- Case interviews are a key component of
the recruiting process
of large consulting firms
such as MBB.
For many candidates, preparing
the cases is one of the most
time consuming and one of
the most stressful parts
of getting ready for
the interview process.
But do you know how a strong and stellar
case interview performance
actually looks like?
Many people struggle with this.
So today we're going to
jointly look into a video
that was published on the
official channel of the
consulting firm, Bain & Company.
Bain is as you know part of MBB.
It's one of the large leading
consulting firms and they
posted a moderate case interview.
A mock case interview on the webpage
illustrating what they perceive
to be a great performance.
And the idea for this video
actually came from YouTube
because I saw in my analytics
statistics that this is a
video that a large majority
of you guys already watched.
So I thought that why don't
we look into this together?
And I will give you my reaction.
I will give you my perspective.
So welcome to another coffee
break here on my channel
Firm Learning.
My name is Heinrich.
I'm a former McKinsey consultant.
And on this channel I'll try to help you
to become successful in the
first years of your career.
I'm happy to be in the office now.
In the last weeks I spent
several days now in the
mountains doing a little
vacation in (indistinct).
We had an amazing time and I hope now
you see what I did here because
I now use this little video
to say thank you to my first
members, to my first sponsors
of this channel.
So as some of you might
have already noticed,
there's a new button.
If you go next to the subscribe button,
there should be a new join button.
And since a couple of days,
you can support me by becoming
a member of this channel.
Thereby also gain some perks.
So I very much appreciate that.
And thanks again to the first
people now already deciding to
become a member.
This is really helping me
a lot, much appreciated.
But now without further ado,
let's jump into the video.
So here we are.
This is the video mock consulting
interview consultant on
the official Bain &
Company Careers channel.
It has over 500,000 views.
So quite a big and successful
video and the like to dislike
ratio is pretty great as well.
So I'd say let's just check it out.
(upbeat music)
(thumping sound)
- (indistinct)
- Hi.
- Hi, welcome to (indistinct).
- Thank you.
- I'm Emily.
Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you too.
- Okay. Follow me.
- So you can directly see something.
So he was apparently sitting
there alone (indistinct)
waiting for the interviewer.
So while this might be the
case for some of the firms.
I've also seen many processes
where then you would sit
together in a room with other
candidates and then one after
the other or some parader
you get interviewed.
So it's not necessarily the
case that you are sitting there
alone often it's then a larger
assessment day with other
candidates present this way.
- Hey.
So, I propose that we just jump
right into the case and get
started.
How does that feel?
- Yeah, let's do it.
Okie dokie.
So, I'm gonna keep my computer
screen open and there's a
few pieces of data and some
graphs that I might wanna show
you.
But otherwise, I'm ready when you are.
- Yeah I'm ready.
- Great.
Our client is NextGenTech and
they've created a wearable
device called the THEO.
And THEO is essentially a
little computer on your wrist.
It tracks activity.
So it tells you your calories, your steps.
It also can accept text messages
and it's basically a fully
connected device.
The NextGenTech wants THEO
to make $1 billion over the
next two years in the US.
They, brought us in because
they have a bit of a problem.
THEO has WI-FI built in which is great,
but that connectivity is only
available currently when it
has WI-FI.
So, they want to partner with
a cellular carrier to provide
that connectivity.
And they've talked to Verizon
and AT&T, the two biggest
players in the US and
Verizon and AT&T are excited
about the opportunity.
But they have said that they
will only work with NextGenTech
and with THEO if they are
the only two providers.
So, what NextGenTech asked
us to come in and help them
answer is, should they go
with AT&T and Verizon and an
exclusive relationship,
or should they pursue
a partnership with other carriers?
- Great.
So let me summarize the case
for you to make sure I got
all the ....
- Yeah, so here what she did
is now she paused the case and
the way she did it is very typical.
She gives you a description
of a business problem.
And usually what this
interviewers do is that everybody
comes up with his own personal case.
So it's not the case that
they have a library from which
then they pour cases.
But usually, the consulting
interviewers are asked based on
their own consulting experience.
So, based on projects they actually did.
And of course sanitize the
situation and then draft a case
based on that.
And therefore, often many of
them discuss these cases with
the interviewers.
You can assume that the
interviewer has quite extensive
knowledge on the topic and
probably has already spent lots
of days and nights thinking
about the solutions to the
things that are being discussed.
And now of course what this
guy is doing, is your greatest
way because he said,
"Okay, let me summarize".
So let's see what exactly
you're summarizing.
- (indistinct) our client is NextGenTech.
Our client has developed this
wearable device called THEO,
which is like a computer on your wrist.
It tracks your fitness,
calories and attacks from it.
And our goal here is to,
make THEO a one billion
dollar revenue.
Is that correct?
- Yep,revenue.
- And in the US only.
- Yes. We're only talking
about the us right now.
- Okay.
- And here indeed, what you can
see is that he's asking some
clarifying questions.
So what is the scope?
Did I understand the units correctly?
And this is important because
it might happen, that you just
misunderstand something
that somebody says.
And maybe you just apply
something else in it.
And then just by getting
this out of the way,
asking these questions it can
really help you to not get
derailed from the case just
from the very beginning
which will of course be a pity.
- One complication is that,
the device has WI-FI built in
but our client wants it
to work like anywhere
even when the WI-FI is not available.
So they want to partner
with some cellular carriers.
And the options we have
are basically one, AT&T and
Verizon partnering with AT&T and Verizon.
But they demand exclusivity
or falling auto carriers.
- You got it.
- Can I ask one more question?
- Sure.
- Are we planning to sell this
device only through like, the
carriers, the stores?
- Yeah. For now that's
our distribution channel
and it's going to be
through AT&T and Verizon
or other carriers stores.
- Great. Do you mind if I
take some time to organize
my thoughts?
- Go for it.
- Alright.
- And this is now important (indistinct).
So whenever you are faced
with such a question in the
case, almost never does
expected from you that you just,
start talking without any
preparation and so on.
And in most cases, this
is actually negative.
And we reflect on you as
being unstructured, as being
unorganized.
So it's always (indistinct)
worth the time to say,
"Okay, can I just take a moment
to organize my thoughts"?
And then in these kinds of situations,
they always will say yes.
And then just try to come up
with some kind of structure.
So ideally you have a couple
of things in their mind
that you believe should be
evaluated, should be looked into.
Then you organize them into some groups,
very often the numbers three.
So it's often great to then
have three groups of things that
you wanna look into.
And then you can go group
by group and discuss that.
But for that to do that,
it's completely fair to
just take a minute or so
and just structure your
thoughts on a piece of paper.
- So our goal is to make THEO
a, one billion dollar business
in the US in revenue
in the next two years?
- Yeah.
And the options, the question
I have to answer is to,
whether to go with AT&T and
Verizon and sign an exclusivity
contract or, follow other carriers?
- You got it.
- To assess this problem,
I would like to look to
market size of the carriers
to the customer base,
and the retail footprint of the options.
- Okay.
- So under market size, I'd
like to understand since
the carers will be the only logistics,
the footprint that the stores
will be the only way of
selling the product.
I'd like to understand the
number of customers We currently
have for 18 device and the auction.
What is the price we'll
be selling to this client?
- Sure.
And what is the growth expected
between year one and two?
Under customer base, I
would like to understand the
demographics of the customers.
Understand their prices,
sensitivity to assess
the likelihood of the customer
base to purchase our product.
- Makes sense.
- And finally, I'd like to
look at the retail footprint
and see what's the number
of stores we currently have
for the options and what is
the salesforce available?
- Okay.I like that.
- So let's pause here.
And there are two things that
are noteworthy about what he
did here.
So first, I hope you recognize
that what this guy did is an
example of top down communication,
because now instead of
directly going into the nitty
gritty details and looking
into something, what he said is, "Okay,
we need to look into three
aspects, the market size,
the customer base, and then
the third one at dimension."
So he introduces the overall
structure, the key elements.
And then he goes element by
element and breaks it down to
the key sub components of that.
So this way of talking about
it as almost always superior
than just starting with the
first and then kinda of getting
lost in the elements of the
first without anybody really
having understood the full framework.
So, this is an example of
top down communication.
If you want to learn more about
that, check out the video.
I will link it somewhere about here.
It's a video where I talked
about top down communication in
detail.
But there's another second
thing to learn here as well,
because notice how he
used this sheet of paper,
where he collected and organized
his thoughts and used that
as a basis for discussion.
So this is always something
that works really well
not only in interview situations,
but also when you're really
sitting together with clients.
But you just do a basic
sketch, a basic drawing.
Probably the three key elements
you would have on the piece
of paper than the bullets
of the two, three,
four most important sub dimensions.
And if you then show this to
the interviewer and then guide
him through the whole framework,
all of this would become
much more clear to the
interviewer, it will be much more
tangible.
And this will for sure help you.
Of course understand that now
with the current situation
with video cards of course
it might be more difficult.
- When do you wanna start?
- I would like to start by
the market size if that's fine
(indistinct).
- That works for me.
- So, first of all, like to
understand what is the price.
- With AT&T and Verizon our
expectation is that we'll sell
the THEO for four hundred dollars.
And with other carriers, our
expectation is that we would
sell it for five hundred dollars.
- Is there a reason for that?
- Good question?
So, part of what makes AT&T
and Verizon good partners,
is that they would be
willing to throw in a little
bit of money to bring down the cost.
The customers would have to
pay walking out the door with
THEO.
So AT&T and Verizon are
essentially helping to subsidize
that four hundred dollar cost.
- It makes sense.
I want to know the current
number of customers we have.
- Okay. Why do you wanna understand that?
- So (indistinct) the total
market, potential market
and calculate the
penetration rate so i can see
how feasible it is to get to
1 billion revenue for each of
the options.
- So, I have a little
bit of data for you then.
let me share that with you.
- So I have the customer
base for AT&T and Verizon and
other carriers which
includes sprint mobile
US cellular cricket.
It's pretty granular.
So this is for the current customer base?
Right?
- Correct.
Right now.
- Do we have the expected
customer base next year?
- Why do you wanna understand that?
Because our goal is to get to
1 billion revenue in year two
and I'd like to calculate
the penetration rate.
- So we do have some growth rates.
We know the growth rate.
- So let's just briefly stop here.
So what you see is that this
is now the calculation part
of the case.
And indeed almost every
case would have both
a qualitative component and
a quantitative component.
So, the qualitative component
is where you structure
a problem similar to what this
guy did earlier and on the
quantitative component is where
you actually need to do some
calculations.
So, to be ready to do
calculations with pen and paper,
with no calculator.
This is what you're usually
expected to do, to practice
written division, written
multiplication and not only by
rounding it, but really getting
to the very exact number
if this is necessary in some instances.
Because this is what will be
sometimes expected from you in
these case interviews.
- Great for both AT&T and Verizon
as well as for other
carriers is about 20%.
- Let me give this back
to you in case you need
this numbers.
- Okay.
- So what I would do with
the penetration rates
is first of all,
I would estimate the potential
market by multiplying the
number of customers and
in your (indistinct)
which means, I will be able to
calculate them for customers
with plenty percent growth rate.
And divide 1 billion by this
number which is the penetration rate.
- Okay. Does this make sense to you?
- Yeah, I think so.
Why don't you just start sharing
them and we can keep going?
- And again, notice what he did here.
So before now starting
with the calculations,
he told the lady what his
calculation method would be.
So what exactly he is going to calculate.
And this is important for two reasons.
First, if you don't do this and in the end
you just tell the (indistinct)
interviewer a number.
Then of course this
number might be wrong for
all kinds of reasons.
But if the interviewer knows
nothing else about what you're
doing, then he just assumes
that you just got it wrong,
right?
And then you would just lose
on that part of the interview.
But if you already from the very beginning
start explaining the logic of
what you're doing, then first
by that you can already showing
your interviewer that you're
actually doing the right thing.
And if Daniel mess up with
some little mathing in the
process, then may be this
would be something that he can
actually help you with.
And just show you a little
error that you may be did.
And here also the truth is
that usually these interviews,
if you do a minor math error
or something like that,
this would not kick you out, right?
But you need to enable the
interviewer to help you to help
your logic, to help your
calculations to then really get you
back on track again.
Because if you don't do
it, then this might really
completely derail the case.
And then you are stuck and
then you cannot proceed.
- So I have number of
customers for option one,
which is AT&T and Verizon.
And option two which are other carriers.
So the growth rate is 20%.
We get to the number of
customers in year two, which is
24 million for AT&T and Verizon.
And 36 million, just
added 20% to each of that.
- Okay, so you did...
And here also just (indistinct)
just to calibrate yourself
what is expected from you?
What types of calculations
are expected from you?
And indeed, usually you should
always (indistinct) then in
a written form a way do
multiplication through the visions
of this is required, but of
course, whenever possible.
And whenever it makes sense,
if you can just do basic little
calculations in your head,
in your mind, just some
mental math, of course,
that will always be
portrayed as more confident.
You're always portrayed as
a bit quicker in your head,
right?
A bit more smart than if
you just always do a form of
written calculation.
And here indeed, if you have
a calculation something like
30 million times, 1 point 2,
then this is indeed something
where you should be able to
come up with a reside just by
mental math and not by an old
formally writing the calculation out.
- (indistinct)
Now we have the price per device for each
of the scenarios.
And here we had four hundred dollars
(indistinct) to Verizon
and five hundred dollars
for option two.
Right by multiplying these two,
I'll get to that potential total
market size assuming you'll
have like hundred percent penetration.
- Okay. So this is the total Math
not 9.6 billion and one point
1.18 billion for option two.
Since we want one billion
revenue in year two,
I will divide 1 billion by 9.6.
And I'll (indistinct) my final.
So in this case, I will approximate 10%
if that's fine with you.
And here is one billion by
18 again, approximately 5%,
if that's fine.
- That sounds good.
- Yeah.So both....
- So here again, sometimes
it's completely okay.
Just to round the numbers
as he also did it,
but indeed again, as
this candidate also did,
I would always ask your
interview if it's okay just to
proceed with a rounded
number, because sometimes they
also just want to test you and
want to see whether you are
actually able with written
math to solve a more complex
problem to the correct digit.
So don't just assume that
you can round but ask.
And then often, sometimes
you might be okay,
and then you can proceed this way.
- Both penetration rates
seem relatively low.
Of course, option two
seems easier to achieve.
However, since we have more
carriers, it's more granular,
it's harder to probably
standardize any go to market
strategy they have.
- So I would.
- So in a vacuum, 5% seems
better than 10% penetration
but because option two is
the other carriers and that's
really fragmented, that could
be potentially (indistinct)?
- Exactly.
Got it. Okay.
- So going back to my framework,
the next step I'd like to
take is to look at the customer
base and understand who
our customers are.
What they value when acquiring a product
from their carriers.
The way to do that, would
be probably to run a
customer survey.
- We definitely did do customer
survey and I'm excited to
share it with you.
- So I continue that...
- So now I just wanna also
share my observation that this
somehow seems a little bit
to staged the soul interview,
right? Because always whenever
he is saying something,
then just suddenly she
exactly had the data prepared.
So this seems a bit too staged.
So most interviews, this is not
how you can really expect it
to go because very rarely the
candidate will always give the
exact pointers that then lead to the data
that the interviewer has prepared.
So more frequently than
not, it will be also
the interviewer who probably
guides you a bit more through
the different steps.
And then we'll be able to
also provide to them some data
proactively whenever he
feels it's necessarily now to
move to the next step.
And then he wants to share your
perspective on that as well.
- This tells us what is the most important
selection criteria for AT&T and Verizon
and the other carriers.
So I'm assuming this numbers
here are like a sample size or
which means the number of
customers interviewed in the
survey.
- You're right.
- Great.(indistinct) Verizon.
The two most important selection
criteria is our reliability
of the network and customer service.
So I'm assuming AT&T and
Verizon provide a better network
and a better customer service.
On the other hand, the
other carriers are very
concerned about price.
They're very price sensitive,
which tells me that since our
product is like a new product
and we're looking for early adopters,
early adopters are probably
not very price sensitive.
So, it seems like AT&T and
Verizon customers have a better
fit for our product.
- Okay. That makes sense to me.
- So here are also ,very closely
listen to what he said and
What he did, right?
And just first of all, I'd
like you to notice that this
is also typical component of
a case interview (indistinct)
that you are getting a chart.
Just some data on a chart,
but then you are supposed
to look at.
And here, the main thing
that is expected from you
and you need to recognize
this, is that they want you to
look at the chart and to draw
some conclusions from the
things that you see.
So first of all, look at
it and try to ask yourself,
What do I learn from this
relative to the overall case
question?
And specifically what
you should not do is just
describing what you see, right?
So this is not about just talking
about what the numbers are
and what you see, but in the
end the question is always,
What is the implication?
What is the famous so what?
What is the soul what that
we get from the chart?
What do we learn for our project,
for the case that we want to answer?
So make sure that in the end
always you're able then also to
draw this implication,
to draw this conclusion
and present that as a finding.
Do not just repeat what is
seen there on the chart.
- So, do you feel like you
have enough information?
- Yep. Since the the distribution
channels we're talking
about are the carers stores.
I'd to understand like
take a look at the retail
footprint available and see
what's the number of stores of
stores each of the options have.
How good is the Salesforce?
And do you have any data on that?
- I do in fact. Here we go.
- Of course she has data
on that. Come on guys.
- So he would have the
number of stores in the US
and outside of the us.
Focusing first on the
US I can see that AT&T
and and Verizon combined
have 4,000 stores.
And all the other carriers
combined have only 3000 stores.
So we talking about for option
one AT&T and Verizon who had
33% more stores.
And outside of the US that's not true.
However, since our goal
is either next two years
at least is to focus only in
the US, I don't think it's a
problem.
Right now.
- Seems fair.
- Yes. So again AT&T and
Verizon they a better fit for
(indistinct).
- Okay. So we have a meeting
with the CEO tomorrow,
and she asks us to come in
and let her know what we've
learned so far,
what our recommendation is
based on what we've learned,
any risks that we perceive,
and if we have any next steps.
- Great. Do you mind if
it takes some seconds?
- So guys, I hope that you
recognize now that this is the
very same example that I talked
about a couple of weeks ago
in my video of top down communication.
So this is not really this
practice example that you see all
the time in consultant, namely,
a CEO or a partner walking
into a room and asking you,
"Okay, what is the status?"
"What is going on?"
This is exactly now what the
candidate here is supposed to
prepare.
And this is indeed a typical
question in the end of a case
interview that you are asked
to summarize your results,
your findings, to a senior guy
who just happens to walk in.
In here now, this guy apparently
still gets a couple of
minutes or a couple of seconds
to organize his thoughts.
Often also in this interview situations,
the interviewer will
say, "no, no, no, no,"
the guy's standing there
right in front of you. Right?
You gotta take notes now,
you need to answer right away
just to put you on a bit
of pressure and just see
what your instincts are,
how are you going to answer?
And now this is the very moment
where you need to show that,
you know what top down
communication is that you got that
right?
So let's see what this guy's doing now.
- So my final recommendation
would be to go with AT&NT
Verizon option one.
And the reason for that is
that, the penetration rates seem
very reasonable for both options.
Private, the customer base for
AT&T and Verizon customers,
simple, a better fit to our
product because the customers
are less price sensitive
and are more likely
to be early adopters of this device.
The, main submission channel
be the carriers stores.
AT&T and Verizon they have more
stores like 32% more stores.
And since this device, I feel
like customers would need to
like try it on and make
sure it fit and look well.
It's a good reason to have it.
It's good to have more stores.
- Yeah.
- Next steps are first of all,
follow up on the risks and
assess them and finally get the
law team to write the contract
and get the best terms
possible for us.
- Great.
You're done. Good job.
- So here what indeed the guy
did is to follow the top down
communication framework, right?
So, to start with the reside
and then tear the main reasons.
Here I believe that the
second part felt a bit too
unstructured, a bit too random.
I think what would have helped
to make it even more punchy
is to say, "okay, this
is our recommendation."
And not to get to the
recommendation, we looked into three
things, market penetration,
customer base and a(indistinct).
And then for the market
presentation, this is what we
learned.
And then I also liked how
in the then ended with the
next steps. Okay.
What are all the next things
that we want to look into
now to further solidify
this findings or overall,
this is the top down
communication framework.
So check out this one video
did a couple of weeks ago
(indistinct) to learn more about it.
- So, next steps on our side
is that we will let you know if
you make it through to the
next round and you should get a
call from us.
Thanks for being excited about Bain.
And thanks for coming in
and doing a case with me.
- Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
- It's really good to meet you.
- I hope this was helpful.
And as always, if you have any questions,
feel free to leave me a comment
below in the comment section
and I will do my very best to
answer every single comment.
If you took any value
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Thank you guys.
Looking forward to seeing
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This is highly from Firm
Learning and bye bye.
