer:
somewhere around a day and 20% times it is for a couple of days.
I would like to start with the analysis now and would consider following cost factors:
1. Lease Amount
2. Fuel cost
Candidate: 3. Maintenance cost
4. Airport gateway Charges
5. Staff salaries
I would now like to know the contribution of each of these factors to the annual cost.

88
The lease amount of the carrier contributes 75% to the total cost followed by fuel which
Interviewer:
contributes around 12%. Our costs are at the optimum levels.
Here we will have to majorly focus on the Lease cost of the carrier as the fuel cost majorly
depend on the market prices. To proceed with the analysis I will further like to consider
following factors that are relevant for deciding the lease rent for the carrier.
Candidate: 1. Carrier types based on capacity
2. Renting model
3. Carrier service providers
4. Owning the carrier.
Interviewer: You may proceed by analysing each of the factors.
Okay, starting with the types of carriers, I would first like to know how many people travel
Candidate:
at a time and the capacities of the different carriers available.
So, 75% of the times 6-7 people travel together whereas during 20% times 3-4 people
travel and remaining 5% times 10-12 people travel. Also, the carriers are available in
following 3 capacities with their respective annual lease rents.
Interviewer:
1. 5 seater –0. 80 million
2. 8 seater – 1.20 million
3. 12 seater – 1.50 million
As 95% of the time, less than 8 people travel together, the 12-seater is under-utilized and
the 8-seater can be rented to reduce the costs.
Candidate:
Moving on to the renting models, I would like to know whether the carriers can be leased
for more than one year. If we are sure about our schedule we can even think of leasing
the carrier for more 2 – 3 years.
Here I would like to say that the client is expecting similar schedule of travels in the coming
Interviewer: couple of years. Also if we lease the carrier for three years than per year lease would
reduce by 20% for all the available options.
So, here I would like suggest that we should opt for an 8-seater carrier and lease same for
3 years. This will help us to reduce our costs by 35%, i.e. 0.70 million.
Candidate:
Further, I would like to look at our carrier service provider, to lease the charter plane and
compare their leasing models with our existing lease model.
So, there are 2 other carrier service providers available who charge around 30% less lease
Interviewer: rent as compared to present provider. However, the maintenance cost will increase by
10%. But the are carriers are available in only 12 – seater models
So, by opting for the alternative service provider, we can directly save 0.45 million on the
lease rent, whereas the maintenance cost will at most increase by 0.026 million. Thus we
Candidate: can save around 0.425 millions by changing the service the provider.
Considering the future need for the carrier, the carrier can also owned.
The Board of Directors are not convinced with the upright investment required to own the
Interviewer: carrier. However, they are looking at the option of using the available aircraft service. This
help them to reduce the costs to 1million per year.

89
Though using the available aircraft service papers to be lucrative, we will first have to
Candidate:
consider the privacy required by the CXOs of the organization during the journey.
It is known that sometimes the flying times exceed 2 – 3 hrs and the flying time is used by
Interviewer: the CXOs to have their business discussions. Thus privacy is an important factor which is
considered before deciding on the traveling option.
Considering that privacy is one of the important criteria while deciding the traveling
Candidate:
option, private aircraft service won't be a feasible traveling option for the CXOs.
Interviewer: Okay, I am pretty much convinced with your analysis. Could you summarize the case.
I summarized the case. No recommendations as such. The relevant recommendations were

Candidate:
mentioned as the part of the case discussion.
I correctly identified all the factors that were relevant to the case and asked for appropriate
What went well?
data, which helped me analyse the case.
I took some time to set an initial direction and move to the analysis. The interviewer helped
me get started though.
Clearly state your approach towards the case at the beginning, and try to get the brief
General Interview
background which will help with the overall direction. Be calm and try to think from the
Notes:
client’s perspective. This will help you to identify the relevant factors.
ROUND 2
The interviewer was a partner at the firm. He first introduced himself and gave a brief idea
about the sectors he has worked in. He then moved to personal questions, specifically the
region I belonged to, my undergraduate college, etc. Then came the ‘why consulting’ (after
questions:
Architecture) question. I spoke briefly about my experiences with Sir JJCOA consultancy
cell. He discussed my projects in detail, and asked about my contributions and learnings.
Case type: Rapid sale of inventory.
Client is a Residential Building Developer in Mumbai and wants to sell the apartments
Case problem
within a residential building in Worli (premium location in Mumbai) as soon as possible.
statement:
Client has consulted you to devise a strategy to achieve the same.
As you belong to Mumbai, and you are an Architect, let me give you a related Case. You
have been approached by a Residential building developer in Mumbai, who wants to sell
Interviewer:
apartments in his residential building in Worli. You have to help him to make a strategy to
sell these flats as soon as possible.
First, I would like to a know little about the developer, building in which the flats are to be
Candidate: sold and then I would like to proceed with the analysis. I would like to start with the
reputation and experience of the developer in the market and the industry.
Interviewer: He is a reputed developer in the city and has been in the industry for about 10 years.
I would like to know about the surroundings, stage of construction, sizes of the apartments
Candidate: to be sold and the purchase price of each apartment, so as understand the customers to
be targeted.

90
The building is situated in a residential area, with commercial malls, shopping centers,
schools and other amenities in the vicinity.
Interviewer:
The building is currently under the construction stage and it is 40 storied building with two
3750 sq.ft. apartments on each floor. The prevalent per sq.ft. rate is Rs. 18000 in the Worli
area. I want you calculate the purchase price of each apartment.
I calculated the selling price of each apartment.
The selling price of each apartment comes to Rs. 6.75 Cr. Since the price is so high, the
target customers would be in the high income group (HIG).
Now, I would like to start with my analysis, and would like to consider the following factors
Candidate:
to proceed:
1. The objective of the purchase

2. Marketing channels to be used
The selling model to be followed
Okay so I would like you to analyze each point in detail and come up with the
Interviewer:
recommendations.
There can be two kinds of the customers:
1. People who purchase to stay

2. People who would purchase as investors
The marketing channels would differ for each kind of customers.
The customers purchasing the apartment to stay, as already mentioned, would be in the
HIG, and would want state-of-the-art Clubs, be the frequent users of the premium
shopping malls, and visitors of the luxury hotels in the tourist destinations. So, we can
have the targeted advertisements in these places.
Candidate:
Also, they would be working in the Multinational Companies or will be the businessmen,
and hence the in person sales force can be used to target the executive officers in the
MNCs and the client can also have the stall in the business trade shows. Apart from this
we can use the print media as well the Radios channels, frequently listened by car
commuters.
The people who would be purchasing the apartment as an investment may be living in
India or NRIs. They would be businessmen, and the frequent viewers of the business news.
In order to target them, we may need to have the targeted advertisements in Indian as
well as foreign business media, including news channels and digital and print media.
Okay, that covers most of it, now I want you to focus on the selling model to be followed
Interviewer:
to reach out to each type of the customers.
People purchasing the flat to stay should be charges some token amount at the time of
purchase and then progressive instalments as per construction slabs. This may help attract
Candidate: more customers and sell the flats soon.
The flats can be sold to investors at a discounted to rate, for an initial payment of a specific
amount, say greater than 50% of the total worth of the apartment. This will help

91
accumulate the required capital for the construction of the building, and at the same time
attract more investors to purchase the apartments. These investors can later sell these
apartments, without ever having fully purchased the apartment.
Interviewer: Okay, I am pretty convinced with your analysis. Could you summarize the case.
I summarized the case. No recommendations as such. The relevant recommendations were

Candidate:
mentioned as the part of the case discussion.
There was no particular structure to approach such a case, however I tried to fit in a
What went well? framework which helped me come up with the relevant information required to solve the
case.
I had previously worked on the residential project and hence was comfortable with issues
related to it, and hence didn’t face any significant difficulty during the case.
I would again like to reiterate, clearly state your approach towards the case the beginning
General Interview
and try to get a brief background. This will help set an initial direction. Be calm and try to
Notes:
think from the client’s perspective. This will help you to identify the relevant factors.

92
Name: Aashima Singla
Under-graduation (Stream & College): St. Xavier's College, Mumbai - B.A. Economics (Hons.)
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
Personal/Preliminary Tell me about yourself.

questions: Introduced myself briefly.
Case type: Market sizing and general competitive analysis
Interview style: Friendly discussion
Case problem Estimate the market for a small engine manufacturer and analyze the costs and
statement: competitive environment it would face.
Let's start the case now. The client is a small engine manufacturer that produces engines
Interviewer:
for small vehicles. Estimate the market for the client.
I'd like to understand the case better. Could you tell me more about the type of engines,
Candidate: vehicles that it is fit into, the uses of such vehicles and also the geography for which we
are estimating the market. What is the average capacity and speed of such vehicles?
The engine is a low power engine that is fit into small vehicles such as small trucks or
‘tempos’. These vehicles can be used for both passenger and goods transport. Let’s
Interviewer:
consider the Indian market. Average capacity could be 20 people or 10 tons. Speed is
relatively lower.
Candidate: Please give me a minute to lay down a structure.
Interviewer: Sure. Take as much time as you need.
I would like to start the problem by considering the population of the country. For ease of
calculations, I'm considering to be 1 billion people. I would then divide this into urban and
rural areas which have a 30% and 70% divide respectively in India. Now, under each of
Candidate:
these, I would divide on the basis of passenger and goods transport. Under passengers, I
would look at long and short distance transport. Under goods, I would use a 2*2 matrix of
high and low volume and distance.
The interviewer seemed satisfied at this point.

Interviewer: We don’t need to go into the numbers. Tell me, what are the factors that you would
consider to minimize costs.
Candidate: Mainly, I would consider the fuel efficiency of the engine.
Interviewer: Where all do you think that such vehicles can be used?

93
The vehicles could be used by manufacturers to transport goods within a city. It also be
Candidate:
used by e-retailers for deliveries.
Interviewer: Alright. Look at this graph and give me your top 3 insights. (Opened a graph on his laptop)
Candidate: Clarified the meaning of the labels in the graph and pointed out 1 or 2 trends.
Interviewer: Thank you. Do you have any questions for me?
The best part about the interview was that it was a discussion. So, even if I made mistakes,
What went well?
the interviewer was happy to talk it out and lead me in the right direction.
My initial nervousness as well as the fact that I did not answer a few of the case questions
comprehensively.
General Interview Be calm. Initially, I didn’t follow the case but made up by understanding the case in the
Notes: clarifying questions.
ROUND 2
Tell me about yourself.
questions:
Case type: Cost benefit analysis - Numeric
Interview style: Friendly Q & A.
Case problem US based manufacturing firm wondering whether they should renew the lease of the
statement: corporate jet used by the company CXO's.
Let's begin the case now. The client is a US based manufacturing firm. They have hired you
Interviewer:
to ascertain whether they should renew the lease of the corporate jet.
Could you tell me more about the usage pattern of the corporate jet? Who uses it, how
Candidate: often it's used, what are the cities frequently travelled to and what are the costs incurred
for fuel, staff, etc.?
Interviewer: Gave me some data.
The three options that we could look at are the corporate jet, charter planes and
Candidate: passenger airlines. I am considering only air transport because of the distance between
the cities and feasibility with respect to cost and time.
Interviewer: Sounds reasonable. Also, consider only the corporate jet and passenger airlines.
I am assuming that the data is uniformly distributed. (Calculated costs). Also, can you tell
Candidate:
me the price of a first class ticket for a passenger airline?
Interviewer: Why do you want the price of a first class ticket?
Well, since our passengers are mainly the company CXO's who are used to flying private,
Candidate:
I would not want to compromise on the comfort of their travel.
Good point.
Interviewer:
Provided more data.

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Calculated costs.
Candidate: Based on my calculations, it does not seem feasible to renew the lease and I would advise
the client to consider the alternative of passenger airlines.
Interviewer: Correct. What are ways through which we can minimize the costs of the lease?
We can attempt to renegotiate the terms of the lease by leveraging the lower cost
Candidate: alternative of passenger airlines. The client could also attempt in cost cutting in support
functions such as legal services that are involved in the leasing process.
Interviewer: Good. Do you see any risks associated with the CXO's using passenger airlines?
The first major risk would be uncontrollable delays. The second would be the lack of
Candidate: privacy and the CXO's will not be able to hold meetings on board and may also experience
other disturbances from fellow passengers.
Let's end the case here. Do you have any questions for me?
Interviewer:
Spent a couple of minutes on questions.
I considered all modes of transport and mentioned by assumption of leaving out non- air
What went well? transport. I got the data from the interviewer directly and did not go into any irrelevant
details.
I spent too long on the calculations and did not walk the interviewer through them as I was
doing them.
Be very careful with numbers in such cases. It is very important that you get the right data
General Interview
and that you get all of it. Don't spend too much time on calculations and continuously
Notes:
engage the interviewer. Aim for simplicity wherever reasonable.

95
Name: Chinar Radke
Name/Designation of Interviewer: Sriwatsan Krishnan, Principal
Under-graduation (Stream & College): BITS Pilani, Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): 3 years, Bain & Company (Capability Center)
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1

questions: Just an icebreaker.
Case type: Cost Control
Case problem A leading IT firm is meeting expectations regarding revenue growth but its costs are a few
statement: percentage points higher than the industry average. They want to do a cost cutting
exercise, but with a long term perspective. What should they be doing?
Candidate: Began with a few preliminary question to understand the business and its clients.
Interviewer: It is an India based IT Services firm, clients across the world, with two BUs with an 75-25
revenue split. Please focus on any one of them.
Candidate: Began charting the cost-side tree using the profitability framework.
I would like to break down costs into the following major buckets:
1. Labor
2. IT infrastructure/Technology
3. Rent and Utilities
4. All administrative expenses, including marketing and HR.
Interviewer: Please focus on labor costs only.
Candidate: After a two-minute discussion on labor costs - the problem was identified as an issue of
labor productivity.
Interviewer: Please list down key drivers of labor cost?
Candidate: Spoke about the major drivers of labor costs. Had a short discussion on salaries, tenure mix
of employees, organizational structure complexity before concluding.
What went well? Solid Structure and Good Communication. Identified the issues rather quickly. One thing I
consciously tried to do during the interview was to think along firsts principles and not just

96
plug the frameworks that I had practiced. This reflects in how you structure your problem
and you get some brownie points from the interviewer.
What didn’t go well? Nothing
General Interview On my way to the 2nd interview, I was told that it was 90% certain I had an offer. The
Notes: interviewer had a very no-nonsense, to-the-point approach. Cracking the case was the only
thing he was looking for. Practice your basic personals very well. I don't think they were
evaluative, but answering them answer them well boosts your confidence.
ROUND 2
Tell me about yourself. General questions on my IIM Calcutta experience and my favourite
subjects in IIM Calcutta.
I spoke about Behavioral Sciences 1 & 2 - partly because I actually liked both the courses
Personal/Preliminary and partly because I wanted to avoid getting an impromptu case based on quant heavy
questions: subjects such as CFR or Stats.
Case type: HR related.
Case problem
statement: A short case on motivating ‘old timers’ in a firm.
Interviewer: How do you motivate a group of 'old timers' working in a chemicals manufacturing firm?
Candidate: Repeated the case problem. Asked reasons around why the 'old timers' were not
motivated?
Interviewer: Asked me to give possible reasons for lack of motivation
Candidate: Applied basic BS1 and BS2 concepts to come up with a very simple structure and used it
to identify possible reasons for lack of motivation.
Interviewer: Please elaborate on each bucket you have listed.
Candidate: I spoke a little bit on each point - the interviewer broadly wanted to test the breadth and
not as much the depth.
What went well? I could apply BS1 and BS2 on the fly and come up with a decent structure.
What did not go well? I was taken aback by the case statement and I felt that I took longer than usual to come up
with a structure
General Interview Interviewer was very friendly and made an effort to strike a rapport. This round lasted for
Notes: about 10-15 mins. After the interview, I was called outside and asked to wait for 2-3 mins
before one of the OCRs told me that I had an offer.

97
Name: Shivam Kant Rajvanshi
Under-graduation (Stream & College): Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Delhi Technological University
Number of rounds: 3
ROUND 1
Personal/Preliminary Basic Introductory questions: tell me about yourself, few questions about CV points,
questions: challenges faced in a POR, hobbies.
Case problem
Estimate the number of earth movers in the country in a year.
statement:
Interviewer: So, are you familiar with the construction industry? If not, we can move to something else.
Candidate: I have some brief knowledge about it. Let us try the problem.
Alright, so our client is an Earth Mover manufacturer. He has asked us to find the demand
Interviewer:
of earth movers in the country.
Sure. So as per my understanding, an earth mover would typically be used only for large
scale construction activities. I can start by estimating the activities going on in a city at any
Candidate:
instant, and then can take that forward for different regions. Alternatively, I can look at
different sectors where earth movers are employed and carry on with that.
Interviewer: Yes, let’s look at it from different sectors. What sectors require an earth mover?
Candidate: Real estate - residential townships, roads and flyovers, commercial spaces, dams etc.
So start from the real estate sector. How would you find the earth movers employed
Interviewer:
during construction activity?
That would depend on the capacity of the machine, the volume needed to be excavated:
the area under construction and the depth, and the typical time frame of the activity.
Based on this, we can calculate the number of machines required for 1 construction
Candidate:
activity. We can divide the different types of activities under residential townships,
commercial spaces, hospitals etc. estimate the area under construction for a city. I would
discount the activities under small scale construction, since those would not require an
earth mover.
Yes. That could be one way of going about it. How would you estimate the nationwide
Interviewer:
demand using that?
Candidate: So I would begin with the typical rural-urban divide of the geography area, further going

98
down a level, I would break the urban area into tier 1, tier 2 and so on, estimating the total
area under construction for each, including different sectors, taking agriculture/rural
construction also in account.
Did it on the paper, comprehensively breaking it into levels, stating the assumptions made.
Interviewer: Hmm, good. But what is one factor we are missing in this?
So a machine would be employed multiple times in a given year for different projects
Candidate: based on the timeline of a project. So I should discount the total number of machines
required by an appropriate factor to account for this.
Interviewer: Okay, that makes sense. We can close the discussion here. Thanks for your time.
What went well, Initially I could not structure my thoughts properly. But I remained calm and worked
didn’t go well? through it.
General Interview Ask for information and the interviewer will help. But don’t ask un-necessary questions,
Notes: they may ask you the reason for your question. Be confident with your personals.
ROUND 2
Personal/Preliminary The interviewer gives a brief intro about himself, asks me to walk him through the C.V.,
questions: and asks a few questions about my background.
Case type: Market entry/Growth strategy (primarily focused on structure)
Interview style: Friendly, although the interviewer was also juggling a client call simultaneously
Case problem
The client is a B2B commercial AC manufacturer, looking to increase growth rate
statement:
So our client is a commercial AC manufacturer who has hired you to figure out ways to
Interviewer:
grow at higher rates.
I asked a few preliminary questions about the client, what geography does he operate in,
Candidate: the segments, his market position, competition and industry trends. The fact that the
industry and 2 competitors are growing at higher rates came out during this discussion.
So now that you know that others are growing at higher rates, can you give me 6
Interviewer:
hypotheses of why that is happening?
Since he was not looking for any analysis based on specific parameters, just broad
Candidate: hypotheses, I laid out some reasons for lower growth rates. He was more interested in the
thought structure and the way I handled the case, than the actual solutions.
Looking at the paper, nods at the 6 hypotheses.
Interviewer: So you have written that the client might not be catering to some growing/new customer
segments or geographies. Actually the client is not doing business with high end premium
housing societies. Can you figure out why that might happen?
I structured my thoughts for a minute and then laid out 6-7 possible reasons for the same.
Candidate: I was cross questioned on some of them. I just tried to be exhaustive with the reasons,
looking at all aspects.

99
Yes, these are some of the reasons. Can you do a quick guestimate of such premium
Interviewer:
housing societies in the country and demand for the ACs there?
Did the guestimate. Took only tier 1 cities under consideration, and taking an average
Candidate: number of houses, found out a rough estimate of the demand. Was also asked to include
premier hospitals, hotels etc., in the calculation.
Hmm. That is a fairly rough estimate. But I am only looking at the thought process. Now
Interviewer:
can you suggest possible solutions to the client to reach out to this market segment?
Again suggested some solutions. Talked about logistics since transporting a large number
Candidate:
of units would be a challenge, and included after sales service too.
Interviewer: Good, that sums it up. We can end now.
Candidate: Thank you sir. It was nice discussing the case with you.
Interviewer: I think being exhaustive with the solutions helped.
What went well? I think being exhaustive with the solutions helped.
What did not go well? Could have laid down more points and explained better.
It’s important to convey your thought process to the interviewer. Also, if you make a
General Interview
statement, be ready to back it up by logic. Write legibly everything on the sheet provided,
Notes:
the interviewer should be able to understand your work.
ROUND 3
Brief Introduction, ‘how has your day been so far'?
questions:
Case type: Response to competition strategy, calculation based
Case problem
A card board manufacturer, leader in its industry, is expecting to lose its market share.
statement:
Let us discuss a quick case. So ABC firm manufactures cardboard boxes. The firm expects
Interviewer:
to lose market share in the coming quarter.
I asked about the client, growth rate, market share, customer segments, product and
Candidate: competition. Clarified the objective and began analyzing the case. Asked about any recent
changes in the industry or competitors which might affect our sales.
Yes, a leading competitor has announced a discount strategy which will place their product
Interviewer:
at cheaper rates than ours.
Since the products are almost similar, and the distribution channels and promotion is also
same, I would like to know how the client is able to sell it at cheaper rates. For this, I’ll
Candidate: quickly analyze the cost drivers involved.
Laid down the fixed and variable costs factors and began asking about them individually.

100
So yes, for this raw material (adhesives), the client imports them from china and hence at
Interviewer:
a cheaper price.
So can we also import it from China, or change our suppliers? If so, I would like to analyze
Candidate: the costs to do so. Also, I would want to find out what fraction the adhesive contributes
to the overall cost, and how much can we expect to save if we change our existing supplier.
Interviewer: Provided data, including per unit costs and investment required to change supplier.
On analyzing the given data, I found that we can maintain the same profits by switching
Candidate: to the new adhesives and reducing our price. Also suggested some ways to increase market
share.
Interviewer: Yes, that is correct. Can you summarize the case for me?
Candidate: While I was summarizing, 2 partners came and made the offer.

101
Name: Lalithya Bonthu
Under-graduation (Stream & College): Avionics, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Scientist, ISRO, 30 months
Number of rounds: 3
ROUND 1
Basic pleasantries.
questions:
Case type: Cost Cutting
Case problem
Whether or not a firm should renew their corporate jet used by CXOs.
statement:
Bain has hired you to decide whether or not they should renew their corporate jet lease.
Interviewer:
This jet is used by their CXOs.
Reiterating the problem, I am supposed to decide if renewing their corporate jet is a good
Candidate:
option.
Interviewer: Yes.
Candidate: This would involve comfort and cost. Are there any other problems I should look at?
Interviewer: No, that’s it.
I would like to know a little bit more about the jet. For instance, I want to know the jet
Candidate:
used, capacity and utilization, number of trips, cost per trip and duration of trip.
Interviewer: Gave the numbers and asked me to continue.
I looked at the following options:

1. commercial airlines,
2. helicopters,
Candidate: 3. corporate jets.
I listed out the total cost involved based on the numbers given for each of the options. I
used value chain approach for this.
I compared the costs to the cost involved in using our corporate jet.
Interviewer: He then asked me to elaborate on comfort.
I discussed some of the comfort factors based on the information available. Upon analyzing
Candidate:
all the options, I recommended not renewing the lease.
Interviewer: Agreed with my solution, and concluded the interview.

102
What went well? Asking the right questions and involving numbers when required
The interview started almost directly with a case. I wasn’t expecting that and was a little
tense in the beginning.
ROUND 2
Tell me about yourself. Why did you quit ISRO? Why Bain?
questions:
Case type: Short guesstimate
Case problem
Estimate the number of rockets ISRO can send in one year?
statement:
I started off by listing the various applications, various launchers available and the third
Candidate:
level being domestic vs foreign.
Interviewer: Asked me to check along each of the applications
I added numbers to it and came up with a number. I cross-checked and confirmed it with
Candidate: the knowledge from my work experience.
Soon after, an offer was made.

103
Name: Abhishek Tayal
Interviewing Firm: AT Kearney
Under-graduation (Stream & College): IIT Delhi, Computer Science & Engineering
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): IT, Times Internet Limited, 22
Number of rounds: 3
ROUND 1
Spoke briefly about work experience and quickly jumped into the case.
questions:
Case type: Fall in revenues
Case problem
Automotive manufacturer facing fall in revenues.
statement:
So, you’ve worked with Times Internet before coming here. What exactly did you do
Interviewer:
there?
Candidate: Spoke about my work experience
OK. So, let us move on to the case. Our client is an automotive manufacturer and they
Interviewer:
have been witnessing a fall in their revenues for the past 4 months.
Candidate: Is there any other objective besides finding the reason for the fall in revenues?
Interviewer: No.
Asked about the location, industry trend, macro factors, part of value chain they operate
Candidate:
in.
They have only one factory in India, and sell across the country through distributors.
Interviewer: Industry has been doing fine. There have been no new competitors. Our client is involved
only in manufacturing and selling them to the distributors.
Please give me a minute to structure it.
Candidate: Realized a major point I missed in my preliminary questions.
Sorry, would like to ask something else before I progress with my structure. What does
our client manufacture exactly?
Interviewer: They manufacture tractors.

104
Candidate: What are the type of tractors that they make?
3 types of tractors based on horse power. (Also provided the revenue contribution of each
Interviewer:
type of tractor to the total revenues.)
Thank you, sir. I will now, proceed with my structure.

Candidate: (Took a minute) Revenues could fall due to a fall in volumes, or a fall in the price per unit
(for any product). Do we have information on this?
Interviewer: The volumes have gone down.
Candidate: Is this for one of the three products, or for all product types?
Interviewer: The volumes have declined for all three types.
I would like to break this down into four possible causes:
• Product issue
• Pricing issue
Candidate:
• Distribution issue
• Marketing issue
I would want to rule them out one by one. Is there one you would like me to focus on?
Interviewer: Let’s focus on distribution.
Distribution was through a channel partner, as mentioned earlier. Found out they had
reduced staff which had affected customer conversion.
Went into distributor’s profitability. Found they were not making enough money from sales
Candidate: as they were not getting a good price in the end market.
Price had actually fallen in the market, but our client had refused to reduce the price
charged to the distributor, forcing the latter to cut staff.
It was a short case and a test of basic structure.
Had a good structure which allowed me to navigate the case well. Caught hints at crucial
What went well?
moments to make life easier.
Did not immediately ask what the automotive manufacturer produced and went on with
an assumption that they produce cars. I also assumed initially when I asked about the price,
that it is the final market price that is stable when it was actually the price charged to the
distributor.
Be very attentive to whatever the interviewer is saying. The interviewer will generally try
to guide you towards the solution he has in mind, but you need to be receptive towards
General Interview the same.
Notes:
Never make assumptions. Even if you do, always remember to state the same immediately,
so that you don’t go astray.

105
Example: In this case, when I inquired about the prices first and found they are not
changing, I assumed it to be the final price of the tractors in market. However, it was the
price charged to the distributer by the manufacturer. The actual retail price had actually
fallen down.
ROUND 2
Mostly personals based interview where he was trying to prove my past decisions and
Personal/Preliminary actions meaningless. Talked about everything from my work experience, my startup, my
questions: expectations from IIM Calcutta and why I would like to go for consulting and why I believe
I will fit there.
Case type: Multiple mini cases/puzzles/discussions
Interview style: Stress interview
Case problem
Multiple cases
statement:
Interviewer: So, Abhishek, do you watch Tennis?
Candidate: No.
Interviewer: Do you watch any sports?
Candidate: No.
Interviewer: Do you read?
Have read some fiction, like Harry Potter. Have read one book by Ayn Rand.
Candidate:
(Name drop.)
Interviewer: Must be Fountainhead?
Candidate: Yes.
Interviewer: So, what do you do on weekends?
Candidate: Like to listen to music and practice. Also, try to jam with people whenever possible.
So, what are your plans for IIM Calcutta? What do you want to do here? Just study and
Interviewer:
get into academia?
No sir. I want to get into consulting if possible. And I don’t believe everyone who studies
Candidate:
a lot in college eventually enters academia.
Interviewer: What kind of grades are you getting?
Candidate: I messed up one course, but got A and A+ in the rest.
Interviewer: So, what will be your IR?

106
Candidate: Somewhere around 50.
Interviewer: What was your favorite subject in term 1?
Candidate: CFRA i.e. Corporate Financial Reporting and Analysis
So, you would’ve attended a number of PPTs by now. Tell me which sector you want to go
Interviewer:
to and which sector you feel you would actually fit in?
Consulting and consulting.

Candidate:
Went on to give a long answer on why I wish to join consulting and why I am suited for it.
Interviewer: Just for your information, we do not use much of CFRA in consulting.
I thought that it might help in looking at books of clients once in a while when relevant to
Candidate:
a case.
Yes. Not trying to refute the importance of any subject. Just explaining.
Interviewer: OK. Tell me more about your startup. Who are your competitors at a global level? Is it still
running?
There is no other start-up in the world with the exact same model. However, there are
some like ‘BlueApron’ pretty similar to it. Even in India, we have similar players like
Candidate: ‘Cookfresh’. We are differentiated from all other ready-to-cook meal boxes because we
are the only players who also provide the customers with a shelf-life of a week.
It is still running in Gurgaon. Do try it out if you happen to be there sometime.
OK. Let us do some cases now.

Interviewer:
So, we have a client who has come to you for knowing their valuation.
Candidate: What industry is our client in?
Assume it to be Smart Rasoi (name of my startup). Not exactly Smart Rasoi but something
Interviewer:
in the same space. Just looking for strategies and not numbers.
Candidate: I can remember 2 off the top of my mind. Using the PE ratio and the NPV method.
Interviewer: Please explain both.
In the PE Ratio method, we calculate the average PE ratio of other firms in the same
Candidate: industry and then utilize the same to calculate the valuation or pricing of the firm based
on its current earnings.
Interviewer: But, our client is not listed, so how do we get the PE ratio.
There would be other competitors who are and we would use their PE Ratio. We can
Candidate:
obviously get the bottom line of our client’s firm.

107
Interviewer: No firm in this industry is listed, what now?
Then we will go by the NPV method. We will use the projected earnings for a long period
Candidate:
and discount them to the current time to find the NPV of future earnings.
Interviewer: Our client has only projected earnings for 2 years. What so we do now?
Slightly confused now, had not read anything else as such, so I went to find the basic
definition of valuation
Candidate:
So, what does valuation essentially mean. It essentially is the sum of the assets. So, we’ll
add the cash and cash equivalents, long term advances, PPE etc.
But, for that we need the books and our client is not listed so we don’t have access to that
Interviewer:
information.
But, we would know the equity and also the usual debt-equity ratio for this industry. Using
Candidate:
that, we can find debt and add debt and equity to get sum of assets.
Interviewer: But, that is the same thing. Can we do something else?
Really perplexed now. But suddenly I realized that valuation = pricing
So, essentially, valuation is pricing the firm. Now, we can do pricing in 3 ways. We 1st
Candidate: looked at competitor based pricing via the PE ratio. Then, we looked at cost-based pricing
in the form of NPV or sum of assets. So, we can now look at Value based pricing. We can
approach an investor or a VC and see what percentage of equity they are willing to buy
and at what price to find the complete pricing of the firm.
OK. Let us do another case now. Imagine a person is standing on the bottom left corner of
Interviewer: a standard chessboard and he needs to go to the top right corner. In how many ways can
he do so?
I am assuming that a standard chessboard means 8x8 squares and that the person will
Candidate: walk along the edges. Also, I assume, he is not an idiot and will try to keep the distance
minimum by not backtracking his direction.
No. He will walk on the edges and will only go Right or Up. (I was drawing a chessboard
Interviewer:
then) Yes, yes, take your time.
Then we just need to arrange 8 ‘Ups’ and 8 ‘Rights’ as at any point they always have both
Candidate: options available till he actually reaches the opposite corner. So, that is essentially 16P16/(8!
X 8!) because we have 8 identical ‘Ups’ and ‘Rights’
OK. OK. Now let us do the next case. (I picked up my pen) Don’t write anything, we just
Interviewer: need to discuss.
Give me 3 predictions for the year 2116.
Candidate: Slightly taken aback by the question.

108
What area are we looking at for the predictions?
Surprise me. And since I said 2116, please don’t give me an answer which is possible in the
Interviewer:
next 15-20 years.
Candidate: I have some very unconventional ideas in my mind, don’t know if they would be valid.
Interviewer: Shoot.
I believe China is steadily gaining power. Also, US is losing power, more so if Trump wins.
Candidate: When US came to power it spread Democracy. Similarly, China will spread Communism.
So, I visualize a communist world in 2116.
Interviewer: OK. So, that is your 1st prediction. Next?
ISIS is very powerful, and we can see that even a 10 times bigger army is having trouble
Candidate: dislodging. Also, Europe is weak economically and people are lazy there. So, I see a Muslim
ruled Europe in 2116.
Interviewer: OK. And third?
Thinking hard now after having given 2 really unconventional predictions.
So, as you have clearly identified in the beginning, I don’t watch sports or read any books.
Candidate: But, I love to watch cartoons and I am reminded of a cartoon called Jetsons which talked
of a futuristic world where everyone had their own jets. Seeing what Elon Musk is doing
and the progress Japan is making in automobiles in general, I believe by 2116, we can all
hope to have our own small jets and use airspace for general travel.
Interviewer: So, you mean, personal air mobility?
Candidate: Yes.
Interviewer: Ok. Thanks.
I realized early on that it is a stress interview and I was not shaken off by the same. I played
What went well?
along with the interviewer maintain my calm at all times.
Went slightly aggressive and sarcastic at times which is not something that should be
done. Also, made a slight error with a very basic PnC formula.
Although it is easier said than done, but don’t get thrown off in a stress interview. This is
one of those interviews where it is very important to believe in yourself and a bit of
arrogance might even come in handy.
General Interview No interviewer would ever say negative things about you unless it is a stress interview.
Notes:
That is a clear indication of one and if you happen to be in that situation, just realize that
it is just another form of testing and you just have to calmly answer all that is being asked
and stay true and honest to your profile and your preparation. There is no need to be
thrown off by a stress interview.

109
st
Random 9GAG surfing can sometimes come in handy. The 1 2 predictions I provided for
2116 were loosely based on Baba Vanga’s predictions till the end of universe which were
once posted on 9GAG. Also, it might be helpful if you follow some sport or are into some
form of reading.
ROUND 3
Personal/Preliminary Entire interview was on personals starting from ‘About me’ and then getting deep into
questions: anything the Partner found interesting in that.
Case type: No case
Interview style: Partner round, personals based, very informal.
Case problem
NA
statement:
Hi Abhishek. So, I’ve just received your CV, why don’t you tell me something about
Interviewer:
yourself?
Candidate: (Told)
So, what do you do in Music? Have you been trained? I see you have also sung with Coke
Interviewer:
Studio, can you sing something now?
Candidate: Told him about my training and sang a song as well.
Interviewer: Very nice. Is there something you would like to know about ATK?
Asked about when exactly does ATK push us to specialize in a particular industry or is it
Candidate:
left open throughout?
Interviewer: Does not force anyone to specialize ever.
Thank you, sir.

Candidate:
Was then given an offer after 5 minutes of waiting.
The fact that I got to sing immediately brought me to my comfort zone and hence, I was
What went well?
extremely calm and excited about the entire interview.
What didn’t go well? Could have asked a better question maybe.
If you’ve reached the partner round, you are most probably in. Just stay calm and honest
and things will turn out fine. Smile and maintain a friendly posture at all times.
General Interview
Notes: Stay calm and positive and assume that you are already selected if you are sent to a
Partner. You just have to maintain your composure in that interview and play to your
strengths if possible.

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Name: Abhinav Siwach
Under-graduation (Stream & College): Electronics & Communication Engg. , Delhi College of Engineering
Number of rounds: 3
ROUND 1
Personal/Preliminary Tell me about yourself. Why do you want to go into consulting? Elaborate on your
questions: experience in Steel Industry. What is the future of social sciences and politics?
Case type: Profitability + Graph Analysis
Case problem
A lubricant manufacturer is facing a decline in profits.
statement:
Let’s dive into the case. You have a time limit of 15 minutes. Your Client is a lubricant
Interviewer: manufacturer who is facing a decline in profits. Find possible reasons and suggest
solutions.
I would like to know more about our client. A) For how long has the client been facing a
Candidate: decline in profits. B) Where does the client operate. C) Where does the client lie in the
value chain. D) Who are the major consumers of our client
A) For the past 8 months. B) Primarily in India – with manufacturing units spread
throughout the country. C) The client is the manufacturer and procures raw materials from
Interviewer:
3rd party sellers, and sells through company owned outlets and franchises. D). 75% are
automobile manufacturers. Rest is sold to industrial units using it as a raw material.
I would first look at the profit structure of the client. Then investigate the revenue drivers
Candidate: and cost drivers. Further, I would like to investigate the value chain and identify the pain
points for our client
Interviewer: Fair enough. Go ahead.
A) Has there been a reduction in revenue in the past 8 months?
Candidate: B) Has there been an increase in costs?
C) Is it that revenue is declining or is the cost increasing?
Interviewer: Revenue is not a problem. Cost is increasing.
Candidate: A) Is it increasing for all units. B) I will break the costs into fixed cost and variable cost.

111
Interviewer: Yes, across all units.
I don’t think fixed cost would be a problem for a lubricant manufacturing unit for a
duration of 8 months because of the following reasons.
Candidate:
I listed down the reasons.
I think variable cost would be increasing.
Interviewer: Good analysis. Proceed with variable costs.
Listed down all the variable costs. There was a problem with one variable cost. Asked for
Candidate:
more data about it.
Interviewer: Here, is a graph having containing the cost driver and season of the year
It shows that there might have been an external disturbance in the industry due to which
Candidate:
internal inventory management might have over-forecasted.
Interviewer: Good, we can stop here.
I was able to identify the expected factors and certain other aspects which were
What went well? unexpected and intrigued the partner. This ensured that I covered the issues
comprehensively.
What didn’t go well? Did a lot of calculations that should be done only if the interviewer asks you to do.
General Interview Be open to how the interviewer directs the case. As evident, he didn’t have a fixed structure
Notes: in mind and went about the interview based on the preceding discussion between us.
ROUND 2
Tell me about yourself. 3 achievements that you are proud of.
questions:
Case type: Market Sizing + Profitability
Case problem
Client has a ski resort. Find profits in long run.
statement:
Interviewer: Your client has inherited a ski resort. He wants you to find out what he should do.
Broadly looking at the options before we delve in, the client can A) Operate the resort. B)
Candidate: Sell the resort C) Augment/upgrade the resort and look for synergies. D) Lease out the
resort. E) Look for acquisitions of ski resorts and build a ski resort chain.
Interviewer: Fair enough

112
Some clarifying questions about the client. A) Where is the resort located? B) Is there any
Candidate: specific objective that I should be looking for such as profits (short run, long run),
profitability, sustainability, exit options.
Interviewer: Shimla. Tell me the profits that the client can have.
I will first do the market sizing. Then I will do benchmarking and find out the market share
Candidate: that the client can have. Finally, look at the value chain, profits – Net Present Value,
opportunity cost and switching cost and barriers to exit.
Interviewer: Don’t look at opportunity cost and switching cost and barriers to exit
Went into market sizing – domestic travelers + international travelers. Average group size
– 4 (households and others).
Candidate:
I segmented on the basis of income. Then I took frequency of visit per each segment, and
then the average ticket size per each segment. Calculated market size.
Interviewer: Good
Candidate: How many other ski resorts do we have in the nearby area? What is their market share?
Interviewer: There are 4 major players with around 25% market share each.
Major revenue stream for a resort owner is A) Room rental b) Ski services c) Value added
Candidate:
services. Do our competitors also offer similar services.
Interviewer: You can assume that they offer similar services.
I will look at the A) Prices B) Quality of allied services C) Seasonality of service D) Location
Candidate: of resort. For skiing, I will require specifically A) Safety infrastructure B) Training C)
Equipment costs (rent/buy) D) Other hidden costs E) Govt Licenses .
Interviewer: Okay, don’t go in detail. Do a scenario analysis for 5 years.
If we do a yearly analysis then we might break even in the first year, with improved
Candidate: services we can start making profits from second year onwards. With 5 players and
assuming no major differentiation, we can have a 20% market share in the long run.
Interviewer: Fair enough, we are running out of time. Just find out revenues.
I did the calculations, after finding market size and assuming ticket size for each purchase,
Candidate: I gave him the figures.
I took population growth also, and adjusted revenues to population growth.
Interviewer: We are done. Thank You
What went well? I had done similar cases before so knew what nuances need to be taken care of.
What did not go well? Nothing.

113
General Interview
Keep your cool and do not get lost. Practice more cases.
Notes:
ROUND 3
Personal/Preliminary What mistakes did you make in the previous cases? Why don’t you become a social
questions: scientist?
Case type: Unconventional + Probability question
Interview style: Friendly (and short)
Case problem
A steel manufacturer wants to reduce power consumption.
statement:
Interviewer: Your client is a steel manufacturer. Suggest 3 ideas and 2 points under each idea.
Candidate: Spoke about three ideas around efficiency and provided details.
Assume that you have three dice with 2 sides colored red, 2 colored blue and 2 colored
Interviewer: green. I roll two of them. Find the probability that the third dice produces side with red
color given that the two dices have rolled out red faces.
Candidate: Used Bayes theorem and found out the probability.
Interviewer: Congrats, You have been given an offer.

114
Name: Bhawna Setia
Name/Designation of Interviewer: 1st round with Principal, 2nd round with Partner
Under-graduation (Stream & College): IIT Rourkee
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): 3 Years, Schlumberger
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
Personal/Preliminary Tell me about yourself.

questions: He wanted to know more about my volunteering experience.
Case type: Revenue growth
Case problem
Alcoholic beverage manufacturer with stagnant growth. Wants to improve top-line.
statement:
Client is an alcoholic beverage manufacturer and is facing issues regarding stagnant

Interviewer:
topline growth. What can be done to improve topline?
First I would I like to understand where the client stands with respect to the industry as a
Candidate:
whole, to identify whether or not this is an industry-wide problem.
Interviewer: Fine. Go ahead.
Analyzed the client and industry trends. Found out that the industry was growing at 15%
while this client was growing at 4% only.
Candidate:
It seems like the issue is not industry-wide. At this point I would like to segment by product
or product lines, to narrow down the lack of growth.
Interviewer: That sound fine.
After analyzing, I found out that this client was into three products - Rum, Vodka and
Whiskey while the other products in market- Beer, Gin and Rum are growing at a much
Candidate: faster rate.
I believe the problem here is that the product lines we are offering are not experiencing
significant growth.
Interviewer: Good. Now what would you suggest the client do in order to grow.

115
At this point, I used Ansoff matrix, and proposed four possible growth strategies:
1. Market penetration
Candidate:
2. Product development
3. Market development
4. Diversification
Interviewer asked me to look into the product development strategy and the parameters I
Interviewer:
would require to analyze different products.
I asked for
• market size,
• client's market share,
• growth rate,
• profit margin,
Candidate: • investment required,
• number of competitors for each product line.
Based on the numbers provided to me for all 6 products, I decided to drill down on the
financial aspects of 2 product lines.
Based on future cash flows for these two products and the investment required, I made a
suggestion to go ahead with one product finally.
Interviewer: Do you have any questions?
Candidate: He answered my questions briefly, before concluding the interview.
What went well? Asking for right data and doing the calculations right.
The interviewer tested me on ability to identify the important parameters in deciding which
General Interview
product line would be the most profitable to venture in. The analysis is more important
Notes:
than the numbers. However, calculations are always a hygiene condition.
ROUND 2
Basic introduction
questions:
Case type: Analysis: import versus manufacture
Interview style: Mildly elements of stress with short, to the point, information.
Client wants to import LNG for next 10 years and for this purpose, he needs to decide
Case problem
whether to import LNG, or to manufacture them within the country - keeping in mind the
statement:
Make in India initiative.
Candidate: I started by looking to understanding the major suppliers for these carriers.

116
Interviewer: There's only one major manufacturer in Korea, which supplies to the rest of the world.
I would like to know more about the technical know-how required for manufacturing
Candidate:
these carriers.
We have ship building capability in India, but manufacturing LNG carriers requires further
Interviewer:
add-ons.
Given the need for additional know-how, I believe we have two options:
Candidate: 1. Going further via a joint venture
2. Importing carriers.
Interviewer: How would you analyze them?
Analyzed both options in terms of
1. Cost,
2. Long term impact,
Candidate:
3. Impact on GDP,
4. Impact on other constituents of the value chain,
5. Employment generation,
6. Future demand and a few other factors.
Interviewer: Thank you. That will be all.
This case was different from the cases I had practiced, and I had minimal industry
What went well? knowledge. Also, it was a stress interview and the interviewer gave me just to the point
answers. So, I asked a lot of questions and extracted as much information as I could.

117
Name: Harshit Chopra
Name/Designation of Interviewer: Associate (Round 1), Partner (Round 2), Principal (Round 3)
Under-graduation (Stream & College): B.Com, Accounting & Finance, Narsee Monjee College, Mumbai
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): 10 months in Craftsvilla (e-commerce)
Number of rounds: 3
ROUND 1
Tell me about yourself
questions:
Case type: Cost Reduction
Case problem Our client is a Lubricants manufacturer who wants to reduce costs. How would you go
statement: about it?
First I would like to understand more about the company, its operations, number of plants
Candidate:
& their locations, whether it is a specific plant we’re talking about.
Interviewer: Interviewer provided the required information.
Now, I would like to go through the value chain and identify the costs, benchmarking them
Candidate:
against industry standards.
Interviewer: That sounds fine. Go ahead.
Chalked out the value chain and find individual costs. Compared them with industry
standards.
Candidate:
Identified major cost drivers which were causing the problems and hence required
attention.
Interviewer: So, where do the issues lie?
Candidate: I would say both raw materials and labor costs deserve our attention.
Interviewer: Good. How would you proceed.
For raw materials, I would look at the following options:
1. Contemplate Make or Buy

Candidate: 2. Identify optimum order quantity & compare with current ordering cycles
3. Import raw materials
4. Pool suppliers for better bargaining
5. Control wastages & revise standards for raw material consumption per unit of

118
finished good
6. Offer quick payments for cash discounts & better rates
7. Negotiate long term supply arrangements if not yet into place
Interviewer: Okay. What about labor costs.
Here, I would consider the following:
1. Avoid overtime
2. Hire temporary workers if seasonal fluctuations
Candidate: 3. Upgrade machinery, introduce automation
4. Employee training
5. Make employees the owners- ESOPs, performance linked pay & bonuses, etc
6. Negotiate with the Union
7. Outsource a process if being done expensively in-house
Interviewer: That seems fairly exhaustive. Thank you.
What went well,

Approach was correct. Covered almost all aspects exhaustively
didn’t go well?
General Interview
First round is almost always case based, and the key to selection.
Notes:
ROUND 2
• About CA & Graduation. Why did I leave CA midway?

• A bit about work & reasons to join Craftsvilla despite having a thriving business
Personal/Preliminary back home.
questions: • Internship in family business & a bit about the family.
• I had headed a beauty pageant with Kareena Kapoor as the brand ambassador.
Some light-hearted questions on that.
Case type: Market sizing within the context of diversification
Case problem
Asked to do a market sizing in line with my family business - Timber & Plywood
statement:
So. Let’s do a case around your family business. What do you think are the ways in which
Interviewer:
your family business could diversify.
I can suggest the following areas.
Candidate: 1. Furniture manufacturing

2. Interior designing & services like wooden flooring, etc.
3. Handicrafts export & domestic market
Interviewer: What about wooden items like clocks, cutlery.
Candidate: Of course. Thank you.
Interviewer: Now I would like you to estimate the furniture market in India.

119
Took 30-45 seconds to develop approach. I realised supply side is difficult to gauge. Even
demand can be very fragmented. But had to choose one. Chose to look at demand side.
Candidate:
Conveyed this to the interviewer that it is slightly difficult to cover all aspects given various
complexities.
Interviewer: He encouraged me to proceed nonetheless.
I would like to start by breaking down where furniture is used:
Candidate: • Home
• Offices/Workplaces
• Other commercial places like hotels, restaurants, hospitals
Interviewer: What about schools, colleges, libraries?
Candidate: Of course. Thank you.
Started with home.
Estimated number of houses in India- 1BHK, 2BHK, 3BHK and above using demographics
(very time consuming & had to make many assumptions)
Interviewer:
Next estimated major wooden furniture that go in a house and approximate costs on the
basis on income levels of the owners. (Missed cot/khatiya in low income households)
Factored in steel, non-wooden furniture
Candidate: Due to lack of time, was asked to stop here.
I mentioned the possibility of completing CA right after my MBA. He agreed it helps the
What went well?
firm as well as one’s career. Communication & confidence was one major positive.
In hindsight, I know mine wasn’t the best way to solve the case. But it was difficult to think
of an alternate approach given the anxiousness in the interview.
General Interview Should have given a deeper thought about the market sizing case & maybe devised a better
Notes: approach.
ROUND 3
• Again asked about Kareena Kapoor & my interaction with her.

Personal/Preliminary (I think such points in a CV can become a good talking point during the interview)
questions: • Hobbies & interests
• From hobbies moved on to reading interests and then current affairs.
Case type: Effects of public policy
Case problem
A very short case on how GST would affect a cement manufacturer.
statement:
Interviewer: Fine. Tell me how you think GST will affect a cement manufacturer.
From hobbies moved on to reading interests and then current affairs, but gave it my best
Candidate:
shot.

120
A few major areas of impact for GST are:
• Reduction in procedures
• Efficient availability of credit over excise duty paid
• Possible reduction in prices. Benefit might be transferred to the consumer or
partly retained
• Ease of inter-state transfers & faster plant-to-store transportation
Interviewer grilled on these things and tried to go deeper. Did my best (beat around the
Interviewer: bush a little and chose to stick to a general discussion and avoid specifics).
Mentioned not having a great understanding of either GST or cement industry.
Communication. Admitted on not having complete knowledge but tried to cover major
What went well?
basic points
What didn’t go well? Didn’t know much about the hottest topic.
General Interview Current affairs is a MUST! But admit that you don’t know instead of taking a shot in the
Notes: dark and getting it completely wrong.

121
Name: Vikas Mittal
Under-graduation (Stream & College): VNIT- Nagpur
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Tata Steel
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
Personal/Preliminary Tell me about the 3 achievements which you are extremely proud of. Few questions from
questions: work-ex and extra-curricular activities.
Case problem
Client wants to set up a tourist spot on a ski-slope.
statement:
Our client has recently inherited a ski-slope in the mountains of Shimla. He wants to use
Interviewer: this land as a tourist spot. Tell me how you will go about it. Also, calculate the maximum
revenue potential of this land over the next 5 years.
I started by asking few questions to get more clarity on the objective that I am supposed
to achieve. I asked questions on
• initial investment costs (if any),

Candidate:
• any specific requirements that the client has, since he mentioned “tourist spot”,
• competitors in the business,
• current offerings by the competitors
• current growth of tourism industry in India and particularly in Shimla
Interviewer: He provided me with required data and asked be to proceed.
Then I laid out a structure as to the possible options that our client has. In particular:
Candidate: 1. Lease or sell the land to competitors (in the tourism business)
2. Build the land as a tourist spot.
Interviewer: That sound fine. I would first like you to estimate the size of the market for the venture.
Candidate: I estimated the size by focusing on the people visiting Shimla at different times of the year.
Interviewer: Now, can you suggest the revenue streams and prioritize them?
Candidate: I broke down the revenue stream into:

122
• Ski Sports
• Resorts and accommodation facilities
• Food
• Value added services inside the resorts.
• Transportation facility
I looked at each with potential investment costs and realizable revenues.
I would now like you to do a competitive analysis of our client’s service offerings, with
Interviewer:
those of our competitors.
The factors I considered were:
1. Service differentiation
Candidate:
2. Brand image of the competitors
Price sensitivity of the customers
Interviewer: Asked to summarize, at which point the interview concluded.
I asked the right questions initially and gave a structure to the case which helped me to
What went well?
crack it.
General Interview
Don’t be surprised if you get an unconventional case. Make your own frameworks.
Notes:
ROUND 2
Personal/Preliminary Few questions related to my family background, motivation to join IIM Calcutta (Basically
questions: Why MBA!), etc.
Case type: Employee morale, sustainability of growth.
Case problem And FMCG company with stressed employees at one facility. Question marks over
statement: sustainability of growth.
Our client is an FMCG company and has a dominant market share of 70% in India. Recently
the management has observed that they have reached a growth inflection point and they
expect 2X growth in the next 5 years.
However, the company CEO visited one of their manufacturing facilities and he observed
Interviewer: that the people employed at the facility were not happy the work environment, in the
sense that workers had to work for extra hours and also work on weekends. Due to this,
the stress levels of the employees have increased over time.
So the CEO has approached us to find out the reasons for it and give recommendations.
Also gauge whether the 2X growth is realizable or no in the long run.
Started by asking questions on the reasons why company expects 2X growth, clarifying the
Candidate:
objective, i.e. to check for sustainability of the current operating model of the firm.

123
Then I structured the case by making the issue tree and classifying the employee base into
• those employed at manufacturing facility,

• those involved with the distribution channel, and
• after sales support team on the downstream.
Interviewer: That sounds fine. How would you proceed?
Next I analyzed each branch separately to identify the possible reasons for increase in
stress levels.
Factors that could affect those involved in manufacturing are listed below:
• Delay in sourcing raw material

• Changeover issues while switching shifts
Candidate: • Incentive structure
• Improper job allocation
• Improper sequencing of job process leading to increase cycle time, thereby
increasing the working hours of employees (defined 2 metrics here - got brownie
points for that!!)
• Technological challenges (talked about training of employees)
I also listed parameters for the remaining two verticals.
Interviewer: That looks fine. What are your five best recommendations?
Candidate: Looked at the above parameters and addressed the key ones. Was asked to summarize.
I think my prior experience in operations helped me in structuring my thoughts and

What went well?
targeting the right points.
General Interview
Practice in making issue trees for random cases. It will help stimulate your thinking process.
Notes:

124
Name: Abul Aala Nalband
Interviewing Firm: Accenture Strategy
Under-graduation (Stream & College): Biological Science & Bioengineering, IIT Kanpur
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Analytics, Capgemini Consulting, 22 Months
Number of rounds: 3
ROUND 1
Tell me about yourself while I go through your CV. Elaborate on one of the projects
mentioned in CV (Project was identifying sales drivers at a Nordic Airport). What are your
questions:
passions? Briefly discussed undergraduate experience.
Case type: Guesstimate + Profitability
Interview style: Interactive
Case problem Estimate the ice cream sold by a company in India in a year, with airports as the sole sales
statement: channel. Identify different ways to increase the revenue.
Candidate: Do I need to identify the number of ice creams sold or the volume.
Interviewer: Number of ice cream units.
Candidate: Shall I consider all the airports across India?
Interviewer: No, stick with the International airports
Laid down the structure and explained at the same time.
Candidate: Number of international airports * (ratio of adult travelers * average consumption by

adult/month + ratio of children travelers * average consumption by child/month) *
number of average travelers through the airport.
Candidate: Assigned values to each parameter after justifying it. And calculated.
Interviewer: Is this number for the year?
Checked if I had missed anything.

Candidate: Oh sorry, this is the monthly consumption number. Annual will be this number multiplied
by 12.

125
Showed the final number.
Okay. The ice cream chain wants to increase the revenue. So now tell me what their
Interviewer:
options are.
Candidate: To increase the revenue, we can increase the price or sell more units of ice creams.
Interviewer: The price cannot be increased.
So we need to increase sales. This can be done by increasing the frequency of consumption
Candidate: or increasing the customer base. I think increasing the base is not possible because airport
being the only sales channel.
Interviewer: Right. So how would increase the frequency?
We can open up more outlets in the airports so that we are accessible to more people.
Candidate:
We can start a mobile ice cream van and reach at every corner of the airport.
Interviewer: Okay. What else?
We can run promotional campaign and incentivize people who are consuming more by
Candidate:
keeping a track of them.
Interviewer: Fine. What else? Think in terms of the product.
Thank you. We can launch new variants and increase product offerings. We can also
Candidate:
launch seasonal fruit based ice creams (gave the example of Naturals ice cream).
Interviewer: Yes that can be done. Anything from product type perspective.
Candidate: Yes, ice creams come in scoops, bars, cones etc.
Interviewer: Correct, what might deter them buying one then?
Oh, the handling. Scoops will require both hands while others need just a single hand. So,
Candidate: we can increase the bars and cones offerings and focus on their sales using the ways
mentioned above.
Interviewer: Exactly. The ease of eating is also a major factor in such places.
Candidate: Thank you.
Interviewer: Do you have any questions?
Asked one question on function based roles and industry based roles, difference between
Candidate:
Capability Network and India Business. Got a detailed reply.
I started the guesstimate on a good note. Clearly explained my reasons for taking
What went well? particular numbers and writing my structure neatly. I was able to pick up the cues that he
gave me.

126
I was taking up lot of time in explaining and then also in doing calculations. I forgot about
the number that I calculated whether it was monthly or yearly.
Be confident in what you are saying, explain everything in very simple terms so that it is
General Interview
understood clearly and most importantly always take a pause and think whether your next
Notes:
statement/question adds value or not.
ROUND 2
The interviewer is the Partner at the firm. Starts with tell me about yourself in brief. Spoke
about academics and my work experience. He tried to grill me on low UG CPI which I
defended with examples. Then he asked about my work experience at Capgemini
questions:
Consulting. Finally ended with few personal questions like what is my biggest achievement
till date.
Case type: No Case
Interview style: Kind of stress interview
I supported my past actions, particularly trade-offs between alternatives and

demonstrated my achievements as a result of the choices made. Also, I remembered
What went well? reading about Accenture a year ago regarding a change in policy. When asked for any
questions, I brought it up. I think such questions demonstrate your interest in the company,
and also help you stand out from normal questions.
I could have elaborated further on some initial, which may have avoided some cross-
questioning.
General Interview Always backup your actions with positive outcomes. And again, be calm and confident in
Notes: your responses.
ROUND 3
There were 2 interviewers and both were HRs. All the questions were normal HR
questions. Started by asking about the previous rounds, about what I could have done
Personal/Preliminary better, my earlier work, experiences on campus, what could have been better in the
questions:
Accenture PPT etc.
After a brief discussion, an offer was made.
What went well,

Showed good body language
didn’t go well?
General Interview Be enthusiastic in responses, use hand gestures and facial expressions to imply your
Notes: enthusiasm.

127
Name: Aditya Arora
Under-graduation (Stream & College): DCE, ECE
R&D, Schneider Electric, 11 Months

Consulting, ZS Associates, 34 Months
Number of rounds: 3
ROUND 1
Personal/Preliminary Why Accenture? Why Consulting?

questions:
What is your take on the Mistry-Tata spat?
What is your take on US elections?
2 Guesstimates
In both cases, I was not allowed to finish my guestimates as the interviewer had a different
Case type: approach in than I had, and was kind of irritated (or trying to stress me out)
The key is to maintain your composure, as there is no right or wrong approach in such
cases
Interview style: Blunt, to the point, at times downright condescending – again, more to stress me out
Case problem a. Estimate the number of domestic passengers flying through Delhi airport in a year
statement: b. Estimate the number of cigarettes smoked in a year in India
Can you estimate the number of domestic passengers flying through the Delhi airport in a
Interviewer:
given year?
Sir, just to confirm, you want me to calculate the number of passengers going in and out
Candidate:
of the Delhi airport?
Interviewer: Yes.
Sir, I will break this problem into two parts, number of arrivals and number of departures,
Candidate: and use the number of passengers passing through a gate in a given time, to estimate the
annual number
Interviewer: For simplicity, assume that there are 40 arrival gates, and 40 departure gates

128
Sure, thanks! In that case, taking up a typical departure gate… is it fair to assume that at
Candidate: any given point of time, it takes a passenger 2 minutes at the entry gate and walk up to
the check in counter…
Wait, what are you trying to do here? I don’t understand… hasn’t a person, walking
Interviewer:
through a gate already checked-in?
Candidate: I am not assuming web check-ins.
Interviewer: What? Why are you confused here? Which gate are we talking about?
Candidate: The entry gate. The one you use to enter into the airport.
Oh, that gate. I thought you were talking about the boarding gate.
No, no. Leave it. You are doing it wrong. I thought you will be taking a more intelligent
Interviewer:
approach.
Just leave it. Let’s do another one.
Candidate: Sure.
Can you just give me an approach to estimate the number of filtered cigarettes smoked in
Interviewer:
a year in India?
Sure sir. Just to confirm, I need to estimate the number of cigarettes sold in a year?
Candidate:
Assuming that each every sold cigarette is smoked?
Yes, you can take that assumption. But just give me an approach. I don’t want an actual
Interviewer:
number.
Sir, I would estimate this by first splitting the population of India into 3 buckets: below 18
Candidate: years, 18-25 and 25-60… assuming that an average regular smoker has a life span of 60
years only.
Interviewer: Ok…
Since, smoking is prohibited by law, for children below 18 years of age in most cities, I
Candidate:
would only consider the population in the age groups of 18-25, and 25-60 years
Interviewer: Why not just 18+ then?
Candidate: Sir, due to difference in purchasing powers. Usually, 18-25 is the college going age in India.
Then he mentioned an idiom in Hindi, and tried to trash my approach and stopped me
Interviewer: midway, again saying that my approach was not up to the mark.
Do you have any questions for me?
Candidate: Asked him a couple of questions.
I think confidence and composure. For all I know, I was right with my approach even if it
What went well?
was time consuming. I was trying to cover all the bases.

129
What didn’t go well? Not able to anticipate what he wanted when he stopped me.
ROUND 2
Tell me about yourself. Tell me one interesting thing about yourself. Why do you want to
Personal/Preliminary work for Accenture?
questions:
Why did you leave Schneider?
Case type: Growth Strategy
Interview style: Structured and composed
The cement industry in Africa is growing at 11% p.a. Our client, a cement manufacturer
wants to increase his market share, in comparison to his main competitor, whose share is
Case problem twice that of our client.
statement:
Can you please investigate the reasons, why this might be happening? And also suggest
some measure to increase market share.
Sure, Shailesh. Just to confirm, you want me to investigate the reasons why our client has
Candidate: a lower market share, vis-à-vis his competitor in a market that is growing at 11% per
annum?
Interviewer: Yes, that is correct.
Thank you. Before I begin, I would like to understand the African cement market in a bit
Candidate:
more detail.
Sure. The market is fairly competitive, with two major players (our client and his
Interviewer:
competitor) having a major share.
Candidate: Thank you for that. And market share is in terms of number of units or net sales?
Interviewer: As prices are fairly competitive, both mean the same thing…
At this point, I would like to analyze the issue from two aspects: the supply side and the
demand side.
Candidate:
I would want to understand first, if our lower share is because of our ability to produce
less, or any other supply constraints in terms of procurement of limestone or other inputs?
There was a production issue a few months back, but that has been taken care of. And as
Interviewer: far as procurement of limestone is concerned, cement manufacturers are usually located
close to the source of limestone, hence, there are no raw material constraints.
Okay. In that case, I would like to move on to the other branch, where I would like to
Candidate:
investigate into our client’s distribution network first.
Interviewer: Our client has two channels, through distributors and through direct retail.

130
Candidate: And our client’s competitor?
Interviewer: He also has a third channel, where he is selling to large construction houses directly
Candidate: Okay, and what is the proportion of output through this third channel?
Interviewer: Why do you ask that?
I would like to understand if it is a significant amount, and then do a cost benefit analysis
Candidate:
to see if we could also probably set up this channel to drive more sales
Interviewer: Alright. I think you have identified one way to increase market share. Anything else?
I would also like to see if we could lower our margins that we provide to our distributors.
Candidate:
I know this might trigger a price war, but I would still like to explore that possibility.
Cement being a commoditized product, the prices are usually market driven, so that may
Interviewer: be difficult. But, what if I were to tell you that the African currency has suddenly
depreciated?
Candidate: Are we exporting any part of the output?
Interviewer: No. It is being sold domestically.
Candidate: Can we export?
Interviewer: Let’s just say the client is not willing to explore that possibility
In that case, I would think that currency depreciation is usually accompanied by a sharp
Candidate: rise in prices. So, I would again like to explore the possibility of reducing our margins.
Given, that we have our own mines for raw materials, it might be possible.
Interviewer: And, what if the competitor has increased his prices by 30%?
Candidate: In that case, I think we are well placed to sell more.
Interviewer: Okay. I think we can end here. You can give me the sheet. Thank you for your time.
What went well? I followed a structure. Did not panic when currency depreciation was thrown at me.
What did not go well? I could have been better at some of the personals he asked me.
General Interview
Maintain your energy level at all times. They look for a candidate who is enthusiastic
Notes:

131
Name: Vaibhav Bhatnagar
Under-graduation (Stream & College): Mechanical & Automotive Engineering, DTU
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Automobiles, Tata Motors, 21 Months
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
Tell me about yourself, give me a summary of your CV.
questions:
Case type: NA
Interview style: Professional
Case problem
NA
statement:
Clearly state the objectives, levers and matrices of your role at Tata Motors, take 5
Interviewer:
minutes.
I created three columns with the respective headings and jotted down around 5 points in
Candidate:
each. Explained it in detail to him for the next 10 minutes
What would you have done differently if you got the same job after MBA? Also, tell me
Interviewer:
one innovative idea you would like to implement there.
Gave him a couple of points related to the process improvement at my place of work and
Candidate: a road map of implementation as well. Also, I shared with him one innovative idea that I
would like to implement.
Interviewer: Tell me three things that Elon Musk has done differently to make Tesla Motors a success.
1. He started with destroying all the drawbacks of an electric car by offering an

Candidate: electric sports car
Setting up Gigafactory for mass production of batteries
Third one is that he has set up free charging stations all across US. Thank you. That will be
Interviewer:
all.
What went well, I was able to make him understand the nature of my job as well as the project I had worked
didn’t go well? on without being too technical and focusing on the processes involved.
General Interview Keep calm, take time to answer your questions but keep your answers clear and to the
Notes: point. Stick to the template provided by interviewer and structure all your answers.

132
ROUND 2
Why Consulting and why Accenture?
questions:
Case type: N.A.
Case problem
N.A.
statement:
Interviewer: Why do you want to go into consulting?
Candidate: Went with my prepared answer, linking it to my previous work experience.
Interviewer: Why Accenture?
Highlighted the fact that Accenture has many automotive firms as its client, which is my
Candidate:
motivation for joining the firm.
Fine. That will be all.

Interviewer:
After this an offer was made.
What went well,

Remained calm throughout.
didn’t go well?
The second round was just a short Q&A before making an offer. But of course, I did not
General Interview
know that at the time. You don’t know when they make up their mind. And it shouldn’t
Notes:
matter while you are in there.

133
Name: Mohit Manaktala
Name/Designation of Interviewer: Senior Partner & Senior Manager(Round 2), Senior Manager(Round 1)
Under-graduation (Stream & College): B.E. Computer Engineering , NSIT , University of Delhi
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): 23 Months (Royal Bank of Scotland)
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
Personal/Preliminary Q1: Tell me about yourself in 1 minute Q2: Why Consulting. Q3: Work experience related
questions: questions and some discussions on the trends in financial industry in India.
Case type: Growth strategies
Case problem Your client is an Indian retail bank which is looking to grow. Please suggest ideas for the
statement: same.
Okay Mohit. Let’s move to the case.

Interviewer:
Read out problem statement.
Candidate: Ok Sir.
Before I proceed I would like to clarify the problem statement. As I understand our client
Interviewer:
is a India retail bank which wants us to formulate a growth strategy.
Candidate: Yes.
Interviewer: Can you tell me more about the client and his current operations?
The client is one of the biggest retail banks in India. It operates at pan-India level serving
Candidate:
both corporates and individual investors.
Interviewer: What are the major consideration for our banks for its growth.
The client wants to become the largest bank in India in terms of total deposits in 5 years
Candidate:
and also wants to maximize its profits.
Interviewer: That sounds fine.
Asked for two minute to lay down the structure.
I would divide the problem into 2 parts

Candidate:
• Grow revenues from existing customers
• Acquire new customers.
Interviewer: Okay.

134
Under growing revenues from existing customers I wrote the following:
a. Provide competitive interest rates

b. Loyalty reward System
c. Improved customer experience in terms of accessibility
d. Provide customized solutions
Candidate:
Under acquire new customers, I wrote the following:
a. Enter New Markets Outside India and within India

b. Add missing product offerings which customers require such as investment
banking services, custodian bank etc.
c. Diversify into other sectors like payment banking and investment banking,
Interviewer: Good
Candidate: Do we have any data on the usage trends of our customers and feedback given if any?
Nice question!
Interviewer: Our existing customers are extremely happy with our services and bank with us on
occasions when they can. Also, due to regulatory reasons we cannot enter investment
banking space or expand out of India in a big way.
Thank you. So I Will focus my attention on markets within India. As you said that our
Candidate: customers bank with us when they can, I would like to ask if we are present in all parts of
India, both rural and urban areas.
We have good presence in urban areas but our presence in rural areas is limited due to
Interviewer:
low profitability of branches in those areas.
Thanks.
The interviewer also asked me to look at how to grow in rural areas while maintaining
Candidate: profitability.
How is the competition within the rural areas? What are the profit margins in rural areas
and in urban areas?
Mainly state owned banks are present in rural areas and their profit margins are typically
Interviewer: much lower than private banks. Further our margins from our rural branches are less than
half that form our urban branches,
I thought for a moment and did a profitability analysis of a branch in rural areas.
Candidate: After discussing with the partner, I came up with lower deposit size and high staff costs due
to more branch visits by customers as the major factors for high costs.
Ok, I want you to focus on the high costs involved and give me some recommendations
Interviewer:
for the same.
Took a minute to think.
I would list down the following ways:

Candidate:
1. Educate customers on how to use automated services like ATM’s, mobile banking
2. Hire clerical staff from local areas, train them as they would be a better cultural fit
3. Explore using any government incentives for financial inclusion in rural areas.

135
4. See the avenues presented by UPI (Unified payment interface) and focus on
developing capabilities for the same.
Excellent
Interviewer: Basically the case ended and now it was more of a discussion.
What are your point of view on UPI and the the problems with mobile wallets.
Took a minute to think
UPI is more of a payments architecture that is directly linked to achieving the goals of
universal electronic payments, financial inclusion and a move towards a cashless economy
using the latest technology trends.
A mobile wallet on the other hand, is a digital/ electronic form of physical wallet that you
can use to make payments, transfer money, and perform most activities that you can with
cash. Mobile wallets, today use debit or credit cards and people might have apprehensions
Candidate:
in using it
Some advantages of UPI are:
1) UPI do direct bank to bank money transfer but wallets acts as an intermediary
between two bank accounts.
2) UPI allows you to transact up to Rs. 1,00,000/- and in the case of wallets you can
only store up to Rs. 10,000 (For non KYC customer).
3) Mobile Wallets have limited acceptability.
Ok, can you tell me the major challenges faced by a customer using a mobile banking app
Interviewer:
and the relevance of UPI in solving it.
UPI will make P2P transfers very simple as a person can transfer money Instantly without
Candidate: any charges to a upper limit of 1 lac as compared to a traditional banking app where he
has to add beneficiary for account transfers , Bank A/c number, IFSC code.
Interviewer: Thank you Mohit. It was nice interacting with you. Do you have any questions for me?
Candidate: Was prepared with a question.
Interviewer: You can wait outside and you will have your next round in some time.
The initial few minutes of personal questions were extremely important. Also, I had some
What went well?
prior industry knowledge which came out to be very useful
The mention of UPI changed the entire discussion and I was not well prepared for it, had
just used it a couple of times.
General Interview Stay calm. Don’t get nervous. Prepare personals very well. Know the details of what you
Notes: say.
ROUND 2
Tell me about yourself in 1 minute. Work experience related questions.

questions: I had already prepared these answers so this part went well. It also allowed me to connect
with the interviewer which helped me throughout the interview.
Case type: Market sizing

136
Case problem
Market size for PayTM in India in the next 5 years
statement:
My previous interviewer had written down the points from earlier, so this round started as
a continuation of the previous discussion.
Interviewer:
Ok Mohit, I see that you have some idea about Indian banking industry, so can you list
down the 2 biggest challenges faced by it.
Took a moment and came up with two problems.

Candidate: 1. Non-performing assets
2. Challenge from payment banks
Interviewer: So Mohit, how can our retail bank client address these problems?
Took a moment and listed down a few pointers and explained them in detail.
1. NPA:
a) Better due-diligence while giving loans.
b) Limiting the loans given to politically exposed people
c) Management takeover
Candidate: d) Forcing companies to sell assets to meet obligations.
e) Pushing for better regulations.
2. Payment banks
a) Differentiation on the basis of services.
b) Get a payment bank license.
c) Make better mobile apps based on UPI.
Okay Mohit, let’s move to a problem. Can you estimate the market size for PayTM in India
Interviewer:
in the next 5 years?
I asked a few clarifying questions and began by dividing the population into rural and urban
Candidate: India. Then determined the internet penetration and smartphone usage based on income
levels and came up with a rough estimate while clarifying assumption at each level.
Interviewer: Can you tell me why you assumed the internet penetration to be so high?
I moved on to the current Telecom scenario with Reliance Jio and affordable internet along
Candidate:
with free Wi-Fi schemes announced by the government.
Interviewer: Thank you Mohit. You can now wait outside.
Candidate: I went outside and the partner came and said that I have a offer.
What went well, did The initial few minutes of personal questions were critical and the last interview going well
not go well? really helped.
General Interview
Prepare the recent trends in the sector you worked in well.
Notes:

137
Name: Praveen Nagalla
Under-graduation (Stream & College): Physics, IIT Roorkee
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Analytics & E-Commerce, Myntra
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
He started with tell me about yourself and touched upon every single point on my CV. He
asked about my work experience and asked about the projects I did in the past and my
questions:
leanings from them.
Case type: Diversification
Interview style: Friendly and Polite
Case problem Client is a market leader in Beverages industry and is exploring the opportunity to enter
statement: Dairy Food business especially Flavored Yogurts.
Exchanges pleasantries and started with ‘Tell me something about yourself’, ‘Why
Interviewer:
Consulting’ and ‘Why Accenture’? Asked me to calculate the number of volleyballs in India.
Asked a few clarifying questions. He wanted me to calculate the number of volleyballs

owned by different people. Laid down a structure with two different approaches and
Candidate:
calculated the number using the first approach. Then he asked me to stop and said he was
fine with the answer. We moved on to the case.
Client is a leading soft-drink manufacturing company, and is evaluating possibility of

Interviewer:
entering the flavored yogurt market. What would you suggest?
Client is considering diversification of product portfolio. What is the objective for

Candidate:
diversification and why are they considering flavored Yogurt market.
People are becoming more health conscious. As a result of this flavored yogurts and
Interviewer: associated dairy products market is almost doubling every year. Due to changing dietary
habits client is facing declining revenue.
How much is the decline in revenue and what is the time line they are looking for in order
Candidate: to balance the deficit with portfolio expansion? What is the current size of the flavored
yogurt market? What is the market structure?
There is a revenue deficit of about 3000 Crore and it is estimated that revenue will not
decline further. Current size of flavored Yogurt market is 1500 Crore and it is doubling
Interviewer:
every year. 95% of market share is owned by four big players, and they operate in different
regions in India with almost no overlap in sales territories.

138
Discussed the synergies between both the product lines.
• Dairy products needed a different procurement mechanism. Sugar and water were
common raw materials for both the product lines.
• The manufacturing process was completely different for both the products and
Candidate: packing also varied for both the products.
• Distribution network would be a key leverage.
• None of the players had an all India distribution network.
Since flavored yogurt was for health conscious people, product positioning would be
different from beverages, and hence involved some investment in marketing cost.
Interviewer: Are there any synergies which are unique to these two product lines
Candidate: Both of them need refrigeration. So this can be one positive synergy.
Interviewer: Yes exactly. Do you want to add anything?
In three years, the yogurt market will be worth around Rs. 12,000 Crore and if the client is
Candidate:
eyeing 25% market share, it will cover the shortfall in revenue.
Interviewer: What is your recommendation?
There are some synergies in the value chain but procurement of dairy products, and
different manufacturing processes, outweigh those synergies. Importantly, targeting 25%
Candidate: market share in 3 years is extremely ambitious. This can be a good bet in long term but if
client is considering this option to bridge the revenue deficit, I would not recommend this
diversification.
Interviewer: I agree that this is not a good idea to cover the revenue deficit.
What went well, Good start and initial conversation was on my CV and projects. I was pretty confident in
didn’t go well? presenting and recommendations.
General Interview Be confident while speaking and ask for clarifying questions. Support your
Notes: recommendations with facts and analysis.
ROUND 2
Personal/Preliminary Why Consulting, Why Accenture, What are you passionate about? Tell us something that
questions: is not present in your CV.
No case. It was a partner round, and three people took the interview and asked mostly
Case type:
about personals.
Case problem
N.A.
statement:
Questions included: Why Consulting, Why Accenture, What are you passionate about? Tell
Interviewer:
us something that is not present in your CV.

139
Candidate: Gave prepared answers for them and tried to keep them short and crisp.
You worked in myntra. So what different things you would have tried if you were the CEO
Interviewer:
of Myntra a year ago.
I spoke about key Myntra milestones and then added a few things which I considered that
Candidate:
Myntra should have done.
Interviewer: They enquired about their buddy program
Candidate: Shared my feedback on their program
Other two people in the panel asked me:
Interviewer: 1. Tell us some challenges you have faced while working at Myntra.
2. Can you tell us the lessons you have learnt from success/ Failure in college.
3. How will you convince others with your solution?
Candidate: Replied with the answers I had prepared.
General Interview
Stay calm and confident.
Notes:

140
Name: Rachit Thukral
Under-graduation (Stream & College): IIT Bombay Mechanical Engg
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Banking, DBS Bank, 34
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
Tell me about yourself. Some questions on work experience
questions:
Case type: Case + personals
Case problem
A small case on the accommodation of older workers into newer roles
statement:
Interviewer: Due to certain change in a company, would you lay off the workers ?
Laying off always brings some negative publicity to the brand, so I would find ways to
Candidate:
accommodate them in new roles.
Interviewer: So what would you need to consider?
For placing them in new roles, we would need to consider what role they were doing
previously and what skills the new role requires. For example, it is easier to train operators
Candidate: of a particular equipment how to operate a slightly different equipment. If that doesn’t
work out, we need to consider how difficult and expensive it is to train them for
completely new roles.
Interviewer: Why did you join IIMC?
Candidate: Answered
Interviewer: Why Accenture?
Candidate: Answered. Was well prepared with my personals.
Interviewer: If tomorrow I assign you a PSU client, how would you go about it?
I would use my critical thinking and analysis I developed during under graduation; use the
Candidate: people skills I developed during work experience. So after acquiring the preliminary
knowledge about the industry, I can excel in any project I take up.
What did/didn’t go
I was well prepared with my CV and was able to justify all my decisions I took so far
well?
General Interview
Be well prepared with your personals.
Notes:

141
Name: Jackson Joseph
Interviewing Firm: Alvarez & Marsal
Under-graduation (Stream & College): Aerospace Engineering, IIT Madras
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): General Management, Vodafone, 22
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
Personal/Preliminary Tell me about yourself. Detailed discussion on all the projects done at Vodafone. Asked
questions: what I was passionate about. Discussed football for a while.
Case type: Profitability Case
Case problem Our client is a hospital which is facing declining profits. Can you try to understand what is
statement: going on?
I haven’t had exposure in any of the sectors that you have worked in. So let us think about
Interviewer: a problem in health sector. Our client is a hospital which is facing declining profits. Can
you try to understand what is going on?
Ok. So before going into structuring the problem, let me try to understand the situation
Candidate:
a bit more.
Interviewer: Sure. What do you want to know?
How many hospitals does the client have? How long has the profits been declining and
Candidate: what is the percentage decline? Is it an industry-wide problem or is our client the only one
facing the issue?
Profits have declining for the previous one year. Only our client is facing the issue. They
Interviewer:
have just one hospital.
Ok. I have a basic idea of how a hospital operates. It has an in-patient and out-patient
departments and has several specialty departments. Also there are a several support
Candidate:
functions for day to day operations. Is there any specific that I should know about the
client, something like they have a reputation for being very good in one department?
Your understanding seems fine. Also, there is nothing specific to know about the client.
Interviewer:
We will dig deeper as we move along.
Sure. So we need to understand why the hospital has declining profits. Is there any other
Candidate:
objective that I should look into?
Interviewer: No. Just the declining profits.
So profits are revenues minus costs. Do we have data to show that revenues and/or costs
Candidate:
have changed?

142
Interviewer: Yes. The revenues and costs have changed.
Sure. So I will first try to understand why the revenues have decreased and then look into
Candidate:
the costs side
Interviewer: Fair enough.
How does the hospital account for revenues? I am trying to understand whether there has
Candidate:
been any change in any particular revenue stream.
Ok. So 30% of our revenues come from Cardiology, 20% from Neurology, 20% from
Interviewer: Orthopaedics and 30% from General Medicine. Our revenues from cardio have decreased
significantly. While others have also shown a decline.
Sure. Shall I move ahead focusing on just the cardio part? Has there been any change in
Candidate:
prices at our hospital?
Interviewer: Yes. We can focus on cardio part. The price levels have remained the same.
Ok. So there is a decline the number of patients visiting our hospital. Should I consider the
Candidate:
case where a patient visits multiple times?
Interviewer: No. For the purpose of case, just consider that the patient visits only once.
Ok. Are we able to serve the expected number of patients coming in or is there an issue
Candidate:
with our ability to provide service?
Interviewer: No. We have no issues in that regard.
Ok. Now, let me try to understand why the number of patients have come down. I would
like to look at both internal and external factors. I would first like to check whether there
were any changes, and then try to benchmark our client against the competition to
Candidate:
understand what is happening. By internal factors, I mean all changes that happened
within our hospital. Externals would include changes on the competition side, and possibly
emergence of substitutes.
Interviewer: Sure. Can you dig a bit deeper into the internal issues? Can you list down a few factors?
Ok. The major factor that influences patient decision is the quality of doctors that you
have. From my experience, I have seen that people are willing to wait a bit longer if they
Candidate: feel that the doctors are excellent. The other factors will include in-patient services,
facilities like diagnostics and equipment available in the hospital, price levels etc. Has
there been any change in any of these factors or should I think about more?
One of our doctors in cardio department has joined our competition. He had a good
Interviewer: reputation and there are many who prefer to consult only him. This seems to be a reason
why people prefer our competition more than us.
OK. Let me try to understand what made him join our competitors. Let me try to list down
a few factors that might influence her decision. The main factors that doctors consider are
Candidate: salary and other benefits, facilities available, opportunities for growth or other personal
considerations.
Has any of this changed in the recent past at our side or competitor’s side?
Interviewer: What would benefits include?

143
I am not completely aware about this. But I think this will include insurance coverages,
options for loans, transportation and housing benefits etc. Also, they have consultation
Candidate:
fees from various medical companies. Has any of this changed or should I look at more
factors?
So, the hospital has revised its policy on medicines recently. The hospital negotiates with
Interviewer: medical companies and decides which brands are available at the pharmacy. Because of
this, doctors do not get the consultation fees anymore.
Ok. This seems to be a major issue, particularly because other doctors also might be
tempted to leave due to this policy. This can, in turn, bring down the quality of doctors at
Candidate: our hospital, which can reduce the revenues even further.
We have understood on reason for declining profits. Should I check for other issues or can
I move into the costs side.
Interviewer: You can move into the cost side now.
OK. Costs have gone up right? I would like to think about costs in terms of fixed costs,
Candidate: variable costs and costs from unforeseen incidents. Do we have data which showed that
one of this has changed?
Interviewer: What are the components of the variable cost?
This will mainly include salaries to doctors, nurses and support staff. I would like to move
Candidate:
through each of the day to day function to figure out what all will include other than this.
Interviewer: No need for that. Let just stick to the salary part. You said support staff. Who all are they?
This will include administration, lab technicians, HR, drivers, guards etc. Have I missed
Candidate:
anything?
Actually yes. Hospitals have a marketing department which kind of advertises the hospital
Interviewer:
and the doctors. Their work can improve reputation of the doctors.
Thank you. I was not aware about that. So considering the fact that, the quality of doctors
Candidate: or at least the perception of quality have gone down, have we tried improving the
marketing team which might have increased costs?
Actually, the hospital decided to hire a lower quality firm to reduce costs. They thought
Interviewer: the savings can be used to increase the number of nurses to improve the service to in-
patient staff.
Ok. The lower quality marketing team can further add to the declining quality perception.
Candidate: Also, what is the measure of in-patient service? I would like to understand whether our
costs have changed due to the increasing number of nurses.
Ok. The inference about marketing team is spot on. Also we measure service by number
Interviewer: of in-patients beds per nurse. Wages of nurses and marketing personnel, team size of
marketing team, old and new beds per nurse etc. were provided.
Ok. We have tried to use the savings from marketing team change to increase quality of
Candidate: service. It was improved from 3 beds per nurse to 2 beds per nurse. But the increase in
salary turned out to be more than the savings and our costs have also gone up.

144
Interviewer: Can you figure what should have been the in-patient service?
Candidate: The numbers were given. It should have been 2.25 per nurse.
Interviewer: Great. I think that is fine. And, our Mumbai team plays football every Thursday J
What went well? Remained calm even as the case went long.
What did not go well? Missed a couple of minor things, but always asked before proceeding.
General Interview You are not expected to know everything. But you are expected to ask for the right
Notes: information.
ROUND 2
Started with tell me about yourself. He asked me whether I have prepared an answer for
this. I said that it I one of the first things that we do here. He asked me throw out that
answer and give him 3 characteristics that define me. After that, he asked me what I read,
and if I get a newspaper. I said politics and sports. He asked me whether I had followed US
elections.
I said I followed until the 1st presidential debate and then we all got busy with placements.
He asked me to give my views. Also, he asked me to give three reasons why Trump should
Personal/Preliminary be president. I think I was able to answer these questions fairly well.
questions:
After this he asked me about the 5 factors that determine health of an economy. I
mentioned GDP growth, unemployment rate, per capita income, fiscal deficit, purchasing
power and real wages.
Each of the factors that I mentioned was discussed for about 5 minutes. It was not smooth
sailing here but he kind of guided me to reach the answer. The good thing I did here is I
was able to take the hints and get where he wanted me to go.
After this discussion, an offer was made.

145
Name: Mrigaunk Pillai
Interviewing Firm: Alvarez and Marsal
Under-graduation (Stream & College): IIT Roorkee (Biotechnology)
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): ZS Associates (15 months)
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
None
questions:
Case type: Market sizing
Interview style: Extremely Formal
Case problem ITC wants to expand its tobacco business into Sri Lanka. Estimate the demand of cigarettes
statement: and suggest ways to enter the Sri Lankan tobacco market.
Interviewer: Do you smoke?
Candidate: Yes
Interviewer: So can you estimate the demand of cigarettes in Sri Lanka?
Candidate: Sure, can I just take a few minutes to lay down a structure to begin my guestimate?
I don’t know the population of Sri Lanka so I’m going to assume equal population
distribution as India and take the size as 1/10th.
Candidate:
Quickly distributed according to age and found the number of smokers.
The total number of smokers in Sri Lanka are X.
Interviewer: I did not ask for number of smokers, I want the demand of cigarettes in Sri Lanka.
Oh.
Candidate: Distributed according to income to find cigarette smokers and then divided by age and
addiction level to find the number of cigarettes smoked in Sri Lanka in a given time period.
I think this shall suffice. Now, tell me if ITC had to enter the market in Sri Lanka, how would
Interviewer:
it go about it?
Candidate: Spoke about

146
• starting from scratch

• joint venture
• acquiring existing player.
Was asked to focus on acquisition.
I have five existing players in SL with each of them having 20% market share. How do I
Interviewer:
gauge which one I want to acquire?
We would look at the financial statements of each player and find out the Return on
Candidate: Investment for each. Look for differences in supply chain and highlight possible synergies
with our existing expertise.
Since you mentioned financial statements could you please show me what a Profit and
Interviewer:
Loss statement looks like?
Candidate: Quickly started from revenue and wrote down the P/L statement.
Interviewer: I think that’ll be all, thank you.
The guestimate was well structured with no calculation error. I had neatly drawn the
What went well?
structure so I was able to quickly refer back when I was losing track.
What didn’t go well? Could have prepared CFRA better. P/L statement was shaky.
General Interview Keep calm. It’s okay if you fumble in the middle of the case. Be confident, accept the
Notes: suggestion from the interviewer and carry on.
ROUND 2
Personal/Preliminary Tell me about yourself. 2 min discussion only - Take a contrarian standpoint and tell me
questions: why I should vote for Donald Trump?

147
Name: Manpreet Singh Mokha
Interviewing Firm: Alvarez & Marsal
Under-graduation (Stream & College): Electrical Engineering, Delhi Technological University
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Technology Consulting, Deloitte, 10
Number of rounds: 2
ROUND 1
Tell me something about yourself. State the top three things on your CV. What drives you
as a person? Some questions to understand why I want to go into consulting. Questions
questions:
on my work experience.
Interview style: Friendly and accommodating
Case problem
Find out the number of copies of Economic Times sold in a day in Nagpur
statement:
Introduction, personals, and then problem statement.

Interviewer: Can you help me find an estimate on the number of copies Economic Times sells in Nagpur
each day?
Sure, sir. Do you want me to find out the demand from households or from other
Candidate:
corporate subscribers too?
Interviewer: Both
Candidate: And should I consider both online and offline subscriptions?
Interviewer: Consider only offline, paper-based subscriptions for this estimate.
Okay. I would like to approach this problem by estimating the demand from households
Candidate: and corporates. Since I’m not very familiar with the city of Nagpur, could you help me with
its population?
Interviewer: Assume 1 million.
Can I assume the demographics and income distribution for the city to be same as that of
Candidate:
the country?
Interviewer: Sure. Let’s start with households.

148
Broke it down on the basis of households, income, categories of newspaper [Hindi, English
Candidate: and other vernaculars and came to an estimate. There was some back and forth, but
overall he seemed okay because I was receptive towards his points.
Interviewer: Okay, that was interesting. Can we proceed to the corporates?
Broke down corporates into small, medium, large. Assumed that corporate subscriptions
Candidate: will usually be for coffee tables/reception, and for upper and mid-upper level management
and proceeded. Again, he gave some inputs which I incorporated in my final calculations.
Interviewer: That was good. Thank you.
I worked along with the interviewer and took his inputs every few minutes. When I felt he
What went well? was right, I corrected my approach. When I felt I had a better approach, I stood my ground
and explained my approach logically. Communication was the key.
I was mentally exhausted after having interviewed with two firms before A&M and it
What didn’t go well? affected my initial performance in terms of calculation speed/accuracy. The interviewer
was kind enough to offer me a glass of water and allow me to take two minutes.
General Interview Prepare personals well. Ask questions if you don’t have facts/data to proceed with the
Notes: case. It’s important to be fresh and energetic for all your interviews. Make it interactive.
ROUND 2
Personal/Preliminary Walk me through your CV. Some discussion on work experience. Gauged my interest level
questions: towards private equity.
No direct case per se. A discussion on how should one would decide which country he
Case type:
should invest in.
Interview style: Neutral
So, say I have a lot of money, and I’m a business tycoon. I want to invest somewhere
Interviewer:
outside my country. What all should I look for when I want to invest?
Clarified the question.

Candidate:
Just to be sure, do you want me to broadly look at macroeconomic indicators?
Yes. And in specific, I’ve been told that there are four major indicators that I should look
Interviewer:
for. Can you help me identify them?
Candidate: Sure. The first that I can think of is the GDP of the country.
Interviewer: Okay. This was easy. What else?
Irrespective of whether you’re a provider of services or a manufacturer, there needs to be

Candidate: demand and I believe we should look at an indicator that captures the ability of a country’s
citizens to afford things.
Interviewer: Go on. You seem to be on the right track.

149
Candidate: Took a moment. We should look at the per capita income.
Interviewer: That was good. What are the other two?
We can also look at inflation levels as they’re usually an indicator of volatility in demand
Candidate: and rate of interest in the economy. Also, we should look at the deficit of the country since
a heavily debt-laden country is limited in its ability to create infrastructure.
Interviewer: Yes, that’s true. Thank you.
I was very clear about communicating what I was thinking. I made it into a discussion that
What went well?
helped me stay cool and get to the answers the interviewer wanted me to arrive at.
What did not go well? I could have structured the discussion better by taking examples.
Be calm and take your time. I worked along with the interviewer to arrive at what he
General Interview wanted to hear. Be receptive, and you will notice the hints and the prods as they come by.
Notes: Very importantly, be honest about what you know rather than saying something half-
baked.

150
Name: Anirban Mukherjee
Interviewing Firm: Deloitte Strategy & Operations
Under-graduation (Stream & College): Economics and Computer Science, BITS Pilani (Pilani Campus)
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Software Development, Oracle ST, 23 months
Number of rounds: 3
ROUND 1
How has the day been going so far? Tell me about yourself. What hobbies do you have?
questions:
Interview style: Friendly, Interactive
Case problem Estimate the number of people involved in the making of the last movie you watched right
statement: from its inception to distribution in movie halls.
Interviewer: What was the last movie you watched?
Argo.
Candidate:
Had re-watched.
Great. I would like you to estimate the number of people involved in the making of the
Interviewer:
movie, right from its inception to distribution in the movie halls.
Candidate: Can I take a minute to write out the method on paper?
Wrote down the categories of actors, side actors, spot boys, stunt men, camera men,
cinematographer, scriptwriters etc.
Candidate:
Also wrote down the categories of distributor, marketer, social media manager etc. for the
movie post production.
Interviewer: Explain the number of spot boys required.
Told him about how they might be replaced and might be working on shifts. Took a number
Candidate:
per actor and calculated by guessing that the film might have taken 6 months to produce.
Interviewer: Explain the no of distributors required for the movie.
Took into consideration that the film would have a predominantly US and European market
Candidate:
and also an Indian metropolitan market.

151
Considered the approximate number of cities it would be released in per continent/country

and the no of film theaters in those cities. Also took into account the number of personnel
that would be required for marketing and social media promotion.
Fine. You could have taken a greater number for the side actors. Do you have any
Interviewer:
questions?
Candidate: Does Deloitte Strategy recruit IIM students via off campus drives as well?
Our major intake is from the summer placements, but we do take lateral hires later on.
Interviewer:
Anything else?
Candidate: No.
Interviewer: You may wait outside.
What went well? Breadth of possibilities considered while solving the guesstimate.
What didn’t go well? Could have increased the number of side actors considering the nature of the movie.
ROUND 2
Personal/Preliminary Tell me about yourself. Why do you wish to go into consulting? Isn’t specific knowledge
questions: better than generalized knowledge for a career?
Case type: Profitability, Strategy
Interview style: Friendly, guided with hints and interactive
Case problem A certain company manages a chain of hospitals and is seeing a reduction in profit due to
statement: customer satisfaction issues and operational difficulties.
Hands me over a sheet which describes the current situation of the enterprise, mostly
qualitative in nature. After I spend 30-45 seconds reading it.
Interviewer:
What are the possible parameters on which a hospital’s customer satisfaction might be
judged?
We discussed the following factors.
1. the amount of time the patients have to wait at the hospital before the doctor
arrives from other preceding obligations,
Candidate: 2. the amount of time it takes to go through the entire process,
3. the reliability of diagnosis from historical records,
4. the beds to patient ratio and maintenance of cleanliness
5. the privacy at the hospital
Interviewer: Ok, so how will you gauge the current level of these factors from the hospital customers?
Candidate: I will conduct a survey of the current patients and customers of the hospitals.
Interviewer: Right.

152
Offers me a second data sheet which contains five alternatives about what to focus on. He
asks me to select one of these alternatives for focusing on the survey and to provide a
justification for it.
Read through and let me know of the most appropriate option.
I suggest the option hinting something to the effect of profitability lost per customer, due
Candidate:
to shoddy service and justify it with reasons previously mentioned.
Ok.
Offers me a third data sheet which contains 4 hospitals of the company and their revenues,
Interviewer: the no of mistakes made in receipt calculation in % per person at the counter, and the no
of persons at the counter per hospital. These are in graph and tabular form.
If you were to pick up any of these hospitals for a pilot test, which one would you choose?
Show calculations and justify.
Based on calculations, I pick up the hospital with the highest amount of revenue loss per
Candidate: counter person, and suggest that we can use that for pilot testing of the new suggested
practices, since it has the most room for improvement.
Ok, Suggest me how you will develop a metric to gauge customer satisfaction from the
Interviewer:
hospitals.
I suggest a simple regression model based on the factors I had previously suggested and
Candidate:
some I picked up from the data sheets.
Interrupts in about 20 seconds in

Interviewer:
Ok, I get your idea. That will be all. Do you have any questions?
Yes, one question. How long are typical client engagements at Deloitte and how do we get
Candidate:
sorted across projects?
Interviewer: Answers. Then asks me to wait outside.
What went well, Was initially considering a certain way to calculate for choosing the correct pilot hospital,
didn’t go well? but backtracked and suggested a better option after a minute or two.
ROUND 3
There was likely one partner and one senior manager. They have a very candid
conversation with me, mostly about my personality and habits and try to contradict me on
certain things I say, and ask me to give an example where I have excelled not in individual
Personal/Preliminary work but specifically in team work. This goes on for 10 to 15 minutes.
questions:
I tried to give level headed responses and keep the mood light by making humorous
comments and justifying my points strongly, whether I agreed with their evaluation of me
or not.
What went well, Was initially considering a certain way to calculate for choosing the correct pilot hospital,
didn’t go well? but backtracked and suggested a better option after a minute or two.

153
Have basic practice of common guesstimate questions like market sizing. Try to give
various possibilities breadth wise and explain the rationale behind choosing arbitrary
numbers, if any.
During the case, try to link up whatever you said before getting the first sheet to the later
sheets; a clear flow of action must be established. Be comfortable with basic graphs and
tables to prepare for sheets involving quantitative explanations.
General Interview
Notes: In case you feel you haven’t done a good job explaining some part of the guesstimate,
pause a bit, re-think and re-explain till you convince the person that you are on the right
track. See the reactions of the interviewer and ask him pertinent questions to get hints
about how to attack certain parts of the case.
Keep the final round smooth and conversant, appear confident and defend your arguments
well. Don’t be in a rush to solve or suggest anything. Don’t blurt out before you think, and
if you do, correct yourself soon.

154
Name: Arnab Maity
Interviewing Firm: Deloitte Strategy & Operations
R1: Senior Consultant, R2: Manager & Senior Manager, R3: Partner &
Name/Designation of Interviewer: Senior Manager
Under-graduation (Stream & College): B. Tech., Delhi College of Engineering
Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Deloitte USI – Technology, 22 months)
Number of rounds: 3
ROUND 1
Tell me something about yourself.

Tell me something that is not on your CV.
questions:
Why should Deloitte not select you?
Case problem
Estimate the consumption of coffee in IIM Calcutta during the placement season.
statement:
Interviewer: Read out problem statement.
I would like to start by clarifying the problem: do I have to calculate the amount of coffee
Candidate:
consumption in terms of grams or cups.
Interviewer: I want the grams of coffee.
I asked for a minute or two, to lay down the basic structure. Then I divided the problem
Candidate:
statement by segregating the population into coffee and tea consumers.
Interviewer: Are you forgetting a category? What about cold beverage consumers?
Thank you.
I started off by calculating the number of candidates in L3 along with volunteers and
Candidate: company representatives. Then divided the population on the basis of their preferences.
For each segment of people, I calculated their frequency of coffee consumption. Then I
made some assumptions regarding the amount of coffee in a cup of strong/mild coffee.
Can you calculate the number of coffee cups used by company representatives by using a
Interviewer:
different method?
I could approach this by dividing the placement season into different time slots across 5
days (5 being the average number of days within which placement gets over), the number
Candidate:
of rooms and desks allotted to different companies, average number of people in a
company’s contingent, their beverage-preferences, frequency of consumption etc.

155
In the end, the interviewer told me that I was getting a bit biased with the information I
Interviewer: already knew about IIM Calcutta and hence told me to structure the same problem for IIM
Indore.
I was able to lay down the structure well and in fact after the round the interviewer
appreciated me for drawing out the structure in a neat handwriting. Also, I think I was able
What went well?
to justify the points I had stated and though the interviewer countered many arguments,
in the end he seemed satisfied with my responses.
I could have considered a lot more possible scenarios and taken a little more time than
What didn’t go well? usual to solve the problem. Moreover, midway, I got a bit biased with the information I
already had about IIM Calcutta, as the interviewer indicated.
Always be vocal and state whatever assumptions you’re making or the underlying logic
General Interview
behind any point you have stated. Many a time I was asked to speak up whatever I was
Notes:
thinking, especially in this round.
ROUND 2
Personal/Preliminary Introduce yourself. Tell me something which is not on your CV. Why do you want to return
questions: to Deloitte?
Interview style: Formal but encouraging
Case problem
A beer company
statement:
The case was an actual project carried out by the firm sometime back. Our client Beer Co.
Interviewer: has been witnessing a decline in profits. We had to find out the reasons for this decline,
and recommend if we should increase the prices or not to drive up the profits.
Candidate: Started off by asking the basic questions around the time frame.
Interviewer: It has started happening very recently.
I would like to understand the geography the client operates in, and where the client
Candidate:
stands in the value-chain.
The client operates Pan-India and has its own manufacturing hubs and breweries. It has its
Interviewer: third-party logistics network, which distributes beer to various retail outlets and premium-
restaurants.
I want to ask about client’s product offerings:
Candidate: 1. whether similar quality beer was available in the market or not
2. different price points at which beer was available
3. if profits were decreasing across all brands or not
The client has 12 different brands of beers which are available in different SKUs at various
Interviewer:
price points to cater to different consumer segments across India.
Thank you. Is this reduction in profits an industry-wide problem or a client-specific

Candidate: problem? I would also want to ask about the trends of the beer market:
• market leaders and their shares,

156
• our client’s market share,

• competitive landscape
• if the products available are differentiated or the market is commoditized,
The client is one of the market leaders and has a competitor named Competitor Co. and
Interviewer:
even they are facing similar problems.
Candidate: At this point, I drew out a basic profit structure and asked which side to analyze first.
Interviewer: Analyze the cost component.
I broke down the costs into fixed and variable costs and found out that the cost of
Candidate:
procurement of raw materials had increased.
The client is thinking of increasing the selling price of its beer. What factors should be
Interviewer:
considered before this move?
Some of the factors I would consider are
• competitor’s reaction,
Candidate: • value sales at which the increase in prices would balance out the decrease in sales
volume,
• which brands to be made expensive,
• reaction of the retail outlets (restaurants)
After some discussion on this, the panel handed a sheet to me which had data about the
price of production of 4 different beer brands, and also contained data regarding the sales
Interviewer: value of these beer brands in North, South, East and West India.
I was asked to make some basic calculations like the total sales value, profit margins for
the different beer brands.
Candidate: A mini-discussion on the numbers and data presented followed.
Finally, I was told that the company was looking to raise prices either in North or South
India. I was given a sheet which contained graphs showing the trends of Sales Volume
Interviewer: versus Selling Price for beers in both North and South India.
I was told to interpret the graphs, and another brief discussion followed. The case ended
with my recommendation based on the graphs and my calculations.
What went well? I did the calculations quite satisfactorily and was able to explain the results that I had
obtained quite confidently.
What did not go well? Since, the case wasn’t a conventional one, many a times I went astray with the questions I
was asking. The panel kept asking me to come up with more questions - factors that I would
consider - with respect to this case.
General Interview What I thought the panel was looking for, was whether the candidate was able to develop
Notes: an entire end-to-end understanding of the problem.
The panel was helpful and kept on giving me data points whenever I got stuck.
I think the primary things they were looking for were confidence and comprehensive
understanding of the problem.

157
ROUND 3
This was a partner round and was a stress-round. The partner was from IIM Lucknow and
asked me why I chose IIM Calcutta over Lucknow? He wasn’t that satisfied with the
answer.
questions: He then told me my previous case-round was not that great, and asked me to evaluate
my performance. He also me that I wasn’t that genuine and kept on grilling me over my
previous stint with Deloitte. I was told to take a stand in various situations-related to
personals (this round went on for 15-20 minutes)
Case type: No case.
Interview style: Stress interview.
What went well? Justified myself well.
General Interview Take a stand and justify yourself. Be confident and prepare well about the firm. After all
Notes: the rounds the panel was looking forward to some good questions from the candidate.

IIMC 53rd Batch Consulting Interview Experiences-1

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IIM Calcutta Consulting Club

Consulting Interview Experiences

A Note from the Editors

As such, this is more of a compendium of interview experiences, with insights.

The Casebook – due out March 2017

Using this book

- Abhishek Thakur & Arnav Das (editors)

IIM Calcutta Consulting Club

IIM Calcutta Consulting Club

Name: Nishchay Budhiraja

Interviewing Firm: McKinsey & Co.

Under-graduation (Stream & College): IIT Roorkee

Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Nil

Case type: Market Entry + Acquisition

Interview style: Friendly

The client is a farm equipment manufacturer with presence in multiple countries. He

The client is a farm equipment manufacturer with presence in multiple countries. He

Candidate: Paraphrased the question and asked what my objective is.

What exactly do we manufacture? What constitutes farm equipment? What is our

Interviewer: We want to expand. It seems like a good market.

Interviewer: Fair enough. Go ahead.

IIM Calcutta Consulting Club

Listed factors such as –

• Growth rate vs our required rate of return

Farms using Farms using Farms using Farms using

Medium Farms 50% 45% 50% 40%

Large Farms 40% 35% 40% 30%

IIM Calcutta Consulting Club

Case type: Guesstimate + Market Entry

Interview style: Friendly

IIM Calcutta Consulting Club

Interviewer: Assume 20 working days.

Interviewer: How can we spread awareness?

Interviewer: Yes, correct.

Candidate: I asked for a minute to list down various suggestions.

IIM Calcutta Consulting Club

IIM Calcutta Consulting Club

Interviewing Firm: McKinsey & Co.

Under-graduation (Stream & College): IIT Madras – B.Tech (Electrical Engineering)

Work Experience (Sector, Firm, Months): Fresher

Case type: Quality improvement

Interview style: Friendly

6 CEOs of large Indian pharmaceutical companies want to improve the quality of

Repeated the problem statement

Interviewer: No, that’s pretty much it.

2. Setting up (and operating) the supply chain.

Is there anything else you’d like me to look at?

IIM Calcutta Consulting Club

2. Developing a drug to fulfil that need, and

3. Testing the drug and getting things such as FDI approval.

1. Looking at how employees treat all stakeholders in the process. Stakeholders

2. We can look at the degree of collaboration between employees and between

What PoRs do you plan on taking up at Joka?

IIM Calcutta Consulting Club

Case type: Market entry

Interview style: Friendly

Repeated the problem statement

The factors that I would consider are

Interviewer: That’s a bit too optimistic. Let’s say 2%.

Interviewer: Would you like to take another look at that?

IIM Calcutta Consulting Club

Interviewer: Alright, how would you capture 2% of the market?

Interviewer: No, it isn’t.

IIM Calcutta Consulting Club