case-interviews on S Anand

Demand draft fees

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 12:00:00 +0000

Once, we were looking at whether banks made money on demand drafts (DDs).

DDs are costly. 90% of a bank’s costs are people-related, and it takes a fair bit of time (hence people) to process DDs. If you pay for DDs in cash, it costs even more because the teller has to count the notes.

To recover this cost, banks charge a fee. The fee increases with the size of the DD. A DD for Rs 10,000 may cost Rs 50, while one for Rs 100,000 may cost Rs 200.

But apart from the fee, banks also earn float on the DD. Let’s say you go to a bank, pay Rs 100,000, and take a DD. You mail the DD to someone, who cashes the DD three days later. The bank has your Rs 100,000 for 3 days, and earns the overnight interest rate at around 5%, netting Rs 41 in the process. This float is significant for large DDs.

Our client bank was making a small loss on DDs. Every DD less than Rs 50,000 caused a loss (even after including float). And 3 out of every DDs was smaller than Rs 50,000.

Then we had this bright idea: let’s lower fee for large DDs, attract of them, and get more float income. DDs above Rs 50,000 are profitable. So big DDs are worth going after. 80% of the float income comes from the top 22% of DDs. So surely, the big DDs are worth going after. Float income increases forever, whereas fee income is capped. So big DDs could absolutely be terrific.

We were thrilled. Here was a revolutionary counter-intuitive idea: have lower charges for DDs to get more money. We kept talking about it to our client. But at the end, we didn’t suggest it. It got left behind the conventional idea of increasing the fee for small DDs.

We were a bit disappointed, and kept cursing the conservatism of public sector banks. Goes to show how the bright young consultants can be naive. For, as it later turned out, the bulk of DD revenues is really fee income (88%), not float income. Had we lowered the fee income, there’s would’ve been no chance for the float income to make up for it.

Why did we miss that? A couple of reasons. The simple one was, though the float income increases forever, doesn’t beat fee income until the DD is about Rs 2 crores. DDs typically stay with you for a few days, and you can’t earn much interest on that.

The other reason was subtler. We had assumed that the float income for a DD of Rs 100,000 is 100 times that of the DD income for Rs 1,000. But the float income does not increase linearly! Someone who gets a DD for Rs 1,000 doesn’t mind waiting a bit to present it, but someone who gets a DD for a lakh would walk to the bank the very same day. The chart below shows how long customers wait to cash DDs. The X-axis is the size of the DD. The Y-axis is the number of days they wait. It shows a clear diminishing trend.

Lesson: Conservative bankers might make more money not listening to hotshot consultants.

Comments

Shreyas 27 Mar 2006 10:22 am: Very insightful case study! But did increasing the fees for smaller DDs help boost the profits? Did it not reduce the number of customers taking DDs?
S Anand 27 Mar 2006 12:08 pm: We didn’t measure that. But even if it reduced the number of customers it would have (in the long run) increased profits, since they were losing money on every small DD sold! They would be able to shift someone from the DD section elsewhere, and avoid having to recruit a new person.
ronnie 21 Mar 2006 12:00 pm: Hello i like to join and i wish to be a member of demand draft so mail me pls
Walter Atkinson 21 Mar 2006 12:00 pm: I was looking to this information and was helpful…ok Best Regards Walter http://www.surveynew.com Premier Paid Survey Company.
ritu raj 17 Nov 2008 7:32 am: what doc need to be presented to the bank for the dd of 375000 to be paid in cash?
uss 8 Jul 2011 6:42 pm: but there is no dd charges for current account in private bank.ll it cost loss to the bank
Vignesh 23 Oct 2012 9:22 am: Beautifully written. I liked your articulation.
pradeep kumar 16 Jun 2015 3:29 am: This article is very nice and informative. Came here while searching for something related and found it very informative. Thank you very much.
Donga Satyanarayana 28 Feb 2017 8:20 am: Some private banks are fee DD charges allowed with simple amount deposit. But our Bank is world wise national Bank . This Bank is some lakhs of crores rotining services. Better to allow free DD charges atleast a limited amount. Thanking you

Case interview frameworks

Thu, 01 Mar 2001 12:00:00 +0000

Structuring a case

Most importantly, smile, be confident, and relax.

After the interviewer has explained the case, I like beginning with “Could you tell me something more about…” First, it buys time to think about the situation. Second, you get to find out more. More often than not, the case description alone is completely inadequate to make a stab at the case.

I follow this up with the objective: what am I supposed to do in the case? Sometimes, we need to ask. Sometimes, we need to state and clarify. Either way, I prefer to determine the objective upfront. I would also clarify the role of the interviewee and the interviewer. Is the interviewer acting as the client and the interviewee as the consultant, for example?

Then I describe the structure that I’m likely to follow. Some people think its better to develop a structure as you go along. I think its better to state a structure, and deviate from it if needed. That way, the interviewer has an idea what you’re doing. Remember: half the problem is to making your thinking understandable to the interviewer.

Then I analyse the case based on the structure, come up with possible hypotheses, and test each of them. Finally, I list options based on the hypotheses, and their implications.

I prefer thinking in terms of patterns rather than frameworks. A pattern is nothing but a small framework that’s easy to remember, and can be used for a single small specific purpose. Such patterns are often seen everywhere, and can be put together to form frameworks. I am documenting some of the recurrant patterns that I have seen while solving cases, and a few frameworks that I use.

Framework: Decision making

Broadly, for any decision, I use the following framework.

Find out the reason behind the decision.
- The reason could be strategic.
- The reason could be project feasibility:
  - The market attractiveness could lure us, through
    - its demand pattern
    - or supply pattern
  - but competition needs to be considered
    - on the basis of industry forces
    - and competitive advantage
  - along with risk.
Find out the cost of the decision:
- in terms of new resource allocation, and
- existing resources to be reallocated.
Determine if it is worth it. This is subjective.
Figure out how to list options based on the decision:
- using timing
- and mode (4Ps, OLI).

Pattern: Strategic reasons

Objective: Determine strategic reasons for a decision.

The following are specific strategic reasons for making a decision.

Externalities. By making the decision, the overall company will improve, although the project itself may not yield positive benefits.
- Overall cost reduction. Opening a factory that is unprofitable can still lead to economies of scale yielding an overall profit.
- Cross selling or bundling. For example, Gillette subsidizes shaving sticks, so that they become a vehicle to sell the profitable blades.
- Learning: Learning can be about the market, operations, management, research, or any part of the business. Eg: Xerox learnt operations from its Fuji Xerox venture.
Pre-emption – either competition or the market. Do it before someone else does, or asks. For example,
- Filling a gap in the market, so that the competition cannot enter.
- Creating options. For example, brand building to unleash latent demand
Reaction. Someone else is doing it, and we have to do react. For example,
- Competitive: If Pepsi offers an orange soda, Coke will have to offer one of its own.
- Complementary: If Microsoft develops software that runs multimedia slowly, Intel responds by speeding up the multimedia component of its chip.
Unusual reasons:
- A one-time opportunity is available. Eg: A country is deregulating, and issuing licenses. Or, the industry is in a slump and acquisition is easy.
- Constraints. The company may not have a choice. Eg: contracts. Dhabhol has no choice about paying Enron.
- Temporary reasons (a dip in the existing markets etc. - if it is only temporary less resources need to be invested.)

Industry forces

Objective: Determine if industry is attractive.

Porter proposed that the success of the company is determined by the structure of the industry. The 5-forces framework helps us analyse the industry structure. When it comes to design in order to fuel the branding of your company, you can rely on professionals such as Func.media.

Another theory is that the success of the company is determined by a company’s unique resources and capabilities.

Yet another theory is that it depends on the parent or holding company.

Studies (including Porter’s) have shown that the industry determines 20-25% of the company’s success. The resources & capabilities determine 30-35%, the parent company determines 2% or so, and the rest is unexplained.

Competitive Advantage

Objective: Determine if company will do well in industry.

For more details on this, refer Chapter 8 of Hill & Jones.

Competitive advantage stems from the common elements of the key industry success factors and the distinctive (i.e. unique to the company) resources and competencies of a company. There are four places to look for such competitive advantages:

Innovation
Responsiveness
Quality
Efficiency

Pattern: Context

Objective: Identify and subjectively evaluate risks. Think of recommendations.

For evaluating the environment, context, or risk, I use the PLEST framework: Political, Legal, Economic, Social, and Technical. These are environmental isses that can determine the success of a company. When evaluating a specific country, the following need to be looked at:

Political risk includes political stability, corruption, shifting borders (a city in one country could move to another tomorrow).
Legal risk: How strong is the judicial system? Property rights? Is intellectual theft punished? What are the contractual problems?
Economic risk includes a currency stability, fiscal discipline, repatriation, taxation, restrictions on FDI.
Social risk includes the country’s culture and management practices.
Technological risk of obsolesence of product or resources.

Pattern: 4Ps

Objective: Determine marketing strategy.

Very little to say here. Just a note on how to price and distribute globally:

Pricing: can be uniform across markets, cost-plus, or based on affordability or competition.
Channels: consider the role of an international marketing headquarters, which channels will be used between nations, and which channels within a nation.

Pattern: OLI

Objective: Determine nature of venture.

Please refer any text on the Ownership - Location - Internalisation framework.

Pattern: Manufacturing

Objective: Determine where value can be created through manufacturing

Value can usually be squeezed from one of these areas. Problems are also typically in one of these.

Which product: Segment the company
Factors of production
- Plant (equipment, capacity): Is it old? Is is small? Is it large?
- People: Are they old? Are they few or excessive? Do they have the skills?
- Process: What is the process? Can the existing processed be corrected or improved?
- Product design: Is the product designed for manufacturing? Can design be changed?
- Parts: Are your raw materials fine? Is your inventory rising? Is there too much scrap?
- Planning and Control: Are you monitoring the right things? Is forecasting good?
Supply and Value Chain
- Supplier
- Product development
- Procurement
- Production
- Demand Management
- Logistics and Distribution
- After sales service

Pattern: IT

Objective: Determine where value can be created through IT

When somebody says ’e-commerce’ don’t believe them. They’re usually talking about IT. IT can be applied to each of the functional areas: marketing, manufacturing, finance, human resources, and overall strategy. Its benefits arise through:

Increase in reach
Lowered cost
Reduction in time
Increased scope of communication and feedback
Improved standardization

Pattern: Profitability

For profitability decline cases, I segment the income statement along various dimension. At the end of it, the problem is usually obvious.

Segment the company
Segment the revenue
Segment the costs
Look at accounting issues
Figure out why the problem is arising in that segment.

Pattern: Segment the company

Objective: Determine which ‘division’ of the company has a problem.

Business. A diversified company may have many business divisions. Eg: A restaurant business may have a catering service, a delivery business for the restaurant, and the main restaurant. The product is the same, but the mode of delivery is different for each business.
Product line. Eg: The restaurant may be serving Indian, Chinese and European food. Each product may have different profitabilities.
Location. Eg: The restaurant business may be doing well in Chennai and Bangalore, but not in Mumbai and Pune. It may be doing well in urban areas, but not in rural. It may be doing well when located on the main roads, but not on small lanes.
New: Is there any new business line, product or location?

Pattern: Segment the revenue

Objective: Determine which component of revenue has a problem.

Type: One-time, fixed or variable. Eg: A mobile phone company charges a one-time deposit (non-refundable), and a fixed monthly charge, plus an amount per call. The one-time revenue is earned only for new customers. Fixed is earned for existing customers irrespective of usage. Variable is proportional to usage. The percentage break-up of these revenues can lead to insights.
Customer: 20% of the customers bring in 80% of the revenues. Focus on them. Segment the market, and look at the different kinds of customers and their revenues.
New: Is there any new revenue source? Or a vanished revenue source?

Pattern: Segment the cost

Objective: Determine which component of cost has a problem.

Source
- Equipment: could be old, etc.
- Scale: could be too small or large
- Labour: could be unskilled, etc.
- Location: could be unsuitable
- Laws and regulation: could be unfavourable
Type: One-time, fixed or variable. Eg: A manufacturing company sets up a plant (one-time cost) and keeps it running (fixed cost), producing output using raw materials (variable).
Component
- Raw materials
- Labour
- Inventory
- Transportation
- Selling & Administration
- Tax
New: Is there any new cost? Or a vanished cost?

Comments

Sri Lankan 10 Mar 2007 10:25 am: really useful. thanks a lot
Edwardo 12 Jan 2011 11:29 am: I have some case interviews coming up with four leading consulting firms (including MBB) over the next two months. So far my friends have adviced me to study:
- Victor Cheng’s website (ex-mckinsey), who gives a lot of free videos and frameworks to study (www.caseinterview.com)
- Case in Point by mark consentino (amazon)
- case interview Success by tom rochtus (www.aceyourcase.com)
- Solving the World’s Problems on the Back of a Cocktail Napkin by lawrence weinstein (amazon) Any feedback on these sources? Any additional things you guys would have a look at? thanks in advance! edwardo

Boston Consulting Group Interview

Sat, 25 Nov 2000 12:00:00 +0000

First Round

On Saturday (25th November 2000), I dress up in my best suit (only suit, really), and find my way to the Green Park station for an interview with the Boston Consulting Group. Of course, being terribly conservative, I arrived an hour early, so it was time to walk around Green Park and have a look at the Buckingham Palace, while singing “I have confidence…” from Sound of Music. The walk did lift my spirits a bit. There was this tiny poodle that was busy licking a bulldog. The bulldog didn’t seem to mind, though it was large enough to eat up the poodle. Then the poodle’s owners picked it up, and walked away. The poodle was reluctant though. It just hadn’t finished licking the bulldog. After about 5 minutes, the bulldog (and owner), were about half-a-kilometer away, when the poodle was finally let down. Being the determined creature that it was, it ran ALL the way to the bulldog, and proceeded to lick. The bulldog, right through, was wearing a puzzled expression on its face, as if to say, “Are you sure you don’t want me to smack this little white fluff?”

At 10:15AM, I walked in to the BCG reception, and was led to the cafeteria. I was only carrying an umbrella (which I left at the reception), and some sheets of paper. There were to be 2 case interviews, each for 45 minutes. I was told that I’d be interviewed by Danai and Kim Wee. Danai (who’s from Bangkok) came along, and took me to a conference room. The interview begins.

Danai: “Hi Anand. Let me tell you a bit about how this interview is structured. We’ll begin by discussing your resume a bit. Then we’ll move on to a case, and finally, you can ask me any questions that you want. The reason we do a case interview is to test the candidate on 3 things: their enthusiasm for problem solving, their analytical skills, and communication ability. Let me begin by introducing myself. (Introduces himself in detail). Could you tell me a bit about yourself?”

Me: “Uh, sure. I studied at IITM. Nice place. Then I worked at IBM. Nice place too. Then I went to IIMB. Yet another nice place. Now I’m at LBS. Pretty nice. Uh…” At this point, I completely ran out of things to say. I mean, I’d been training for this and all that. But at the point, your mind just goes blank. So I said, “My hobbies include…” – and couldn’t think of a single hobby. My resume lists several, but the first thing that came to my mind was one that was NOT on it: “Acting.”

Danai latches on to this. “Wow, that’s interesting. So what would you like to be? Director? Actor?”

“Oh, acting itself. Writing the script too. One of my dreams is to be a film hero. " I actually said that. It had gotten to the point where I was desperate and willing to blabber anything to recover. “I like it because it involves a lot of communication and I’m good at communication.”

Danai neatly caught on. “Yeah, there’s a lot of communicating that you’ll have to do in consulting as well. Good. Tell me about (some point on my resume).” Then we discussed my resume a bit. Then we got to the case interview. Right through, Danai was taking notes on what I was saying – in fact, he wrote nearly 3-4 pages of what I said, as opposed to me who scribbled in half a sheet.

“I’m going to give you a cement company case, because I’ve worked in the cement industry.” Fine by me. “Our client is a global cement manufacturer, who operates in North America, Europe and Latin America. They buy some of their cement from other companies, and produce the rest. They are evaluating entry into Asia. Could you help them?”

Me: First, I’d like to know more about the company. Why are they buying cement from others?

Danai: They’re not all that good at manufacturing. I mean, they’re pretty good, but nothing extraordinary. Their main strength lies in marketing and logistics. They only have 50% of the capacity of their sales.

Me: OK. Why do they want to expand to Asia?

Danai: Why do you think?

Me: Several possibilities. Maybe they want growth, which they don’t have right now. Maybe there’s a one-off opportunity in Asia right now. Maybe there’s tremendous growth in Asia and they don’t want to miss out on it.

Danai: What could a one-off opportunity be, for example?

Me: Deregulation is a classic. Another is just a first mover advantage. Hmm… that’s all I can think of.

Danai: You’re quite right about all three. Their growth is slow. There is a window of opportunity in terms of regulation, and the company believes there is lot of potential in Asia. Let us take Thailand as a representative market and work on it, because I have worked there, and can give you answers to your questions. How should our client enter the Thailand market?

Me: Well, this is what I’m going to look at: the market in Thailand, the competitors in Thailand, the resources of the company (people, money and machines), and the regulatory environment (repatriation, licenses, etc). What can you tell me about these?

Danai: Let us assume that the company has the requisite resources, though that is a good point. The regulatory environment is also friendly and the clearances are easy. The market is dominated by 3 groups of buyers – government contractors (40% revenue), private contractors (30%) revenue, and a network of retail shops. There are a few large players in the market, the top 3 taking up 70% of the market.

Me: What are the parameters on the basis of which customers base their decision to buy?

Danai: It’s as follows (in decreasing order of preference)

Government contractors: Price, reliability of supply, relationship

Private contractors: Price, reliability of supply, brand name

Retailers: Brand name, reliability of supply, price

Me: OK, looks like price and reliability are pretty important. What is the competition like? Is it stiff? Are there price wars?

Danai: What causes price wars?

Me: Well… is there excess inventory?

Danai: Precisely. There’s a lot of excess inventory, and that has resulted in a price war.

Me: Are these companies inefficient?

Danai: In manufacturing? No. The whole world is pretty much the same in terms of efficiency. They are not that good in marketing and logistics though. But this constitutes only 10% of the costs.

Me: Right. The way it looks now, it seems crazy to enter a market that’s got high inventory and price wars. I mean, even if you cut the logistics cost by 50%, it’s still just a 5% reduction in a market that goes by price. No way. Looks very unattractive. But let’s not dismiss it. How about a joint venture?

Danai: Why would a company do a JV?

Me: We’ve got the marketing power. We’ve got the logistics capability. We can partner. We should just pick a company that’s going almost bankrupt, and tell them to sign up.

Danai: Would that suffice? What would they want from us?

Me: Well… access to international markets, I guess. So we can ship the excess inventory to neighbouring countries using our superior logistics.

Danai: Good. How would you go about such an exercise?

Me: (I explain how to pick a company, how to negotiate the contract, and so on.)

Danai: Fine. Do you have any questions for me?

Me: I want to teach part time. Can I do that? (Yes). Is it true that consultants are only rubber stamps of the CEOs? (No. Otherwise, we would’ve lost our reputation.) What does your day look like? (Go to office, have meetings with clients, have meetings with team, solve problems, travel a lot).

By then, it was time to meet Kim Wee, who was in the next room. The previous night I’d run through their website, and had found out a bit about Kim Wee, which I remembered. That kind of gave me some confidence, and I thought of a nice opening line like, “You look much better than in your photograph” or something like that. But when she started off, I realized I had no chance of getting a word in.

She began with, “Hello Anand. Nice to meet you. This will be the same format as Danai’s interview. I’ll quiz you on you resume, then we’ll do a case. Then you can ask me questions. Can you tell me about your experience at Lehman Brothers?”

This entire speech took 3 seconds or so. At least, that’s what it seemed like. Completely expressionless, and ununderstandably fast. My response was very coherent, though.

“Sorry?” (This was my most frequent phrase through the interview, followed by, “Huh?”)

“Can you tell me about your experience at Lehman Brothers?”

The meaning was obvious. So I said, “I never had a choice. The tyrannical placement rules at IIMB don’t give me any choice at all. So I was tied in chains and forcibly shipped to Tokyo for slave labour. I didn’t eat or sleep. Of course, I like that sort of a thing – even if you slave-drive me, I’ll be happy. But I want to have an influence on the world, and make it a better place to live in, which I can’t do from a bank. So I’ve decided to be the knight in shining armour (OK, consultant), and…”

She cuts me off with a monotonous, but quickfire, “What’ll you do in the future?”

Me: I’ll become a freelance consultant.

Kim: Why?

Me: That way, I can say no to a client if I want to, and still solve problems, which is what I like doing. Besides, there’s a visiting Prof at IIMB who’s doing that, and I’m kind-of using him as a …

Kim: What challenges will you face as a consultant?

Me: Huh?

Kim: What challenges will you face as a consultant?

Me: (a few ‘huh’s later) I hate telling CEOs what they want to hear. If they’ve made up their mind, I’ll tell them to shove it and walk away. In fact, I …

Kim: What is your most memorable accomplishment?

I was lost again. My prepared answer was the IBM India home page. But NOTHING came to my mind. After a few blank seconds, I figured I had to say something. So I said, “I shared reports at IIMB.” She stared, and I figured I had to elaborate. “I wrote great and wonderful reports. The Gods praised them, and ordered me to be fruitful and share. So I did. Then everybody started sharing.” (I was completely out of my senses by this time) “So now, there is a HUGE library of reports at IIMB. It’s going to be extended to all IIMs. Maybe all universities in the world. And it’s ALL my work. I’m terribly proud of it, etc. etc.” (OK, I didn’t say all that, but I came close.)

Kim, for the first time, not interrupting, and speaking relatively slowly, “There was a problem at NTU with this. The professors stole the reports and passed them as their own.”

Brilliant. All I could come up with was, “Thanks for pointing that out. I hadn’t considered that. I’ll let the students at IIMB know of this danger.”

Then we moved on to the case. “Our client is a food processor. One of their products is Cool Wave (or something like that). It’s a non-dessert cream topping, with 40% of the market share. They have excess capacity. Though the industry is growing at 6%, the sales of Cool Wave is flat. You have to find out why and give recommendations. Then you have to move on to other products.”

The interview went on for a gruelling half-hour. I can recall the details, but it’s too painful for that. Most of the time, I kept asking questions to which the answer was, “We don’t have that information right now. Maybe it could be this. Maybe it could be that.” Then we’d agree on something. After 5 minutes, I’d say something, and she’d come back with, “But how can you say that?”

“Because we agreed on this 5 minutes ago.”

“Well, we don’t have that information. Maybe it could be this. Maybe it could be that.”

Wonderful!

Finally, I did manage to piece together that the dominant competitors were pricing 15% lower, and the rest (fragmented) were pricing it 30% lower. The lower-income group was now able to afford the product. So the market was growing at the bottom, and since Cool Wave was a premium brand, they couldn’t capture that market share.

Me: One possibility is to reduce the price of Cool Wave. But that’s a bad idea (I give reasons). Another is to introduce another brand at the low end.

Kim: Anything else?

Me: (Struggle for 2 minutes. Then…) No idea.

Kim: Well, they could just sell the capacity to Wal-Mart or somebody, who could make their own-brand of the topping and sell it at the low-end.

Then I caught on to this idea, and began giving recommendations on how to do it and stuff like that. I was into my conclusion, “So they should ensure that the contract with Walmart does not appear hostile to their other retail customers…”

Kim: OK. Case is over. Do you have any questions for me?

Me: Sorry? The case is over?

Kim: Yes. Any questions?

Me: About the case?

Kim: No. Case is over. Any questions?

Me: (After about 10 seconds) Yeah. What is work like at BCG?

I don’t remember the answers. I don’t think I even heard them. They were too fast for me. Anyway, she ran me out of the building, and, as I picked up my umbrella from the reception, said that she’d let me know by Sunday evening if I got through.

I made my way to LBS, wondering if my chances were even 50-50.

Second Round

Anyway, I got through to the second round, to be interviewed by Marcus and Joon. Marcus asked me, quite casually, “This isn’t a case, really. It’s something I’ve been asking a lot of people and haven’t found a satisfactory answer to. Why is it that hotels charge you when you book a room and don’t turn up, but rental car companies don’t charge you if you book a car and don’t turn up?”

To cut a long story short, I really thought Marcus (who was a VP) was just casually interacting. So I just had a casual conversation with him, exploring some possibilites. I wasn’t getting anywhere, but I didn’t worry. I thought the point was to test how cool I was under uncertainty. Turned out to be a complete mistake. Anyway, after half an hour of pleasant conversation, Joon came over.

Joon said, “There’s an airline company that ships freight. It has passenger planes as well as freight planes, and uses both to ship. They have been losing money recently. Why do you think this is so?”

This proved as straight-forward case, and was over in 15 minutes or so. In fact, Joon volunteered most of the information himself. I was so thrilled that I left my umbrella in the office and walked off in the rain.

A couple of days later, Joon calls up from Kuala Lampur. “Hello Anand, this is Joon from BCG.”

My heart starts thumping. Is it a yes? Is it a no?

“We were very happy with your resume and your qualifications. However, we are very sorry to say that we are unable to take your application forward at this point.”

It’s a long distance phone call, so he had to pause for my response. Which was something like “(croak) Of course.”

“We are extremely sorry, but hope you had a good experience through the interviews.”

“(cough) Of course.” I was brain-dead by the time anyway.

“Would you like some feedback about your performance?”

“(glug) Yes, of course.”

“We felt that you did not have the analytical skills. When Marcus and I discussed, we felt that your interview did not have enough structure.”

By this time, I’d found my voice, so I managed to mutter something like, “Thank you very much, Mr. Ooi, I’m sure the feedback will be very useful. It was a pleasure interviewing with you. Bye.”

So there it is. Lack of structure. I’ve been told that before, of course. Got to work on it…

Comments

Sai 13 Nov 2006 7:46 pm: Anand, i commend you that you remember everthing that happened, especially the first interview. But i thought that you worked at BCG, so how come i see here that you did not get through?
EE 7 Dec 2006 6:58 pm: That was a very interesting story. I had a similar experience with McKinsey in one of their US offices recently - ding in the final round. I don’t have any business education though - Btech EE from IIT-B and now close the end of a PhD in ECE. I would love to talk to you about how to improve the “structure” - because that is one of the reasons why McKinsey did not like me in the end. If you are willing, please reply to this note.
Ap 2 Jan 2007 4:28 pm: Anand, Thanks for recounting your experiences interviewing with BCG. As someone who is interviewing with them for the first time - I would really appreciate any pointers on improving structure - I didn’t make some comparable firms because of this issue.
saurabh 29 Mar 2007 12:31 pm: This was motivating for me. The vagueness of selectors has always caused me a lot of pain. You bring it out quite succinctly and sardonically.
swethaN 25 Nov 2000 12:00 pm: Really interesting one.
Kaviraj Nair 25 Nov 2000 12:00 pm: Anand!! long time man…..i chanced on your website as I was searching for Viriboni varnam in google…(I am learning that in my class now!!)…..it took me to ur Carnatic page and I was thrilled to see your website flourishing with newer branches around!!……..and then browsed the site to read this write-up……..very hilarious……..!! anyways, how have u been? Best Kaviraj NAir
T.C.Srinivasan 14 Aug 2008 4:20 pm: thank you for giving insight of what consultant expects in a interview
Kyrylo 10 Nov 2008 9:26 am: Hi guys,

Occasionally, I ran on this post. First of all, thank you for the experience you shared!

You know, I want to submit my CV to BCG and even before having the interview I imagine the answer “lack of structure”. Thus, if you guys know how to work on this issue I would really appreciate your help.
ta23 5 Mar 2009 9:39 pm: Hi guys! I would like to recommend you to read some Plato’s stuff (philosophy). When you read his works, you will find that his statements (actually by Socrates) are not only brilliant as far as content is concerned, but you will discover that he structures them perfectly, utterly comprehensible and easy to pass to others (even though they are very complex matters).
- here is what I have found on the internet, but this seems for me as an easy-version how to tackle the problem, and I don not think that a 2day work can be efficient. Nevertheless worth mentioning. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080117190910AAzIXIl Good luck anywhere you go! T>A
Trang 3 Nov 2009 12:42 pm: I enjoyed reading this a lot, very useful. I had pleasant first round interviews and now about to have 2nd round (also final round I believe). Not sure if cases are gonna be harder and how I should be prepared (thats why I googled online for BCG interview tips haha) but your post is very helpful while entertaining. I’m sure you can make a good script writer ;)
kiran 11 Oct 2009 5:08 pm: hi dude .. tx .. i was just abt to apply for it now :) i thought i have to do my ground work ..
Tatiane 3 May 2010 1:45 am: Hey, Anand, thanks a lot for sharing your experience on the web. I’m preparing for my interview and it´s really to have this kind of information before it happens! Thanks a lot!
M. Rafik Sama 22 Dec 2009 1:10 pm: I am also working as Visiting Faculty of Strategic Management. Well tried. but I fail to understand where your concept were " Lack of structure”. Will you please put some light on it. so, it will be beneficial for me in my profession.
Amit 4 Sep 2010 6:29 pm: Hi All, am working with one of the big4 Chartered Accountant Firm in Mumbai as an Analyst in Mergers and Acquisition prior to that i was working in Treasury operations in J P Morgan Chase. can anyone here help me out to make it to BCG……
Sanghamitra 22 May 2010 10:21 am: Thanks Anand for sharing this. It really insightful…..and specially because I am right now working on “no structure” problem. Would be happy to hear of any suggestion if you have for me.
Vaidy 4 Dec 2010 5:46 am: Hi Anand, Good piece and thanks for sharing, I am on my way preparing for the interview and if I read between lines, the interviewer was more on the EFAS and IFAS with his discussion route leading to SFAS, well I hope to do well and will be in touch for some tips
Frank Castle 21 Nov 2011 11:05 am: Thanks for giving such wonderful ideas and suggestions. Plz keep writing on such interesting topics. Thanks for sharing this information.
Partha Srinivasan 9 Jun 2011 6:21 pm: Hi, your blog is very interesting and written in a satirical way.. :)…I looked up your linked in, so it appears you did make it to BCG eventually. Could you please publish that story ? Thanks, Partha.
Andre 18 Apr 2011 5:50 am: I just read your hole story. It is interesting and very well written. How old were you by that time ? Did you ever join a Consulting Company ? What are you doing nowadays ? Sorry to ask. I mean I have nothing to do with it except my own interest. I am a recently graduated engineer. Took 3 exams before they invited me for my first round of interview and this is next week at the BCG Office in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I want it so bad and I am putting so much effort on it that I can sorta guess how you felt getting that negative answer back. Hope you are doing good ! Thank you for sharing it I feel even more prepared right now. If you can answer me my email is listed.
S Anand 10 Jun 2011 1:55 pm: There wasn’t much to that, actually. This interview was at LBS during my exchange. I attended placements again at IIMB and got through :-)
calvin 14 Feb 2012 9:15 am: I will be interviewed as local specialist on thursday at BCG Jakarta, I found your post is very helpful. did you have phone interview though? I will be interviewed with someone from BCG India. I’m quite nervous because I’m a graduate from international relations, though I’m interested in economy and finance in general. I just hope I could pass the interview cases…
Riddhi Mohan 29 Feb 2012 7:31 pm: Very Informative and the way to come up that is even more interesting. Landed to your blog seeking something and found more than what i was looking upon. Thanks for sharing.
Sauarbh 14 May 2014 6:16 pm: Thanks for this,but still could not get,why lack of structure

British and animals

Tue, 10 Oct 2000 12:00:00 +0000

I had my first case interview today. Four of us (3 exchange students and one LBS MBA grad) sat together and tried giving each other cases. It’s an excellent learning experience. Had I gone in for a case interview without this preparation, I’d have flunked.

Our class on Financial Analysis was good fun – and an exposure to yet another illustration of internationalism. Prof. Higson (in his perfect British accent) mentioned that he was part of a programme on TV for some society of animals. (Not as a caged animal that looked sorry, he assured us. He was talking about stocks – no idea why.) We were discussing the ‘Body Shop’ company (the one that sells natural cosmetics), and apparantly this company was blacklisted by the programme, for failing to be ‘animal-friendly’. Prof. Higson was mentioning that one of the reasons for Body Shop’s success was the British obsession with being kind to animals. He suggested that, therefore, Body Shop may not have been as successful elsewhere.

That was a leading question, naturally, and someone disagreed. So Prof. Higson quietly murmurs, “Perhaps there’s someone from France in this class?”

Prompt comes the response from the back row. “Yeah. And we don’t give a f*** about animals.”

A day at LBS

Wed, 04 Oct 2000 12:00:00 +0000

Well, apparantly LBS has just had its lecture theatres (LTs) newly made! Which is why they look so good, I hear. At least, the Professors keep commenting about how new the LTs are, and how they’re unused to it and all that.

This afternoon, Pallavi, another exchange student, an MBA 2001 student and myself, got together and ran a series of mock interviews. LBS’ consulting club has some very good material on case interviews.

Today we had a lecture on ‘World Economy: Problems and Prospects’. Professor Andrew Scott was awfully funny. We discussed the reason for the growth of the US Economy today. Well, we’re still not too sure why it grew, but IT may be part of the reason. Following the lecture, Nick Craft, a guest lecturer from the London School of Economics, came and gave an interesting talk on the same. Bit of a problem with his slides, though. Self-admittedly, he failed arts in school, and his combination of a bright green gradient against a purple background can leave no stomach unturned. Looks like this course is going to have guest lecturers in each class, and they all look like big shots.