problem into three parts – shifting of passengers from
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Mumbai local, shifting of passengers from other modes of public transport, people shifting from private to public transport. I made reasonable assumptions about the % of passengers that would shift from each segment on the basis of the information I had about the metro routes. Post that there was some calculation involved in estimating the size of each segment as frequency multiplied by capacity (separately for peak and non-peak hours).
The interview ended with a good discussion about my work at Inductis on a financial services project as Amit himself had been working in that domain.
What do you think went
right in this interview? Picked up the hints given by the interviewer – in my first round, after laying down the approach I was going in a different direction. At that point I picked up a hint from the interviewer’s expressions and took a step back to then move in the right direction.
2 of my interviews had lots of calculation involved which I was able to handle extremely well.
What do you think went
wrong in this interview? With a new format and a very unconventional case in the 2nd round it took a little time to adjust and for a while I wasn’t giving the kind of ideas the interviewer was looking for.
Any tips for future batches on the basis of your
experience
Extremely important to stay calm and confident throughout the interview and have a good discussion with the interviewer.
Interview Experience 11
Name: Chinmaya Golecha
Company: The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Name of interviewer and
designation Amit Sachdeva, Principal Round
(First/Second/third) One round
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Brief Profile :
(Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)
Worked at Deutsche Bank Centre as a part of the TMT team in London (11 months)
B.Com (H) from SRCC CA Inter
Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)
Round 1:
15 minutes - Quick chat about the CV, some relevant interest areas around my work-ex and some PoR’s.
25 minutes - Case around Computers/Laptops manufacturer’s service revenue increase.
Round 2: n/a Round 3: n/a Narration of the case
interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)
Case overview:
There is a computers/laptop manufacturer, global leader, with two revenue streams – Primary selling of products
Service revenues from maintenance, repair and replacement parts
Global average split is 75%-25% respectively but India split is 95%-5%
Problem Statement:
To increase revenue stream from services in India Case Approach:
1) Background questions:
Inquired about the supply chain. What services are offered, how they are offered, who offers them.
Discovered that problem area was sale of replacement parts and the services entailed therein
Discovered that the company follows a hub-and-spoke model, ie: one central distributor in the country who gives spare parts to all retail stores (100% franchisee system)
2) Approach:
Decided to approach the problem using the most basic Revenue breakdown = Volume x Price
If we can find why revenue is down either because of Volume or Price than we can find the issue.
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I felt, prima facie, that the problem lay in Price (as my understanding is for a replacement part, I would get
something cheap rather than go the actual store after warranty and overpay). However, I was told that the price offered outside the stores was 20% higher than the in-store price.
The Problem statement thus became: Why are people not buying replacement parts from us even if they are cheaper?
To drill into this, I decided to get into the shoes of a
consumer. The various problems (logical flow, thus MECE) could be:
Do I have access to a store?
Do they have parts?
Do they have good staff (technicians that can help etc)?
Turnaround time?
Other service elements?
I dived into each bucket to find that the problem lay in spare parts after spending considerable time on good staff and access. (I established that distribution/reach was good so people did not find it inconvenient to visit our stores as well as we had skilled help that could effectively and quickly solve consumer problems)
Re-visited the supply chain to figure out where the problem was with spare parts. Discovered that the hub sent them to the stores but still the stores did not have inventory. Spent time analysing the inventory situation using the interviewers help.
Discovered that each store had an individual P/L and were giving the inventory to other people (who were in turn selling it at a 20% markup) and taking a cut!
Recommendations: Establish Inventory issue norms, and ensure random checking of inventory at stores.
What do you think went
right in this interview? Very Interactive – Interviewer was very involved in the case Picked up all the hints dropped – the interviewer lit up when we spoke about black market selling of the replacement parts
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What do you think went
wrong in this interview? Nothing majorly, Missed a couple of things where the interviewer had to prod me along in the right direction
Any tips for future batches on the basis of your
experience
Enjoy the interview! It is actually great fun, and if the
interviewer realises you’re enjoying it, it acts as a huge positive!
Deloitte
Interview Experience 12
Name: Abhinandan Pandey
Company: Deloitte
Name of interviewer and designation
Round
(First/Second/third) 1st Round : HR
2nd Round : Case based
3rd round : Case based + presentation round Brief Profile :
(Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)
Bengal Engineering & Science University, Shibpur Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering Ericsson India Global Services Pvt. Ltd. – 35 months
Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)
Round 1: Questions on hypothesis testing (I had mentioned QAM as my subject of interest)
Why consulting, Why Deloitte, Asked me to sing as I looked nervous in the beginning of the interview, How your analytical skills will help in consulting.
Round 2: It was a case based round. A case was provided which dealt with the sources of revenues and profit and the various advertisement mediums to be reckoned for the
summer Olympics in 2015. It was a calculation intensive case, so it involved simple calculations for which the interviewer gave some time. Went for around 40 minutes
Round 3: The case which was discussed in Round 2 had to be presented to a senior partner. What followed was an in-depth
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discussion on the same case and another case. This round lasted for around 30 minutes.
Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)
Summer Olympics will take place in 2015. Our customers are conducting the event.
What are the major sources of revenues for them?
Major sources of profit?
What are the costs involved?
How will you price the tickets to earn so and so amount of profit?
How will you make a team. How will you prioritize the tasks?
What do you think went
right in this interview? I was confident and bold enough to think on my feet.
The interviewers seemed more interested in how one
approaches a problem. They were complicating the problem as I got deeper into it. The key is to consider all possible
aspects and quickly chose the best possible alternative as a part of the questions which were asked.
Might sound like a cliché, Thinking out Loud helps a lot!
What do you think went
wrong in this interview? I fumbled in 2 instances. There are times when the answers just don’t strike! But keep your calm, keep thinking as there is always a next question and there is always a better way to answer the next question!
Any tips for future batches on the basis of your
experience
Interview Experience 13
Name: Anmol Mahajan
Company: Deloitte US S&O Name of interviewer and
designation Senior Manager
Round
(First/Second/third) 3 Rounds
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Brief Profile :
(Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)
B.Tech in Electronics and Electrical Comm. Engg. from IIT Kharagpur (2010).
Worked for three years as R&D Design Engineer at Analog Devices, Bangalore
Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)
Round 1:
In this round, I was asked some basic HR questions like, Tell me about yourself? Why did you choose consulting as a career? Why Deloitte? Long term goals? Questions regarding my prior work experience and my role and scope in R&D.
Then the interviewer introduced himself and we briefly talked about his role at Deloitte for some time where he answered some of my questions on his career.
He asked me if I had any questions regarding Deloitte as a firm.
I responded with a question to which he gave a detailed response.
No guesstimates or case questions were asked in this round and it primarily focused on HR questions and clarity about my long term goals.
This was an elimination round and some of the candidates were eliminated after this round.
Round 2: Case based round with two Senior Managers