1. Creative Problem-
Solving for Case
Interviews
2011-12
J-P Martins, Consulting Careers Team
19 October 2011

2. First year MBA consulting skills programme
Intro to Creative Advanced
Mastering
consulting Great problem problem
consulting
careers – consulting CVs solving for case solving for case
interviews
undecided interviews interviews
6 September 12-15 September 14 October 14 November 18 November
…for the Presentations by ½ day intro Presentation ½ day workshop*
undecided stream
19 October 16 Nov on
13 September 3-7 October
Tools & techniques Workshops
…for the Detailed reviews
5, 26 November 31 January
committed
17-21 October
Crack a Case Super Deadline to submit
31 October
Recalls Saturdays case
1:1s commence
Summer
On Campus
Consulting
Recruiting
Team 2012
14 Jan 2012
Crack a Case Super 3 January 21 February
* Incorporating Winning consulting cover letters and Saturday Commences… Launch 1
Personal brand

3. Today vs. 14 November
Today 14 November
Basic tools and tips, Building creativity
frameworks Differentiating yourself
Enough of a grounding to Equations
be able to get started on
most cases you will Props
encounter Psychology, perspectives
Preparation The case journey
What is the answer/what
could it be?
Either/or…If/then…
2

4. I asked Twitter and LinkedIn what tips I should
cover for case interviews today…
“Learn to structure your thinking from the very “Over invest in organization. Most mistakes I
beginning so you don't get lost in the case and see in practice cases are due to a lousy
have a clear narrow scope from the beginning” structure”
- BCG Associate and MiM alumnus - Bain Associate Consultant Tweeter
“Never let the big picture out of your sight. “Not only lousy structures but also inflexible
Dissect the problem in a structured way but structures prevent candidates from figuring out
keep the pieces integrated” the right path to take”
- Consulting Careers Blogger - Consulting Careers Blogger
“Here is another one: I recommend candidates
not to memorize frameworks. Instead of cookie -
cutter approaches, customized/flexible
frameworks/structures will give them more room
to maneuver”
- Consulting Careers Blogger
3

5. Agenda
Types of case – review data
Structure – frameworks
• P&L
• Driver tree
• Denominators
• Options
• 3 ‘C’s
• Value chain
• Priority/optimisation
Other frameworks
• 5 forces
• 7 ‘S’s
• 4 ‘P’s
Preparation – your next steps
4

6. Case variety
A broad spectrum of types of case are used by our recruiters – 4 main types
have been identified
Similarly, a variety of sectors may be addressed
Traditional 35 minute cases predominate but other formats are growing
These data are heavily skewed towards just 6 recruiters
Europe and North America are the predominant geographies addressed in
cases
5

7. Type of case:
Acquisition strategy, 2%
Network or portfolio
optimisation, 2% Other, 8%
Valuation, 3%
Market attractiveness, 4%
Profit improvement, 19%
Cost reduction, 5%
Market entry, new
Quantitative test, 7%
product/business, 17%
Growth, 7%
Company
Value diagnostic, +/-
chain or strategy, 10%
business
Response to industry- model,
changing shock, 8% 10%
6

8. Sector:
Public administration, 3.0%
Arts, entertainment & Other, 8.0%
recreation, 3.0%
Telecomms/Media/
Construction, 3.5% Technology, 16.1%
Hospitality, travel & tourism,
4.0%
Financial services, Healthcare, 15.1%
6.0%
Transport &
logistics, 8.0%
Mining, Manufacturing,
energy 12.6%
&
utilities
, 8.0%
Retail, 12.6%
7

9. Format: ‘Test' - written or typed, 2% Other, 4%
Presentation' or role play, 3%
‘Long' 1:1 case,
45+ minutes, 11%
‘Traditional' 1:1 case, 20-35
mins, 80%
8

10. Firm:
Accenture, 2%
AT Kearney, 2% ZS, 2%
Monitor,
4%
LEK, 5% BCG, 24%
Parthenon, 6%
Roland Berger, 7%
McKinsey, 21%
Booz, 8%
Bain, 17%
9

11. Geography:
Other, 6%
Africa, 7%
Asia, 10%
Europe, 45%
Global, 14%
North America, 20%
10

12. Agenda
Types of case – review data
Structure – frameworks
• P&L
• Driver tree
• Denominators
• Options
• 3 ‘C’s
• Value chain
• Priority/optimisation
Other frameworks
• 5 forces
• 7 ‘S’s
• 4 ‘P’s
Preparation – your next steps
11

13. How do you improve the profit of a restaurant?
12

14. P&L – easy isn’t it?
Price
Revenue
Quantity
Profit
Variable
Cost
Fixed
13

15. Driver tree adds value
Dish of the day
Mix Upsell on taking order
Redesign menus to showcase most
Price
profitable dishes eg 2nd cheapest
Markup ‘Bundle’ eg seafood platter for two
Items per Ask about starters, desserts
Revenue seat Take drink order first, come back for
food later
Seats/table ‘Side dishes?’
Charge for bread
Quantity # tables
Table
turnover
Profit
Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Hours open Happy hour, early bird, post-theatre
offers
Labour
Variable Ingredients
Cost
Fixed etc
14

16. Focus on food and drink?
First course
Main
Food
Dessert
Margin
Sundries
Contribution
Margin
Alcohol
X
Profit Quantity % take up
Fixed cost Soft
Drink
Water
Hot
15

17. Maximising number of customers?
Passing traffic
% looking at menu
% going in
Walk-ins
% finding a table
% ordering
Customers
% finishing meal & paying
Web bookings
Destination Telephone bookings
Third party bookings
16

18. Denominators – dealing with different
capacities/loads
Airlines
• Revenue per RPK
• Load factor
• Cost per ASK
What is the best
denominator for a
Abattoirs restaurant chain that
• Cost per Stock Equivalent Unit spans business (lunch)
and suburban (dinner)
locations?
Retail
• Revenue per sqm
• Cost per sqm
17

19. Improvement – different lenses
Waste
Process map
• Raw materials (mass balance)
• Energy (calculate, measure
waste streams) Lay out the steps
• Time (white space, rework)
• Labour (job, activity analysis) Outline key info
next to each
Iterate
Time
• Building a house
Prioritise
• TBC opportunities
Segmenting
• Tailor processes to groups Redesign
with particular needs
18

20. Tables are great! You can use them to lay out
calculations…
Segment A Segment B Segment C Segment D Segment E
Size 500K 300K 50K 20K 2.5K
Frequency Monthly Weekly Weekly 2 x weekly 3+ x weekly
Spend per £35 £20 £30 £30 £45
meal
Margin 10% 15% 12% 5% 5%
Overall ? ? ? ? ?
Really add value to a
table – add row
“Implications for Client”
19

21. …options, segments, etc Really add value to a
table – add row
“Implications for Client”
Option A Option B Option C Option D Option E
Expected ✔✔ ✔✔✔✔ ✔✔ ✔✔✔ ✔
Value
Risk ✔ ✔✔✔ ✔ ✔ ✔✔✔
Fit with ✔✔ ✔ ✔✔✔✔ ✔
strategy
Fit with ✔✔ ✔ ✔✔✔ ✔ ✔✔
capabilities
Overall ✔✔ ✔✔✔ ✔✔✔ ✔ ✔
Between these two:
Betwen these two:
Higher value vs better fit?
20

22. Revenues are being eroded by a growing takeaway
market.
Should we open our own takeaway next door?
21

23. 3 ‘C’s – a starting point only
Market Entry
1. Customer - market attractiveness
• Size
• Profitability
• Growth By
segment?
2. Corporation (costs)
• Can we? (resources, technology, people…)
• At what cost?
• What would we need to do differently?
• How? (eg business model, make vs buy…)
3. Competitors
• Who?
• How competitive?
• What advantages/disadvantages?
• So what share could we expect?
• Where should we need to focus? 22

24. Our exec chef has a proposal – fund him to
produce a range of starters for other restaurants –
if it works we could grow into delivering whole
meal solutions.
What do you think?
23

25. Value chain
Sourcing Fabrication Assembly Warehousing Distribution Sales Service
Where is money made?
Where do we have an advantage?
What alternative business models exist?
Outsource/insource/partner
Make vs buy
Think of the industry (ecosystem) – the whole profit pool
24

26. Prioritising things
Fast growing
Stagnant
Small Big
25

27. Prioritising things
Valuable
Not
Easy Hard
26

28. Insight comes from what
Prioritising things the client does
differently to each ‘box’
Game changing Pursue selected options
as part of balanced
portfolio, seek partners
No brainers – raise to mitigate risk?
capital if needed
Consider, execute if
sufficient resources REJECT!
Incremental
Dead certs Risky
27

29. Optimising
Eg Equation
• Breakeven Graphical
• RoI
Logic (forced pair)
• Margin • A>C
• Commute • C>B
• => A best
28

30. Optimising
Breakeven, or indifference point
Commute – by bike
between two options
Rev
Cost
Max profit
29

31. Agenda
Types of case – review data
Structure – frameworks
• P&L
• Driver tree
• Denominators
• Options
• 3 ‘C’s
• Value chain
• Priority/optimisation
Other frameworks
• 5 forces
• 7 ‘S’s
• 4 ‘P’s
Preparation – your next steps
30

32. Other frameworks are available…
…but beware
Nothing beats a bespoke understanding and prioritisation of the issues (next
presentation)
However, here are some tools…
• Porter’s 5 forces
• McKinsey’s 7 ‘S’s – where you need to think through all aspects of an
organisation
• The 4 ‘P’s of marketing
• PEST (political, economic, socio-cultural, technological)
• SWOT
• 5 whys
• Cause and effect diagrams
• Decision trees
• Cost/benefit
31

33. Agenda
Types of case – review data
Structure – frameworks
• P&L
• Driver tree
• Denominators
• Options
• 3 ‘C’s
• Value chain
• Priority/optimisation
Other frameworks
• 5 forces
• 7 ‘S’s
• 4 ‘P’s
Preparation – your next steps
32

34. First year MBA consulting skills programme
Intro to Creative Advanced
Mastering
consulting Great problem problem
consulting
careers – consulting CVs solving for case solving for case
interviews
undecided interviews interviews
6 September 12-15 September 14 October 14 November 18 November
…for the Presentations by ½ day intro Presentation ½ day workshop*
undecided stream
19 October 16 Nov on
13 September 3-7 October
Tools & techniques Workshops
…for the Detailed reviews
5, 26 November 31 January
committed
17-21 October
Crack a Case Super Deadline to submit
31 October
Recalls Saturdays case
1:1s commence
Summer
On Campus
Consulting
Recruiting
Team 2012
14 Jan 2012
Crack a Case Super 3 January 21 February
* Incorporating Winning consulting cover letters and Saturday Commences… Launch 33
Personal brand

35. Practise is key – but only until you’re ready
Structuring
• 20+ cases?
• Fin Times…
• 10 minutes each
• Structure, plus alternatives
Cracking the whole thing
• On your own – 10 cases? Work through a book (eg LBS Case Book?)
• In informal groups – 10 cases? Case in Point?
• Through Club – 3-6 cases? Crack a Case
• Mocks – 3 x ‘Super Saturdays’
34

36. There is no shortage of resources – you will run
out of time first – Google is your friend!
Bain Tips Booz Tips
http://www.joinbain.com/apply-to-bain/interview-preparation/crack- http://www.booz.com/global/home/join_us/apply/case_prep
the-case.asp
McKinsey Tips
Bain Cases
http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/how_do_i_apply/how_to_do_w
http://www.joinbain.com/apply-to-bain/interview- ell_in_the_interview/case_interview.aspx
preparation/practice-videocase.asp
http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/how_do_i_apply/how_to_do_w
http://www.joinbain.com/apply-to-bain/interview- ell_in_the_interview/case_interview/Approaching%20the%20cas
preparation/practice-case1-quest1.asp e%20interview.aspx
http://www.joinbain.com/apply-to-bain/interview-
http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/how_do_i_apply/how_to_do_w
preparation/practice-case2-quest1.asp
ell_in_the_interview/case_interview/techniques_and_tricks.aspx
BCG Cases
McKinsey Cases
http://www.bcg.com/join_bcg/interview_prep/practice_cases/competi
tive_strategy.aspx http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/how_do_i_apply/how_to_do_w
ell_in_the_interview/case_interview/practice_cases/Great%20Bur
http://www.bcg.com/join_bcg/interview_prep/practice_cases/distribu ger.aspx
tion_strategy.aspx
http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/how_do_i_apply/how_to_do_w
http://www.bcg.com/join_bcg/interview_prep/practice_cases/increasi
ell_in_the_interview/case_interview/practice_cases/Magna%20H
ng_profits.aspx
ealth.aspx
http://www.bcg.com/join_bcg/interview_prep/practice_cases/revenue
_growth.aspx
http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/how_do_i_apply/how_to_do_w
ell_in_the_interview/case_interview/practice_cases/Magna%20H
ealth.aspx
35