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ISB Consulting Club

Class of 2008

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Introduction

The Consulting Club at The Indian School of Business presents the Case and CV book -

Class of 2008

The purpose of this document is to assist the future batches of ISB in preparing for

consulting placements. This case book documents the interview experiences of students

across various consulting firms. The aim of sharing these experiences is to inform the

future batches about the student experiences and to help them prepare for consulting

placements.

Kindly note

- not all of those who accepted the final offers have been able to contribute to the

book

- there are some contributors who had multiple offers and have noted their

interview experiences with other firms which they may have declined

- there are some contributors who have noted interview experiences in which they

did not make it to the subsequent round

- The list of students who took up the final offer is available in the consulting club

orientation PPT and is not included here

These interview accounts are not necessarily the optimal way in which one should handle

consulting interviews. Their only purpose is to share actual experiences. Every individual

will have his / her own unique way of tackling consulting interviews.

The last section of this document contains the CVs of students who were willing to share

their CVs with subsequent batches. These could serve as a reference and will hopefully

help subsequent batches in making their CVs.

All contributions to this document are by students who received offers from consulting

firms on campus. The interviews experiences are sorted firm wise while the CVs are

sorted in alphabetical order.

Don’t be scared by the size of the book. It is well referenced and the easy to use contents

page should make navigation easy. You can pick and choose which firms / alums

interview experiences you want to read through.

Thank you to the contributors from the Class of 2008 for helping in making this book.

Please feel free to reach out to the alumni via the alumni portal. Our contact details are

uploaded on the website

All the best!

Hardik Manek

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Table of Contents

Case Interviews

Accenture

Jatin Gulati


...6

Kaustubh Verma


..7

Rahul Mishra


..12

Rohit Malhotra


...18

Alvarez & Marsal

Manju Rajanikantha


...23

Samir Desai


24

AT Kearney

Supriya Singh


.28

Vignesh Shankar


34

Booz Allen Hamilton

Manik Gupta


..42

Boston Consulting Group

Ankit Garg


.45

Ankush Wadhera


47

Harsh Singhal


.52

Jitesh Shah


.57

Manik Gupta...68

Neha Kalra


.69

Shiva Agarwal


75

Diamond Consultants

Pradyot Anand


...81

Ernst & Young

Charu Agarwal


...85

Gaurav Bagaria


..86

Madhur Malik...


.89

Pankaj Singh


..91

Roumi Gop


.92

Sanjay Sharma


...96

Sumit Kumar


..99

KPMG

Divyanshu Gautam


101

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McKinsey & Co

Achint Setia


..105

Amit Jain


..114

Chitra Raghunath


.117

Manik Gupta


121

Neha Kalra


...123

Neha Mittal...129

Nitin Kashyap...136

Pankaj Gupta...145

Pradyot Anand...153

Varun Khullar...155

Oliver Wyman

Abhishek Chandra...165

Manik Gupta


172

Vikas Garg


...173

Parthenon

Abhinav Mital


..177

Viren Pereira


181

PWC

Shyam Subramaniam


191

Value Partners (merged with Spectrum Consulting)

Kabilan Sukumar


.194

ZS Associates

Abhay Mehrotra


...198

Deepak Chembath


202

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Name of student Jatin Gulati Company

interviewed with Accenture Name of interviewer

and designation Don’t Remember
 He was a manager from IIM-B’s class of 2000 or 2001. Round and

interview number (First,

Second,Third) Round Two

Personal interview questions (with indicative answers if you wish to share them)

There were a few themes that the discussion revolved around and two of these captured most of the interview. Firstly, he grilled me on why did I not get a shortlist from McKinsey despite working there for 3 years. I explained the parameters they say they would judge a CV on and where I think I might not have made the cut. He was very aggressive in this discussion and was trying to grill me on this. I stuck to my stand and tried to be analytical in my approach. One interesting thing that he was doing was to come up with different hypotheses for this, all of which were of course quite uncomfortable for me. All I did in response to this was to not get bogged down and hold my nerve. The second issue that he grilled me on was why do I want to do consulting and not i-banking. This question arose because of the fact that I have completed 2 levels of CFA charter and most of my work experience is related to finance topics. This was the issue where he went really aggressive and the discussion was indeed very long. I only stuck to my stand and explained in different ways why I made this choice. An important thing to note here is that I intentionally never told him of my I-banking shortlists and spoke only about the other consulting firms that I am interviewing with.

Case question

He gave me a situation where I have to make a choice between three consulting offers that I have (hypothetical) and asked me to create an issue tree analyzing this situation. I was asked to create the chart and communicate the same in 2 minutes.

Case Type Non-Business case

Narration of the case (please be as descriptive as possible)

Frankly, issue trees are ambiguous in the sense that you can cut the problem any which way and I made a 3 level issue tree. Don’t think I should give the one that I made here as benchmark because its easy to make any issue tree and then defend it. I presented the tree and the interviewer seemed to like how I did it. He raised a point that I missed incorporating information about the future direction of the firm and I agreed and adjusted my analyses promptly.

What do you think went right for you in this interview

The theme of the interview was to test how I react when put under pressure and I think the way I responded to it is what clinched the interview for me. I think the interviewer was very aggressive in his questions and tried to make the questions as uncomfortable as possible for me.

What do you think went wrong in this

interview

Any tips for future batches based on this experience

One learning that I would want to leave out of this experience is that it works better if you take a stand and are hard on that throughout. Just hang-in, by using different arguments possible or even repeat the same arguments in different ways but its important to just hang-in. For example, on the consulting vs. I-banking issue, there were moments when he dominated the discussion so much that I could have shifted my stance a bit but in hindsight that could have been fatal.

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Name of student Kaustubh Verma Company

interviewed with Accenture Name of interviewer

and designation Ganesan Ramachandran Round and interview number (First, Second,Third) First Personal interview questions (with indicative answers if you wish to share them)

A detailed description about Accenture and what do they do and the various consulting verticals. Then he asked me a bit about my background and told a bit about himself. Then he offered me Chewing Gum and asked me to relax and get cracking at the case. This was hence a very short introduction and the main emphasis had to be on the case.

Case question

There is a factory. The transportation company charges the factory owners as long as their trucks stay in the factory area. Costs are rising due to this. How do you account for this problem?

Case Type Operations

Narration of the case (please be as descriptive as possible)

This case was asking me to analyze

I would have asked questions to understand the kind of products this factory makes and stuff but he told me to attack the core issues immediately

a) What can be the internal issues due to which trucks stay in the premises overtime? This could be broken down into

- No preparation by the warehouse - No space in the warehouse

- Shortage of tools and materials to unload

Point no. 1 can be broken down into why there is no preparation by the warehouse personnel. One can analyze that there may be no

communication between procurement division and store manager and the store manager may not know what he is getting, how much is he getting and at what time. The other reason can be that the truck is entering the premises with the wrong items (contrary to what was ordered)

Point no. 2 can be broken down into several inventory management issues. Demand estimation, service cycle levels and are they reasonable and things like that. Basically a whole lot of OPMG from term 3.

Point no. 3 is what do they use to upload. In this case the labor was fine but then there was a problem with the pallet availability. Pallets can be unavailable because they are procured from a vendor with high lead time. b) What can be the external factors that influence increase in costs? Are these the only transporters? Can we get better rates from another transporter

Are these transporters getting the right material in and what is the damage rate of the items brought in

What do you think went right for you in this interview

The interviewer was extremely chilled out. I regained composure after an initial hiccup. All in all the key thing was me being cool as the case was very simple.

What do you think went wrong in this

I was still not as cool as I would have liked. Right at the beginning of the case I said that “Can we change the transporter”. He told me a small

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interview anecdote and then asked me to focus on what can you do internally. Any tips for future

batches based on this experience

Stay cool and confident. A case is just like doing a 30 min project under a guide. Engage with him and be interested in knowing more.

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Name of student Kaustubh Verma Company

interviewed with Accenture Name of interviewer

and designation Priya (Manager – Human Resources) Round and interview number (First, Second,Third) Second Personal interview questions (with indicative answers if you wish to share them)

This was a personal interview only Questions were

- Tell me something about yourself? - Why Accenture?

- Why MBA?

- Greatest achievement at ISB?

- One person you admire in your batch and why? - What did you learn from your peers at ISB? - What do you think works for you in an interview? Case question No case

Case Type NA

Narration of the case (please be as descriptive as

possible) NA

What do you think went right for you in this interview

She was much younger than my previous interviewer and when I walked into the room I was very confident. I tried giving honest answers and tried to portray the image that I am not all work. I talked about my love for music and sports and gave a lot of people related answers which were genuine. What do you think

went wrong in this interview

My phone rang in the middle as I had forgotten to switch it off. An absolute interview faux pas. And I think I spoke to fast but otherwise most of the things went right

Any tips for future batches based on this experience

You can prepare for all the basic questions in a PI. Tell me about yourself is a standard question and should really be the clincher in any interview. Try not to talk only about studies and projects. Bring in a human and humor element to your anecdotes. And of course relevant anecdotes.

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Name of student Kaustubh Verma Company interviewed

with Accenture

Name of interviewer

and designation Vinod Kumar (Manager – Supply Chain vertical) Round and interview

number (First,

Second,Third) Third Personal interview

questions (with indicative answers if you wish to share them)

Again a very short introduction session where he asked me about the nature of work I did prior to ISB. Then it was on to the case.

Case question

This was a triple whammy. He asked me three cases in the space of 45 mins.

a) How would you restructure a project management team doing say a large oil and gas project as a contractor?

b) There is a company which is taking on good projects and bad projects as well. This company is again executing large oil and gas projects as contractors. Define a set of metrics which you think will help this company evaluate a project better

c) List down factors or scenarios under which a company will be ready to take on a negative NPV project.

Case Type Operations/Strategy with a bit of MGTO thrown in

Narration of the case (please be as

descriptive as possible)

Having worked in the energy industry before I had a fair idea of what the issues can be. The answers to the above three questions as I gave them are as follows

a) Drew the current structure of a team executing such a project. Asked for his buy in. Identified problems in the existing set up and then recommended changes by centralizing non core functions in project execution. I was mainly blank as far as team/organization restructuring is concerned but I kept engaging with him

b) Listed all factors under two buckets. Strategy issues and Cost Issues. Strategy had things like capabilities in terms of manpower and past projects. Cost had scope of project, quality standards and completion time of the project.

c) This was a real tough one as he kept on asking me to explore more factors. I had initially come up with a company trying to enter a new geography might take on NPV projects. But the interviewer was not satisfied so I kept thinking and then finally told him that a company may also take on a new project in order to acquire new skills. After that he was happy. What do you think went

right for you in this interview

I was very confident and knew well about the industry the case was based on. I added a lot of flavors which he did not expect me to. I also smile in an interview when in a corner and maybe that helps !!!

What do you think went wrong in this interview

I was totally taken aback by the MGTO type case. But then its best to solve such cases from first principles and get buy in of the interviewer after every stage.

Any tips for future batches based on this

experience Knowing about an industry does help. !!!

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Name of student Kaustubh Verma Company

interviewed with Accenture Name of interviewer

and designation Himanshu Tambe (Partner) Round and interview number (First, Second,Third) Fourth Personal interview questions (with indicative answers if you wish to share them)

Just a fit interview and some PI questions - How do you define success?

- What do you want me to remember you by when you walk out of this room?

- Any questions for me on Accenture? - A bit about my CV

- What is the biggest problem about my ex-company? - How were my previous interviews?

Case question No case

Case Type NA

Narration of the case (please be as descriptive as

possible) No case

What do you think went right for you in this interview

The interviewer was extremely chilled out. I also knew that I was at the end stages of the process and only a real bad interview can spoil it from here on onwards. I was very calm during this one as in I was more intent on hearing than speaking unlike previous rounds.

What do you think went wrong in this interview

Guess what! My phone rang again. But apart from that it was a breeze Any tips for future

batches based on this experience

When being interviewed by a partner always be very precise in what you wanna say. And please switch off your phone before every interview Outcome Cleared Final round

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Name of student Rahul Mishra Company interviewed with Accenture Name of interviewer and designation Ms. Lata (HR) Round and interview number (First, Second,Third)

First Round (HR Round) Interview 1

Personal interview questions (with indicative answers if you wish to share them)

This round was primarily a personal round revolving around the CV. The question broadly covered the various things done at ISB and the extra-curriculars. A lot of expected question were there on the Strengths, weaknesses, successes, Stay at ISB, Comparison with Undergrad education at IIT-B.

Be sure to have a consistent story for all of the above and make sure that you keep corroborating your claims and assertion from time to time. For every aspect I was asked to site an example.

Some questions that I typically remember are :

“Tell about a trait of your personality that you think is a strength in personal life but does not serve you well in professional life? And one trait that you think is a professional strength but not a positive thing in personal life”. The interviewer was insistent that I answer both but I answered the first part and said that there was nothing I could think of for the second part because I just could not relate to such a separation in personal and professional personalities. Of course the answer was detailed and elaborate and ultimately convincing.

Case question

Since this was an HR round there were no cases as such but I was questioned in detail about the banking sector and corporate strategy as I had written white papers on both these topics for B-school competitions.

Case Type Narration of the case (please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right for you in this interview

The conversation was a very easy one. I think I was able to break ice very early in the discussion and was always conscious for the crispness of my answers. As a result we were able to have a long discussion about a lot of different issues during the 30 minute+ long discussion. I was also trying to build a coherent storyline throughout by citing examples and connecting back to things I had earlier said in the interview.

What do you think went wrong in this interview

Any tips for future batches based on this experience

Be very thorough with you CV. Elaborate every point of your CV and prepare answers to the standard expected questions. Make sure you have rehearsed them well enough.

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Name of student Rahul Mishra Company interviewed with Accenture Name of interviewer and designation

Manish Miglani (Manager) Round and interview number (First, Second,Third) First Round Interview 2 Personal interview questions (with indicative answers if you wish to share them)

Contrary to expectations, this interview also turned out to be based more on the CV. Some questions were around career progression, Why ISB, Why Consulting, Why Accenture, What do you want to do at Accenture..

I was also asked detailed questions about the firm to check if I have done a through homework about understanding the lines of business and how they functions, the numbers, shares, growth rates, trends etc. I had those details ready so rattled them out right away.

There were a lot of questions about my personal radio station on campus which was quite unexpected. Went into detailed analysis as to who would be the listener segments, whey they would tune in, what could be alternatives or competition, how is it managed, operated, what better could be done, etc. A substantial part of the interview was about my work experience in the Energy sector. From the sort of projects I was working on, to the people I was working with, my contacts, accomplishments, my outlook on certain trends, etc. This was primarily because Accenture does a lot of work in Oil & Gas with some leading names and so wanted to check for a functional fit. A question was like, “ If I were to be reborn, in who’s shoes would I want to be reborn”. I realised what the safest bet was and said, “ If I were reborn, I would still like to be in my own shoes, be the person I am, retain my

individuality and then being so try to imbibe the attributes of the people I look up to and consider my role models. There was of course some grilling on this but I was sure of and firm on what I said and stood by it.

Case question

This was more of a mini caselet:

If an Oil company is planning 1000 cr project in the next 3 years what all factors should it consider?

Case Type

Open ended and unstructured (because it was more of a continuation of our past discussion on the sector)

Narration of the case (please be as descriptive as possible)

The discussion was brief and quick. I started by looking at internal and external factors.

Internally, I asked about the type of firm (PSU or private), duration, funds availability, organizational capability to execute such a project, timelines, etc. Externally, I was looking at regulatory requirements, location (SEZ or for domestic market), external consultant hired.

From my past experience and after the discussion, any such project has key concerns as timelines and budget. People do not want a cost over run and want the project completed in 3 years. In the absence of internal execution capabilities, people look for external consultants who can take Lump Sum Turn Key (LSTK)Contracts or else tender out different parts independently. All these modes of procurement and execution have cost and time implications. I was asked to make a recommendation as to which mode of execution would be most advisable and based on all the parameters I discussed I ended up with a recommendation

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went right for you in this interview

case my Radio Station.

Work experience was a Big strong point and I believe the interviewer was impressed with the detailed discussion we had on the sector. This helped in immediately establishing a functional fit in the firm.

What do you think went wrong in this interview

Could have been more brief in a couple of answers to some unexpected questions, but I think it was more that compensated for during the 45 minute discussion.

Any tips for future batches based on this experience

Walk into the room with an open mind. You may be ready with your pen and pad to take down the case question and the interview may be complete a conversation. You may not be expected or needed to use paper and pen for cases or situations and in that case think aloud and involve the other person in a conversation.

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Name of student Rahul Mishra Company interviewed with Accenture Name of interviewer and designation

Harsha Razdan (Senior Manager) Round and interview

number (First, Second,Third) Round 1 Interview 3 Personal interview questions (with indicative answers if you wish to share them)

Hardly any PI questions. This was purely a case round

Case question

An international Office stationary retailer has just entered India and set up a sample store in Bangalore in association with an India Retail Giant. The store has been open for 3 months now. What should the international retailer do in the coming times and what should be there strategy? Case Type Retail Operations and Strategy

Narration of the case (please be as descriptive as possible)

I started by looking at the international retailer (Company) and its Indian partner? Why the venture, what strengths, type of contract, etc. it seems the company had efficient back end operation and the front end expertise was with the Indian partner. They would need 6 months to get out of contractual obligations. The operation is merely breaking even right now. I also looked at the competition and customers buckets and there was not enough information available on this.

After this initial analysis the case question was flipped to find out the drivers of setting up a retail store. Some of the drivers discussed were : - Geography (decided by regulation, logistics, operations, etc)

- Store format (Departmental, Hypermart, location in city or outside city) - Product Mix ( What would be item stocked)

- Partnerships (potential allies) - Competition

- Target Customers (to decide Footfalls X Conversion Rate X Ticket Size) The next part of the case was that where will I gather information about all these, customers, geographies, etc.

I said there could be two ways of collecting information: Primary Research and Secondary Research.

Primary we can collected from other stores, scanner data, Pilot study, survey, etc Secondary could be done through industry and analyst reports like Crisil, Datamonitor, ISI Emerging markets, These reports normally give detailed outlook about cities, types of formats, conversion rates, catchment area and other parameters. Given that we had just one month to gather information, Secondary research would be more appropriate.

What do you think went right for you in this interview

I was talking in terms of the technical language used in Retailing, plus was patiently listening to all that he was saying was always trying to be flexible to adapt my analysis to the discussion

What do you think went wrong in this interview

The frequent twists in the problem statement were at time throwing the structure and analysis out of gear. The question on drivers was not that neatly given, so had to struggle a bit with the figuring out what I was supposed to give.

Any tips for future batches based on this experience

This case or its variant was often repeated with other candidates and I was keeping a tap of that. Make sure you keep checking with candidates you walk out of the panel and keep thinking about the problem. With 40-50 candidates going through the process, it is likely that cases or their

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variants may get repeated.

Outcome

After this round I was put in a Conference Call with a senior executive in Mumbai to discuss more about my work experience and functional. Subsequent to these discussions I was moved to the Final Round to meet the partner.

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Name of student Rahul Mishra Company interviewed with Accenture Name of interviewer and designation

Himanshu Tambe (Partner) Round and interview

number (First, Second,Third) Final Round Personal interview questions (with indicative answers if you wish to share them)

This was a personal round to check the organizational fit and my keenness to take up the offer. There were question on strengths, weaknesses, One good thing about my past organization, What seems to be ailing PSUs in India, How do you define SUCCESS, What has been an instant when you have failed and what did you do, when you walk out of this room, how do you think I will remember you?

As I said, a lot many of these answers should be prepared and you should be ready to adapt and mound content of one answer into another.

Consistency in response is the Key Word. Dont contradict yourself within the 15-20 minutes.

Case question Nil

Case Type Nil

Narration of the case (please be as descriptive as possible)

-

What do you think went right for you in this interview

Preparation Confidence

What do you think went wrong in this interview

Couldn’t have afforded to get anything wrong at this stage â˜ș

Any tips for future batches based on this experience

Prepare for Cases BUT more importantly prepare for PIs, Make elaborate notes if necessary. It is important to give a thought to what you are going to say and why are you going to say that. For examples, almost everyone says that my strengths are strong analytical skills, hardworking, honest, sincere, blah blah
 and these are the question were you can make a difference and create a last impression if you have something different to say. Be confident and Not Overconfident else in all likelihood having come all this way you will blow this off. Prepare well and things will fall in the right place. ALL THE BEST !!!

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Name of student Rohit Malhotra Company interviewed with Accenture Name of interviewer and designation

Mr Vinod (R1) and Mr Harsha – Sr Manager (R2) Round and

interview number (First,

Second,Third)

R1 and R2 (all combined)

Personal interview questions (with indicative answers if you wish to share them)

1) Why Accenture 2) Why Consulting

3) Long Term Goals and how will Accenture help you in achieving them 4) Define success

5) Instance of failure and what did you learn from it

6) If I go to the Meeting Room what should I remember abt you and I should say

Case question Given Below

Case Type Cost Reduction and Market Entry Narration of the

case (please be as descriptive as possible)

Case 1: Cost Reduction and Supply Chain Management

Case Narration: (Huge amount of information was thrown to confuse and deviate from the purpose. He kept on changing scope of case to check how comfortable I am)

The company is an Indian Construction Equipment Manufacturing company. They have a JV with German co. The German co provides some part and technology. Plus they have a strong brand name. But the mkt is commoditized to a large extent. Due to high construction activity they want to expand as a JV. A new CEO was hired, who focuses a lot on details (imp point to remember) How can they do it?

Then he mentioned one more thing. There are two subunits SBU1 and SBU2. The German company gives parts to SBU1 and then we assemble our parts to make the equipment. Then 30% is used for internal

consumption and 70% goes to SBU2. (Breakup was told on clarification, plus this was not used in the entire case. Given to confuse).

Initial Clarification:

‱ What % of components are provided by German co (50%) ‱ Is plant operating at full capacity as it was an expansion decision ‱ Duration of JV

‱ Possibility of manufacturing parts manufactured by German part (answer was no)

‱ Can JV look at growing inorganically (no again) ‱ Time for expansion

Structure and Analysis

Even though the case was initially on expanding the operations, the interviewer asked me to focus on cost reduction, based upon the initial clarification. He said the case is too broad; Let’s focus on this aspect. Also wanted to have a free flowing discussion than going through standard structured approach

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I told that since German company’s production can not be shifted, we should focus on 50% of the production process in India. He agreed. I said, since it is a cost reduction, we should -

‱ focus on value chain ‱ look at the cost drivers ‱ benchmark against industry ‱ possible areas of improvement

He said it looks very good and explained me complex value chain (lot of jargons again). But then he changed his mind. He asked me to list down possible areas of cost reduction.

I mentioned the following ‱ Raw Materials o Design o Wastage o Supplier Rationalization o Forecasting Process o JIT o Make or Buy ‱ Labor o Unionized / contract o Overcapacity o Productivity ‱ Overheads o Design o Wastage

He said Labor can not be touched. Overheads are mainly related to German counterparts. Asked me to focus on Raw Materials and supplier rationalization. There are 400 suppliers of various parts. How would go abt rationalize them?

I mentioned –

‱ Look at the major parts ($ terms) ‱ Who are the main supplies

‱ Size (can be measured by sales, employees etc) ‱ Their capacity

‱ Relationship with them

‱ Location (reqd for selecting suppliers) ‱ Mentioned a few other (could not remember)

He asked me how will create the matrix. I said it should be for each component -> rate the parameters (can be on a scale of 1-5 or H-M-L) -> Calculate weighted average and arrive at the major players.

Also pointed out the flaw that a single company may be providing many parts and we will need to create a composite matrix at the end. Else we can have matrix by supplier and have parts rated based upon importance. To which he agreed.

Then he asked me to draw 2/2 matrix to fit in all the factors. I was able to come up with matrix that highlights 3 factors, but not all. However, suggested him that we can create different chart, but would be replica of

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above matrix in chart form.

He said let’s stop the case and if I had any questions for him.

Case 2: I was told that interviewer does not have time and it is a 5 mt case. I will have around 1.5 mts to get clarifications and 3.5 mts to define structure and discuss important factors.

Case Narration: A pharma company came to know abt increasing

diseases incidents in rural areas. It thinks that this is a very big opportunity and we have been hired to help them.

Initial clarification: What is the co into and geography of operation; Do they cater to any specific kind of diseases/medicine; timeline (was 1 yr) etc. Structure: Since the focus was entire India and not specific region. I followed the following structure:

‱ How large is the market

o Understand industry value driver of industry (since rural is cost or quality more important)

o Classify the states by types of major diseases to understand the focus area

o Estimate no of people affected

o Estimate $ amount of market as ability to pay is less ‱ Understand competition

o Direct: Other pharma cos thinking of entering/have entered the market

o Indirect: Local doctors/home disease o How we differentiate our self

‱ Calculate NPV/ Cost benefit analysis ‱ Modes of entry o Greenfield o M&A (competition) o JV o Alliance ‱ Capability o Execution Risk o Finance Risk

He said he was fine with the structure. He asked me how would we be able to doctors buy our product vs competition. Since local doctors were the most important factors we looked at the deciding factors/ incentive plans for the doctors. But overall realized it is difficult to incentivize them. Also product differentiation was not possible. Then we decided to look at strategies of companies o/s India who undertook similar strategies. Based on discussion, I suggested that it appears that first mover advantage is deciding factor. So look at areas underserved / not served and have a decent market size. Also, should map with cos capabilities. We also agreed to run a pilot which is like a real option and help us to decide. He said that he is fine with the approach and asked me to synthesize key findings.

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went right for you in this interview

not deviate from purpose and got Interviewers buy-in were reqd. What do you think

went wrong in this interview

Should have been more creative specifically with charts.

Any tips for future batches based on this experience

This time a focus was lot on sourcing information. Therefore, keep in mind that the suggestions need to be practicable and implementable.

Also read profiles of interviewer as most of the cases I faced were from their field. You can have a look at few of the industry measures, but it is not expected you to know

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Name of student Manju R Company

interviewed with Alvarez and Marsal Name of interviewer

and designation Partners from Delhi and London office Round and interview number (First, Second,Third) 3 rounds Personal interview questions (with indicative answers if you wish to share them)

They give a brief introduction about themselves and about A&M work. PI questions will revolve around Why Alvarez? In depth discussion about your previous work experience to try and see fit between what you can do and what they do? Having experience in Finance and planning an

advantage, being CA a definite advantage Case question No case

Case Type N/A

Narration of the case (please be as descriptive as

possible) N/A

What do you think went right for you in this interview

Confidence, passion for the job, match between what A&M wants and my prior work-ex and how I correlated my learning’s at ISB to what I could do in Performance Improvement and turnaround. A&M looks for three characteristics in people – confidence, ability and clarity of thought What do you think

went wrong in this interview

Waiting around till your turn comes.

Any tips for future batches based on this experience

Be confident while speaking and expressing thoughts. Prepare well for the interview by going through the CV and your core courses learning’s Outcome Made it through all the 3 rounds successfully

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Name of student Samir Desai Company

interviewed with Alvarez & Marsal

Name of interviewer and designation

Brian – Senior Director,

Rakesh Chopra – Director & National Head - India, Prashanth – Senior Associate, one more senior associate Amit Laud – Director (telephonic)

Round and interview number (First,

Second,Third)

There were 3 groups formed when the A&M team arrived on campus. A&M conducted 3 rounds of interviews for each candidate and after all the 3 groups had interviewed the candidate, they used to meet and decide on the candidate. Thus the procedure was elaborate but slow.

All the interviews were mainly personal interview and did not have case interviews.

Personal interview questions (with indicative answers if you wish to share them)

After waiting outside for almost 7 hours, the interviews were conducted in a very professional manner and the interviewers focus in knowing your past was crystal clear.

Each of the interviewer asked me to go through my resume in a detailed fashion. Each and every bullet point in my resume was questioned and cross questioned. But the interview was not stressful at any point in time. The key reason was that there were no lies in the resume and hence I was very sure about the background of every point (situation, what action I took, why I took that action, what I did, who helped me, how things eventually worked out and what was the result). There were some usual questions as well on strengths, etc. Such questions were few and were randomly thrown at you. Since A&M is mainly a client oriented company who as a part of turnaround would want to “get things done”, I kept all my answers focused towards this theme.

Be aware that the interviewers may try to derail you in case you have very well rehearsed answers. So in between questions, there will be some side talk. That can put you off. So being relaxed would help you just

laugh/smile that their comments and then continue where you left off. This interview was a walk-in interview for me on day 6, but I had planned on applying here before and hence had some overview of the firm and what it does. That helped me in asking several questions throughout the day. My questions were mainly on switching my focus from IT to operation and finance.

At the end of the day, I was told to contact Amit Laud who would be conducting my interview from his base location. This interview was also a personal interview.

I googled him and found some details on him. He was an MBA from Wharton, done a stint in Mckinsey, GE and now was the acting CIO for some client company so some questions on IT implementation would be due. I knew that if I get through then I might end up working for him. During interview, he mentioned upfront – “From your resume, I know that you are technically competent and have no issues on that front. My focus is your ability to start initiatives on your own and get them done.”

Thankfully I had indeed started more than a few projects on my own and was able to present them to Amit. Later that afternoon, I got the offer from A&M.

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During the offer, the two senior guys clearly mentioned that they viewed ISB grads as people who have cleared most benchmarks and therefore did not engage in complicated case interviews or hypothetical scenarios. The reason is that most of the stuff we do here is mainly common sense but we need people who can work with clients, take charge of things and get it done.

(This in a way worked well for me because I had not got any shortlist for the day 0 consulting firms upfront and as such was low on case prep) Case question None

Case Type None

Narration of the case (please be as descriptive as

possible) None

What do you think went right for you in this interview

1. They wanted one person with IT experience for their projects in Middle East. Otherwise the firm is like other consulting firms – mainly focused on people with operation, finance, non-IT background. 2. They did value people with high grades. So that played a part in

getting their opinion biased towards me.

3. I already had one good offer since day 2 and this made me very relaxed. This can also go against you, as you tend to give up and lose steam. Invariably some very good firms come towards the end of placement every year.

4. The interviewers did appreciate the frankness and some humour during the interview and may be that went well.

What do you think went wrong in this interview

It’s difficult for me to pin-point what I did wrong in this interview mainly because it was all personal.

Any tips for future batches based on this experience

Throughout the interview and placement process, please believe in yourself, don’t give up, be patient and don’t lose your sense of humour. One incident during interview:

Rakesh Chopra, in the middle of the interview stopped me and digresses from the “agenda”.

Outcome

Rakesh: So you are a techie?

Me: Not quite. I did an MBA so that I am not a techie. â˜ș

Rakesh: Well, you will have to work as a non-techie for few years before I call you a non-techie. For now, I have a techie problem for you.

(I am hoping – don’t ask me SAIT questions on IT infrastructure and all that)

Rakesh: You know when I click new message in Outlook there used to be a Send button. Now it is not there.

Me: Took over his laptop, added the toolbar and now the send button showed.

Rakesh: Good, another problem. My friend sent me these files which I cannot open.

Me: Again took over his laptop, saw that the file ended in .vsd and told him he needed to install Microsoft Visio (which he duly noted down)

Rakesh: You are very good. Good indeed. Me: Then do I get the job? Yayyy!

Rakesh: NO

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Rakesh: â˜ș Err, I meant, not on that performance.

Moral: Keep your cool. It is not important to know how to fix laptop or how to fix account statements (if you are CA). But it was more about how you handle such deliberate distracting situations (as if they were your clients) and make the atmosphere friendly.

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Name of student Supriya Singh Company

interviewed with A T Kearney Name of interviewer

and designation Bhavya Round and

interview number (First, Second,

Third) Round 1, Interview 1

Personal interview questions (with indicative answers if you wish to share

them) Tell me about yourself and some other similar stuff, but it was very brief. Case question

Vodafone has a huge mobile presence. Now it wants to enter the broadband industry. Should it enter and if yes, how should it enter? Case Type It was a typical market estimation and entry case.

Narration of the case (please be as descriptive as possible)

I started with a few clarifying questions to know more about the company and why does Vodafone want to enter that sector. She asked me as to what I think might be the reason. I guessed a few reasons like attractive market, other synergies, competitive reaction, fear of being left behind in the market. Then I told her my approach that would include the Porter’s framework for the market attractiveness and then discuss the entry strategy.

We started with the market estimation. She asked me how I would go about the market estimation. I told her that I would divide the country into different types of cities – A, B, C, small towns and rural areas and then take the existing PC penetration as the proxy for the potential broadband customers. I also classified the customers into households, corporate and SMEs. She said OK to it. Then she gave me some numbers for the PC penetration in the different cities and segments. We came up to some number which suggested that the market for broadband was attractive and it made sense for Vodafone to enter the market.

Next was how should it enter and where should it target first. She asked me to go through the different cities and suggest pros and cons for each. I covered the different cities, based on the size, existing competition, attractiveness, future potential and we came up to cities A, B for the time being and go to rural areas later. Then she asked me the potential areas in the cities where Vodafone could enter. I suggested Industrial Parks, Corporate Parks, Posh colonies, Business districts, Densely populated areas, Retail areas like cyber cafĂ©, B-schools and other colleges, Airports, Hotels and Resorts and High rise apartments. These areas were chosen based on the costs involved in setting up the broadband infrastructure and getting the revenues faster by covering a lot of customers. Then she asked me to do a cost-benefit analysis for a cyber cafĂ© in a mall. I mentioned the cost items and revenue items. The revenue per year could be calculated by the considering the surfing cost per hour, the footfall in that mall on the weekdays and weekends and other rentals for any other service if any. The costs would consist of the fixed costs for setting up the infrastructure and the variable costs for maintaining the service. The variable costs would be the monthly rentals for the cafĂ©, operating costs, maintenance, salaries and service rentals. Based on the above the profit margin and break-even time was calculated. The breakeven time was coming out to be around 2.3 – 3 years and she said did it seem fine. I thought it was fine. Then she asked me if I had any questions for her.

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What do you think went right for you in this interview What do you think went wrong in this

interview

Any tips for future batches based on this experience Outcome

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Name of student Supriya Singh Company

interviewed with A T Kearney Name of interviewer

and designation Kaushik Round and

interview number (First, Second,

Third) Round 1, Interview 2

Personal interview questions (with indicative answers if you wish to share

them) Tell me about yourself. Why consulting? Why ATK?

Case question

The client is an automotive company based in India. Due to dollar collapse, its margins are going down and hence the stock price is going down. How do we increase the margins?

Case Type

On the surface it looked like the problem was due to dollar collapse, but there were other reasons for the falling margins. It was more of profitability analysis case.

Narration of the case (please be as descriptive as possible)

I started with a few clarifying questions to know more about the company and what is the contribution of exports vis-Ă -vis domestic sales. He told me exports accounted for only 20% of the sales and domestic sales

accounted for the remaining 80%. I asked him about the revenues growth and he told me the revenues were increasing at the rate of 7-8%. Then I asked him about the industry trends and he told me the industry was growing. I took 2 minutes off to collect the data.

I made the profitability framework with breakup for revenues and costs. For revenues, I would consider the price, contribution of dollar, quantity, and competition. For costs, I would consider fixed costs, plant costs, imports, raw materials, labor and depreciation. He asked me if I thought there was any problem with revenues. I told him it didn’t look like but I would still like to explore it. I made a statement saying that the market would be an oligopoly and hence I expect the contracts to be fairly long-term since automotive contracts are relationship-based. He asked me a lot of questions on oligopoly and what would happen in an oligopoly and who has the bargaining power in an oligopoly. He told me that the prices were fairly same across the competition and the quantity was also more or less the same. Then I moved to the costs side. He asked me how would I know if the problem was on the costs side? I told him that I would benchmark it with the industry and if the costs were very high as compared to the industry, I would know that the costs are high. I would benchmark the COGS/Sales with the industry average and compare the two. He asked me the components of the COGS. Then he asked me to look at the raw materials. I asked him if the raw materials were imported or domestically obtained. He told me both and did not give any breakup. He asked for ideas as to how could we get the raw materials cheaper. For imports, I suggested importing from different countries so as to diversify exchange risk, get into some forward contracts with the foreign suppliers and obtaining more from the domestic suppliers. Other ideas included Commonality of raw materials, Alternative substitutes for the raw materials, better negotiation with the suppliers and vertical backward integration. He picked up vertical integration and asked me a lot of questions on that. Did vertical integration make sense? I told him that the incentives would be better aligned and hence the manufacturer and supplier could increase the pie. He told me that the supplier market was

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competitive and he could get a better deal in that market rather than being vertically integrated. The discussion went on for sometime. Then he asked me to look at the labor costs and depreciation. We discussed about how new machines would help the company by increasing efficiency and reduce labor costs as well.

Then he asked me to wrap up the case. What do you think

went right for you in this interview What do you think went wrong in this

interview Use of a lot of jargons – Oligopoly, Vertical Integration Any tips for future

batches based on

this experience Do not generally throw ideas. Outcome

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Name of student Supriya Singh Company

interviewed with A T Kearney Name of interviewer

and designation Vikas Round and interview number (First, Second, Third) Round 2 Personal interview questions (with indicative answers if you wish to share them)

CV based question. About the previous 2 interviews. Why Consulting? Some other personal questions which I do not remember. But he was putting a lot of stress and was randomly throwing questions.

Case question

The client is a copper mining company and produces bars - a commodity. The client has been facing a bad patch for the past 5-6 years which has made its net worth 0. It has made a marginal profit now. Develop a turnaround plan for the company.

Case Type

The question seemed very ambiguous to me. But on further clarification he asked me to figure out the reasons for the losses and hence suggest some ideas for improvement.

Narration of the case (please be as descriptive as possible)

I started with a few clarifying questions to know more about the company and the value chain in the industry. The value chain was like copper is first mined, processed and then converted to bars. The client did both mining and processing. The client was a 40 years old government entity. The industry trends for the past 40 years had been positive and the projected growth for the industry was also positive. Then we looked at the

competition. There was no competition in the mining part, but there were 2 large players and few smaller players in the processing part of the value chain. The competition entered the market 4-5 years back and it was since then that the client was facing losses. The competitors were fairly

profitable. We looked at the bar clients. The market for copper bars was free market and the prices were governed by global demand and supply. So the prices were fairly constant across all the companies. The global demand was huge. I asked about the capacity of the client vis-Ă -vis the competition. It came out that the client had a much lower capacity vis-Ă -vis the competitor. So capacity was one of the issues.

I asked him about the regulatory changes and foreign players. He told me the deregulation happened around 5 years back. This impacted the demand for the client’s bars. It was a major reason for the losses. Then he asked me to close the case.

What do you think went right for you in this interview What do you think went wrong in this

interview

Any tips for future batches based on this experience Outcome

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Name of student Supriya Singh Company

interviewed with A T Kearney Name of interviewer

and designation Kaustabh Round and interview number (First, Second, Third) Round 3 Personal interview questions (with indicative answers if you wish to share them)

It was more of a personal round with personal questions and fit rather than case. Why consulting – He asked me not to mention diverse projects and different industries exposure? Tell me about yourself. About the previous 3 interviews. Where do I see myself 10 years down the line? Isn’t consulting very dissatisfying at the end of the day since you do not really do

anything? Some other personal questions which I do not remember.

Case question

It was a short case. He asked me to choose an industry. I told him I am equally good or equally bad at all the industries. But he insisted. I told him retail. Then he made the case. He asked me to imagine that he is Bharti head. Walmart and Bharti want to have a joint venture and enter India. But Bharti seems to have some hiccups. Why is it so?

Case Type

It was about analyzing the business model of Walmart and fitting it in Indian context.

Narration of the case (please be as descriptive as possible)

He explained me the Walmart model with its strengths in procurement, low-prices, cost-advantage, quality, tight supply chain, vendor

management, inventory control, CRM and others. I then drew the business model with Procurement feeding to Walmart and Walmart selling to Customers. Then I took one issue at a time so to figure out the problem with the model. On the procurement side, I asked him about the supplier contacts in India, Scale, Vendor management, competition and others. He said Walmart is sure it will handle that. Then I moved to the customer side. I considered the different issues like Service, Quality, prices, Location and geographical proximity. He told me service, quality and prices are fine. Location would depend on the availability of the real-estate in the cities. There I made the mistake. Actually the Walmart model is that the store is located on the outskirts of the cities and in US consumer behavior is different in the sense that people shop on the weekends and they do not mind traveling for that. But in India people shop everyday and they would hesitate traveling for that and hence Walmart model had a problem fitting to Indian context. Hence consumer behavior and geographical proximity were the keys.

What do you think went right for you in this interview What do you think went wrong in this

interview

Any tips for future batches based on this experience Outcome

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Name of student Vignesh Shankar Company interviewed with A.T.Kearney Name of interviewer and designation

Sarovar Aggarwal, Senior Associate Round and interview number (First, Second,Third) Round 1, First Personal interview questions (with indicative answers if you wish to share them)

The interview started off with questions such as, ‘Why Consulting’, ‘You have some experience in finance, why do you wish to switch to consulting’, etc.

The PI portion was resume-based. I was asked specific questions on points I had mentioned in my resume, for example:

- You’ve mentioned that you were involved in recruitment during your previous job. What were you actually doing?

- You’ve mentioned that you’re undertaking a study (independent study) in Real Estate. Why are you doing this and what are you doing? He followed up my answer to this question by asking some technical questions on how I would value a real estate project. I answered the question using my knowledge of the industry and finance valuation metrics.

Case question I had a market estimation and a full case. Market Estimation

This question was driven by the PI portion, in which I stated that I played tennis. I was asked to estimate the number of tennis courts in Chennai. Full Case

You are the Chief Minister of XX state in India. What will you do to increase state income (GDP)?

Case Type Market Estimation Public Policy Narration of the case (please be as descriptive as possible) Market estimation

I decided to proceed by estimating the population of Chennai,

subsequently the high income population, and subsequently the population within eligible age (say 10 to 30). Thereafter, I stated that we would have to make some assumption regarding the proportion within the eligible age that would actually play tennis and subsequently some assumption regarding the number of courts that would be required in order to ensure that identified population could play tennis for, say 6 hours every week. The interviewer was satisfied with this. He later mentioned that I had missed out tennis courts in educational institutions and clubs. I said that these would be covered to a certain extent in my overall analysis, and he agreed.

Note that I did not arrive at a final number. The interviewer was interested in my approach and logic.

Full Case

I approached the case using the Cobb Douglas Production function (which states that income is a function of productivity, capital input and labour input). The interviewer was quite satisfied with the approach.

I broke down each lever into possible sub-parts. I said that the productivity lever could be thought of as a function of infrastructure, technology, transportation, etc. Labour could be analysed as (1) creating a talent pool (more colleges, schools, etc.) and (2) retaining the talent pool (creating jobs). The capital lever is all about bringing in more money, through

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greater support from the central government, increased state-levied taxes or increased private investment.

The interviewer was quite happy and asked me to focus on productivity and capital. Before delving deeper, I mentioned that it would be tough to think of productivity and capital and two distinct levers, as most

productivity improvements would require capital investment. The

interviewer smiled and agreed. He asked me to mention 2 or 3 big items that I would look to work on under each lever. Under productivity, I mentioned power, transportation and irrigation. Under capital, I mentioned that the state government must create incentives for investment through laws and regulations (for example, certain real estate laws with respect to restriction on built-up area are governed by the state. These could be altered). The interviewer agreed that all this could be done, but how could a private investor decide to invest into a state? I said that the government would probably have to identify growth sectors, or sectors that desperately required funds, and then pitch to investors to invest in the identified sectors. The interviewer also mentioned to me that it was critical for the government to increase its speed of response and not let matters die under red tape. He mentioned that one of the biggest reasons why private investors shy away from large investments is because of government bureaucracy.

We ended the case by discussing how Andhra Pradesh, and specifically ISB, is a good case in example.

What do you think went right for you in this interview

I established a good vibe with the interviewer. I think that this was important, given that it was my first interview.

What do you think went wrong in this interview

I think that I could have handled the market estimation a little better. I should not have missed out educational institutions and clubs. The interviewer was not entirely convinced that my analysis covered them. Any tips for future

batches based on this experience

It is useful to make small talk in between different segments in an interview. It helps the interviewer get a sense of who you are. It might also put the interviewer at ease, by breaking the monotony of doing the same case over and over again with 10 different candidates.

It is very important to be honest about all your resume points. In the real estate question above (in the PI portion), right at the start, I caveated by stating that the study was work-in-progress. I stated very clearly that I still had a fair way to go towards completion of the study, and so I could answer any questions on real estate based on my limited knowledge. The interviewer appreciated this.

Outcome This was the first interview in Round 1. I proceeded on to the second interview.

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Name of student Vignesh Shankar Company interviewed with A.T.Kearney Name of interviewer and designation

Manish Mathur, Principal Round and interview number (First, Second,Third) Round 1, Second Personal interview questions

The interviewer started off by being a little sarcastic about some of the points I had mentioned on my resume. I was asked slightly probing questions on some work experience points and my business plan competition.

Case question Estimate the first year sales for Tata Nano (TN) Case Type Market Estimation

Narration of the case (please be as descriptive as possible)

I stated that TN could capture sales from the two-wheeler segment (i.e., people who are buying two-wheelers merely because existing cars are too costly) and the cheap/small car segment (stealing market share).

I started off with the population of India, segmented it into low-income, mid and higher income. Mid-income would clearly be the relevant segment for us. Within the mid-income segment, we need to understand the existing size of the bike market. We could do this by estimating the number of households within the mid-income segment and assuming a certain number of bikes per household. The interviewer broke me off and asked me to assume that the annual bike sales in India are 50 lakhs. Thereafter, I tried to arrive at an estimate of the annual sales that TN could capture. I fumbled quite a bit here. I started off with a certain percentage that, to me, seemed to make intuitive sense. The interviewer said that I was just pulling numbers out of a hat. How could I corroborate this through other means? He then told me that the existing small car market size was 7 lakhs. I said that we could use this to find out what our estimated market share would be, after eating into bike sales. The interviewer retaliated by stating that that would be as good as just assuming a certain market share directly, making my earlier analysis of population, income groups, etc. redundant. I said that that would not be the case, as we are using projected market share merely to see how aggressive/passive our bike to TN conversion ratio assumption is

.

We went back and forth on the above for a while. We eventually agreed on a certain percentage (I really don’t know how or why). I intended to proceed with estimating sales captured from the existing cheap/small car segment, but the interviewer wished to stop.

What do you think went right for you in this interview

I did not get flustered or defensive at any point, although the PI was slightly unsettling and the market estimation did not go very well. What do you think

went wrong in this interview

Frankly, I did not know how to estimate the conversion ratio from bikes to TN. I’m not sure whether my approach to estimate the case was not the best, or whether the interviewer was just trying to challenge my

assumptions. However, I stuck to my approach and, at all points in the interview, conveyed my logic very clearly. I think that my basic approach and the fact that I was ‘thinking-out-loud’ pulled me through.

Any tips for future batches based on this experience

None apart from the above

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Name of student Vignesh Shankar Company interviewed with A.T.Kearney Name of interviewer and designation

Vikas Kaushal, Vice President Round and interview number (First, Second,Third) Round 2, First Personal interview questions (with indicative answers if you wish to share them)

Right at the start, the interviewer put me at ease by stating that I had done well in my previous interviews. I was asked what my interest in consulting was, why was I looking at consulting, what did I think about Kearney as a firm, how were my interactions with Kearney alumni, etc. I was asked a few questions on some of my extra-curriculars.

Case question The client is an integrated copper mining and smelting company, whose end-product is metal bars. The company has been making losses for the last 5 years. Prepare a turnaround plan.

Additional information – The client has 2 mines and processing plants. One mine and PC together (same location) and the other mine and PC in different locations. The intention here is to make the company profitable on a sustainable basis.

Case Type Profitability, through value chain analysis Narration of the

case (please be as descriptive as possible)

I laid out a structure whereby I would first understand the market

(competition, regulation, our value proposition, market growth – historical and expected) and then understand the company’s income statement in more detail. The interviewer was satisfied with the structure.

I was given the following additional information regarding the market, on specific questions:

- Our client is the only copper mining company in India. Other copper companies in India are only into smelting.

- Our final product is commoditized. Prices are determined by the London Metal Exchange.

- Assume no regulatory constraints

- Our client has no specific value proposition

- Market growth for the last 10-15 years, as well as the expected future growth, is 10% CAGR

I later said that I would like to analyse the company’s profitability by understanding revenue and cost in further detail. The interviewer prodded me to look into the industry value chain. Simply put, the value chain involves (a) basic input, i.e., copper ore (b) smelting (c) consumption. Through follow-up questions, we broke each segment into 2 parts each, along with numbers. Under ‘a’, our client (the sole copper mining

company in India) supplied 30,000 tonnes. There were imports of 610,000 tonnes. Under ‘b’, our client smelted 40,000 tonnes. There were 2 other major competitors in the market who smelted 300,000 tonnes each. Under ‘c’, 400,000 tonnes was consumed domestically, while the rest was

exported. Our client made only domestic sales.

(Note: Here, all information was not given to me directly. I was asked to make certain deductions. For example, I was not told directly that there were copper imports. Based on figures for consumption, I had to deduce that there were imports of 610k tones. I was not told directly that there were exports of 240k tones

.)

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Based on the above information, the interviewer asked me to list out possible hypotheses that could be causing the client profitability problems. I listed out the following:

- Our competitor has higher smelting capacity. Scale economies could be a very significant driver in this industry.

- Imported iron ore might be cheaper than our client’s own domestic mining.

- Export prices could be higher than domestic prices.

What do you think went right for you in this interview

I established a good rapport with the interviewer during the PI stage. During the case, I picked up on all the interviewer’s clues quickly.

At the end of the interview, I was asked whether I had any questions of the interviewer. I had a very cordial chat with the interviewer on the questions I raised.

What do you think went wrong in this interview

Maybe I could have analysed the value chain without the interviewer prompting me to.

Any tips for future batches based on this experience

As you move into subsequent rounds, PI becomes increasingly important.

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Name of student Vignesh Shankar Company interviewed with A.T.Kearney Name of interviewer and designation

Kaustav Mukherjee, Vice President Round and interview number (First, Second,Third) Final Personal interview questions (with indicative answers if you wish to share them)

This was the final interview. There were no cases. Completely PI. In fact, we conducted the interview out on the LRC lawns, next to a make-shift snack bar. We started talking as we were walking.

The interview was quite long, over coffee and accessories. Kaustav asked me questions on what I felt about the firm, the recruitment process, the interviews, did I have any questions to which I had not received satisfactory answers in the past, etc.

Kaustav asked me why I was interested in consulting. How did it tie in with my career plans? What were my career plans? Short-term and long-term goals? In my life, what decisions had I made that were tough and that involved significant trade-offs or choices? What do I feel about the decisions and choices I have made thus far? A little bit about my family, my personal background. Where had I studied? How would I feel about living away from home?

Case question None

Case Type None

Narration of the case (please be as descriptive as possible)

None

What do you think went right for you in this interview

This interview was all about maintaining composure and establishing a bond with a senior person in the firm. I was quite attentive during our chat. I did not force the interview to be a question-and-answer type interview, with pre-prepared questions. I worked off what Kaustav was saying and tried to be as engaging as possible. It is important to keep the final interview as conversational and natural as possible.

What do you think went wrong in this interview

Any tips for future batches based on this experience

None apart from the above.

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References

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