Parts of the Case Interview
 Sample Frameworks
 Tips for Case Interviewing
 Case Types, Case Examples and Advice – from Marc Cosentino’s
 Case in Point
 Six Principles from Booz Allen Hamilton
 Notes from Marc Cosentino - Presentation on Case Interviewing
 Case Interview Links and Resources

Parts of the Case Interview 

• Opening: The interviewer describes a business problem to    you. Do not jump to a response. Instead, gather as much    information as possible so you understand the true problem. • Your questions: You are expected to analyze the problem    and ask questions in the areas that you think are important.  • In-depth exploration of a branch: If you asked a question    that is in an area the interviewer wants to explore, the    interviewer may answer your question and then ask a follow-   up question that will explore this area in more depth. • Analysis and conclusion. Usually, a specific area of the mock     client's business is critical to the solution of the problem: The    interviewer will either drive you to this area or let you know    you've reached it by asking follow-up questions. Always state    your assumptions when presenting an opinion. • Communication: You may be asked to summarize your    conclusion as if you were recommending it to a client to test    your communication skills.

A case interview process outlined above requires candidates to approach
the problem as a "hypothesis driven" exercise. Such an exercise typically
goes through the following process: 

• Collecting background information 

• Forming the rough cut hypothesis 

• Collecting further information to prove/disprove the hypotheses. 

• If necessary, collecting even more information. 

• Finalizing the insights, drawing the conclusions and formulating 
  recommendations. 

Case interviews rarely get to the last stages of this process. Instead they
tend either be general and focus on the early stages of collecting background
information and forming rough cut hypotheses, or be specific and focus on collecting
information to test and refine the hypotheses. 

Sample Frameworks 

Consultants typically use "frameworks" to provide a structure for illustrating specific
business problems. Frameworks enable you to highlight key issues and then lay out
your analysis at the beginning of the case. Wetfeet Press sponsors an "Online Ace Your Case"
to demonstrate a typical business case and a sample solution and also sells "Ace Your Case"
in hardcopy format. The following are only two of the many frameworks you can use in a case
interview situation: 

• Profitability Analysis: Profits = Revenues and Costs. Useful    to keep in mind when answering questions about sudden    changes in a company's operations or profits. Problems    stem from issues surrounding revenues or costs or with both,    driving poor results.  • Porter's Five Forces: Michael Porter's book Competitive    Strategy outlines five forces that determine how competitive    and how profitable an industry is. Useful when answering    questions about introducing new products, entering new    industries, or addressing declining sales or profits. The five    forces are suppliers, buyers, competitors, substitute    products, and new entrants. Hint: Don't tell the interviewer    "I'm using Porter's five forces as the framework to analyze    this problem." It will sound too canned!

Case Types, Case Examples and Advice - from Marc Cosentino's Case in Point 

NOTE: Adapted from “Case in Point” by Mark Consentino

• Case Type: Entering a new market

– Step 1: Investigate the market to determine whether entering the market would make good business sense Assess market attractiveness

– Step 2: If you decide to enter the market, you need to figure out the best way to become a player
• Start from scratch
• Acquire an existing player
• Form a joint venture or strategic alliance with another player

• Case Type: Developing a new product

– Step 1: Think about the product
– Step 2: Think about your market strategy
– Step 3: Think about your potential customers
– Step 4: Think about financing the project

• Case Type: Pricing strategies

– Step 1: Investigate the product
– Step 2: Choose a pricing strategy
• Cost-based pricing vs. Price-based costing

– Cost-based pricing: Determining the cost of a product, choosing a desired profit margin, and generating a sales price

– Price-based costing: Choosing a desired sales price and costing out production to meet that sales price with a desired profit margin
• Supply and demand forces

• Case Type: Growth Strategies

– Step 1: Ask feeler questions
• Ask questions to determine the nature of growth that your interviewer is looking for (focusing on product, division, or the entire company)

– Step 2: Choose a growth strategy
• Some options are increasing sales, increasing distribution channels, increasing product line, invest in a major marketing campaign, diversify products/services, or acquisition of another firm

• Case Type: Growth Strategies

– Step 1: Investigate the market to make sure that entering the market makes good business sense

– Step 2: Look at the project from a VC’s point of view
• Management team
• Market and strategic plan
• Distribution channels
• Product
• Customers
• Finance

• Case Type: Competitive response

– Step 1: Ask probing questions
• What is the competitor’s new product and how does it differ from ours?
• What has the competitor done differently?
• Have any other competitors picked up market share?

– Step 2: Choose a response action
• Examples: Acquiring the competitor or another player in the market, merging with a competitor, copy the competitor, hire the competitor’s top management away, use marketing and public relations to increase your profile

• Case Type: Increasing Sales

– Step 1: Ask probing questions to gather information about the market and our product line

– Step 2: Determine a strategy to increase your sales
• Increase volume
• Increase revenue from each sale (make buyers buy more)
• Increase prices
• Create seasonal balance

• Case Type: Reducting Costs

– Step 1: Ask for a breakdown of costs
– Step 2: If any costs are out of line, determine why
– Step 3: Benchmark competitors

• Case Type: Increassing Profits

– Step 1: Look at revenues
– Step 2: Look at costs
– Step 3: Determine whether you want to increase volume and how to do so
• Example actions include expanding into new areas, increasing your sales force, increasing marketing, reducing prices, and improving customer service

• Case Type: Turnarounds

– Step 1: Gather key information about the company and its situation
– Step 2: Choose an appropriate action
• Be creative, but base your action upon a structured and well thought-out plan

NOTE: Adapted from “Case in Point” by Mark Consentino

Case Example Introduction

• The following case samples are provided to facilitate first-level analysis
• For each case, practice setting up the high- level tree that could be used to attack the problem (as shown earlier):
– Place the key question for the case at the root of the tree
– Break the problem into a set of solvable components and assign those components to the tree branches

Case Example

• Your client owns a professional football team that has just won the Super Bowl. Despite the Super Bowl victory, the team finished the season with a financial loss for the 5th season in a row.
• What could be the cause of the team’s profitability problems? What would you recommend to reverse this past season’s financial performance?

Case Example

• You are the owner of a small, but relatively successful, towing company with a handful locations throughout the Southeastern U.S. Two recent MBA graduates have approached you about purchasing the company.
• Should you accept the offer to sell your company?

Case Example

• Your client is an industry-leading security software company that is considering acquiring a data management software company.
• Should the client go through with the acquisition?

Case Example

• Your client is a national chain of fitness centers with locations in 35 major cities. The company is thinking of creating a sub-brand of gyms for the small-town market.
• Should they do it? What issues come into play when making this decision? Under what circumstances could the venture be successful?

Case Example

• A publishing company that has traditionally created news and entertainment magazines is thinking of introducing a new sports-focused magazine.

Case Example

• You have taken over as the Executive Director of a non-profit that has had trouble raising enough money to fund its programs.
• What could the problem be? What can be done to resolve the issue?

Case Example

• You have just accepted a job as the Superintendent of city school district where more than 90% of the students have scored below proficient in English and Math for the past 15 years.
• How will you solve this long-standing academic performance problem? What resources would you need to implement your plan?

Case Example

• Your client is a beverage company that was excited to see its sponsored cyclist win the Tour de France. That is, until authorities announced that the cyclist had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
• What sort of “damage control” does the company have to do in light of this event? Will there be any negative effects on the company’s brand as a result of this discovery?

Case Example

• Your client is an enterprise software company that has spent over $100M developing a new product that isn’t selling well.
• What could the problem be and what can they do to resolve the situation?

Case Example

• A friend of yours is considering becoming a franchisee of a national fast-food chain.
• What issues should he be thinking about in making his decision? And, do you think he should open the franchise?
NOTE: Adapted from “Case in Point” by Mark Consentino

General Advice

• RELAX!!! Don't let yourself get too stressed out before, during, and after the interview -- Succumbing to nerves is the quickest way to sabotage yourself. No matter how these interviews turn out, remember that you are driven and will have your degree before long...you're going to be alright, whether you've got a Consulting job or not.
• Be confident but humble during the interview. When you're as talented and qualified as all of you likely are, there is the risk of sounding a little stuck on yourself. Don't let that happen because it can leave an interviewer with a terrible impression of you.
• Be sure to have a strong list of questions to ask the interviewer -- This is your chance to gain insights from his/her experiences with the firms and show that you care enough about getting a position to ask insightful questions

General Advice

• If you make a mistake during some portion of the interview, learn from it and move on...Don't let it fester in your mind because it'll serve as a distraction later on
• Make sure the interviewer understands your thinking at all times. Talking through what's going through your mind (in general terms) can give the interviewer a chance to give you correct information if you've got something mixed up or ask follow-up questions to gain more insight about you as a candidate. This tip goes for when you're doing your math, brainstorming, and providing some sort of insights in response to a question.
• Take time to think about what you're going to say before you say it. There is nothing wrong with taking 5 or 10 seconds to think through something when the alternative is simply saying the first thing that comes to mind. Remember, you're not in a race against the clock...you're in a race to get a Consulting offer

Advice on Cases

• STRUCTURE, STRUCTURE, STRUCTURE!!! – Structure is the thing you should focus on most from the start of the interview until the end. Structure everything from the paper that you take your notes on...to the way you do your initial case issue breakdown...to your set up and execution of the math...to what you say in your final case wrap-up. Often, having a structured approach to everything you do in a case interview is just as important as getting the "right" answer to "crack" the case.
• Think about the "Big Picture" whenever you can...don't dig too deep in the details until you have to. Digging too deep early and getting lost “in the weeds” can lead to missing out on information that might get you to the desired answer. If the first thing that pops into your mind is the details of what info you want, take an extra second to think about why you need that information and it will likely give you another layer of structure for your analysis. The "Big Picture" thinking should be the foundation of your approach at all stages of the case, but it is especially important when you're doing your initial case "roadmap" and issue tree. The executives and managers that you'd be consulting to will likely have a "Big Picture" view of things, so you should train yourself to have the same sort of outlook.

Advice on Cases

• Make sure you bring out the "So what?" insights and not just surface level ideas. These firms likely know that you're smart...otherwise, you wouldn't have been invited to interview...so simply reciting facts likely won't be enough to distinguish you from the pack. The thing that can truly make you look like a star is being able to look at that same set of facts and draw out some deep insights about the specific situation in the case and some larger business situation and/or context. It's all about the "So what?"'s...
• Be as efficient as possible when doing the math on your cases. Writing out every equation may seem like a good idea, but it can use up a lot of time that would be better spent doing case analysis and gathering data. Try to find shortcuts to get through your calculations quicker, such as canceling zeros, using the units of measure in a problem for hints, and recognizing patterns in numbers.

Advice on Cases

• Make your notes as neat and clear as possible. Some firms collect the notes you take while doing the case for any number of reasons, one of which could be to gain insights on how you structured your analysis. In this case, it is important to have very clear notes so they can follow your thinking as they read the notes. A more practical reason for having clear notes is so that you don't confuse yourself during interviews. When one is under the stress of an interview situation, it is easy to lose track of a number, a fact, or some piece of data that could help you solve a problem and the time it takes to find that lost data is time that you could be plugging away at your case analysis. Neat note-taking is a simple way to avoid that problem.
• Be creative. This is pretty self-explanatory, but try not to get bogged down and restricted to the format or ideas that a particular framework might lead you to. There are many ways to solve a problem and a little creativity may be just what it takes to get you over the top when the interviewers are doing their evaluations.

Advice on Cases

• Use assumptions to your advantage, but don't overuse them. Finding the balance of when and when not to use assumptions is a tough one, so I always default to the following rule of thumb...If you need a piece of information during the case, ask for it. The worst that can happen is that the interviewer won't have the info and you'll have to make an assumption about it. The alternative to not asking is making an invalid or incorrect assumption and going down the wrong path when the interviewer had a ton of data waiting for you all along. Basically, use assumptions within reason and know that, in many cases, the interviewer likely has data that can help you crack the case wide open if you use it right.

Advice on the Fit/Experience

Discussion
• The interview is not all about the case, the fit portion is highly important, as well
• Focus on your role -- The interviewer wants to hear about what YOU did; Don't focus too much of your description on what your TEAM did
• Have several stories prepared (I’d recommend at least four) that cover a wide range of anecdotes about your leadership experience (you should not repeat stories across interviews on a single day)
• Be concise and make sure you bring out only the most important points; There's no need to get too detailed...just tell your story and bring out the "showstopper" ideas

NOTE: Adapted from “Case in Point” by Mark Consentino

Tips for Case Interviewing 

Five qualities of great case interview responses: 

• Structured response that demonstrates that you can think clearly 
  and make sense of an ambiguous situation. 

• Broad perspective (Big Picture Thinking) - Mention all possible 
  areas of exploration and do not focus on narrow areas that you 
  think are right.

• Concise and linear thinking. 

• Business judgment and ability to identify and prioritize high-
  impact areas of the case to investigate first. 

• Unusual and creative insights and showing you can come up with 
  ideas without having the interviewer push you toward them.

Six Principles from Booz Allen Hamilton 

A typical case interview scenario opens with....  
Interviewer: "John, the particular assignment I'd like to discuss with you involves helicopters. Our client is trying to decide whether the helicopter business is an attractive opportunity for continued investment. As part of the effort, they've asked us to specifically evaluate the demand outlook for non-military helicopters--30 years out into the future. Essentially, the client wants to understand the long-term attractiveness of the helicopter market. This product has roughly a 20-year life cycle, so you need to look out a long way. John, if you had to write the proposal for this engagement, how would you approach the work?"

Candidate: "All right (begins to babble) there are different kinds of helicopters, there's an issue of geographic segmentation, it's a form of air travel, it's also for transporting freight and personnel . . .; so if we're talking about 20 years, I wonder what the technology cycle is. . ."

PRINCIPLE ONE: Stay calm; take time to think. Use pauses to allow yourself time to think. You may want to jot down some points to help you think through the problem--a whiteboard and/or pen and paper will be available to you in the interview room.

PRINCIPLE TWO: Begin by defining issues and hypotheses--NOT answers. Companies are not necessarily looking for the one right answer in the case. Instead, what they are looking for is how you think about a problem:
• What are the issues you're going to raise?
• What hypotheses are you going to put together (i.e., potential answers for each issue that need to be supported or disproved by analysis)? For example, with the rapid expansion of many forms of electronic communication, fewer people will need to travel, including by helicopter. This is arguably creative as hypotheses go, but it could still be tested and supported or disapproved by data and analysis.
• What are the questions that you are going to ask --to support or disprove your hypotheses? It's the approach that they are looking for, not necessarily the answer, which is the second point to think about in preparing for the case: define issues, hypotheses, and then the questions to pursue.

PRINCIPLE THREE: Develop a framework: don't generate random ideas. If you have an economic background, use it. Economic concepts make great frameworks. In building your framework, consider the classic business elements: Profit as the result of Revenue less Cost; Revenue as determined by Supply and Demand. This type of framework will help focus your questions. Never assume the interviewer knows where you are going, even if you have a framework in your head. If the framework has two elements to it, don't start talking about one of them in detail without laying out the other orally.

PRINCIPLE FOUR: Surface potential causal, not descriptive, analysis. The interviewer will want to understand why things are happening, not just what has happened. Good consultants go far beyond the obvious, beyond basic market research. You need to decompose the underlying drivers of the situation--what's actually making the situation change --now and in the future.

PRINCIPLE FIVE: Focus on the issues and opportunity facing the client. When you are doing the case, it is incredibly easy to get thrown off the track. Two great ways for tying back to the client's position are thinking about the question that you're answering and using the framework you've set up to guide you through the case.

PRINCIPLE SIX: Drive to potential actions for the client; be pragmatic. Thinking about issues, creating frameworks, and testing hypotheses are fun, essential, and at the heart of what we do. But the ultimate experience comes from using all this to help clients act. In the interview, think through the possible actions a client might take.
Source: Booz Allen and Hamilton

Notes from Marc Cosentino - Presentation on Case Interviewing 

Case interview preparation – many highlights from his book “Case in Point”
-Consulting firms want “low risk” hires
-people who like consulting, like travel, have already done consulting
-good quantitative and analytical skills
-able to articulate thoughts under pressure

Case interviews try to determine how a person thinks

Firms like it when a student takes a “rip right through it” approach – eager to get into the question and work on it
Questions may be based on real recent cases; firms compare the student’s approach with want the consultant actually did in real life

3 Phases:
1. “Airport Test” (cultural fit) – if stuck in an airport together for 9 hours, would we get along?
Maturity – how would you do in front of our clients?

Think before you open your mouth!!

There is a lot of math in these questions and you can’t use a calculator
2. Market Sizing – ex. How may disposable diapers were sold in US last year?
3. Factor Question – ex. What factors would you have to consider when bringing a new drug to market?

Students need to have questions written out in advance

Tip: bring in graph paper instead of regular lined paper; you will need to draw graphs and it will help you line up your zeros. It also Makes your notes look neater.

The interviewer will take your notes from you at the end of your interview. Applicant should mark off any key points, to help summarize the answer at the end of the case interview.
Students may have to actually draw up charts (ppt style) at end of interview.

The situation case interview is not used too much anymore.

“Guess the #” questions (Market sizing) questions very common.

Students need to ask for clarification – need to ask questions!

It’s OK for students to not be accurate with their numbers, but they need to show their PROCESS and LOGIC.

Students need to ASSUME as they tackle the answer. (“Assuming the population is X and the average life expectancy is Y…”)

Students need to stay at the MACRO level, don’t try to get too specific; that’s when you run into trouble.

It’s OK if your assumptions are off; it’s the PROCESS and LOGIC that matter.

When in doubt, use 100 million households in the US – easier to do the math with this #.

Use simple logic at a Macro level.

Be CREATIVE and BRAINSTORM “without commitment” – throw out your weak ideas later.

Student will always be asked to summarize the case at the end.

Case Scenarios – pretty balanced between operations and strategy scenarios.

International students tend to overuse buzz words – they need to get clarification up front.

Students need to be careful about using existing frameworks
– they need to be able to show they can think on their own. If using an existing framework, don’t announce it up front.

First Four Steps:
1. Summarize questions - restate info back to the interviewer
2. Verify objectives – what’s the goal?
What are we trying to get out of this? (“Besides increasing sales, are there any other objectives I should be aware of?”)
3. Ask questions ( 4-6 max)
4. Identify and label the case – create your structure

Students should take copious notes. PRACTICE is always key. Read as many cases as possible, because many of them are similar.

It is very common for interviewers to spontaneously add new data, charts, info to the mix while the applicant is already working on it. Student needs to be prepared that this might happen and not freak out.

Case Interview Links and Resources 

Note: This list is not complete - most companies now post case studies on their corporate Websites)


• Capital One case interviews
• McKinsey and Company online case study
• Bain & Company case interviews
• Ciber online cases
• EDS case studies
• The Parthenon Group case studies