Case Interview Preparation Booklet, Lecture notes of Business

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Case Interview Preparation Booklet

Queen’s Consulting Association

Introduction:

1. Preparation Timeline

2. Case Interview Flow

3. Interview FAQs

4. Additional Materials

Individual Cases:

1. The Wealthy Barber’s Banker

2. New Flight Plan

3. Alcoholic Farmer

4. New Club in the Hub

Partner Cases:

1. Too Dollar Store

2. Unprofitable Potash

3. The Value of Loyalty

4. Bird Blows Up

5. Big Yellow Buses

6. Who Needs Flight Simulators?

7. Keeping the Company Intact

8. Credit Disunion

9. Calling the TTC

10. Diamonds are Forever

Table of Contents 2

4 Case Preparation Timeline

*The following timeline is aimed at students looking to prepare for interviews during On Campus Recruiting (OCR) – this should work as a guide to create your own preparation schedule Month Case Prep

Behavioral Prep Networking

• Work through this casebook
• Create your own prep schedule
• Begin working on your structure and frameworks - Begin using the additional materials provided in this book - Practice cases with a partner when possible - Continue to work through casebooks with a partner - Finalize your case approach - Run through entire mock interviews - Attempt to mock with fellow students or recent alumni - Continue practicing cases/mental math/ etc.
• Begin to formulate your “tell me about yourself” or your personal story - Begin to write out stories to be used in interviews, following some structured approach (e.g. STAR) - Begin practicing your stories and develop answers to classic behavioral questions - Start reciting your “tell me about yourself” outloud - Finalize your “tell me about yourself” and personal stories - Develop final answers to common behavioral questions - Develop firm-specific answers (e.g. “Why XYZ firm?”)
• Begin your research about firms - Start to narrow down firm choice and being developing more thorough firm-specific research - Using both your personal network, alumni network, other students, or cold emails, begin to reach out to and try to set up networking calls or coffee chats - Continue setting up calls/coffee chats, attend recruiting events when possible

AVERAGE PREP DIVISION Time as Interviewee with a Peer Time as Interviewer Time as Interviewee with an Industry Professional Case Preparation How Many Cases to Do Based on data collected from the class of 2019 & 2020, successful candidates have allocated their case preparation time as follows: The average total time spent as either the interviewer or interviewee was 38 hours (~1 hour per case) The average number of cases done as the interviewee was 21.6 cases The average number of cases delivered as the interviewer was 15.58 cases We suggest that you divide your time with respect to this casebook as follows:

• Spend 25% of your total interview preparation time on this casebook before moving to other resources. Divided into: o 25 % trying the individual cases o 75 % working through the remaining cases with a partner 5 40% 52% 8%

Introduction to a case Structure the Problem Structure the Problem Develop Hypothesis Deep Dive Develop Solution Synthesize

• Get the case facts and objective correct – ask clarifying questions
  • If interviewer says the objective is to be market leader in 5 years; clarify what it means (e.g. 20% share or $20MM revenues)
• Do not simply repeat what the interviewer said
• Take one minute to draw out your own structure
• Structure components:
  • Two levels of structure: broad buckets and sub-buckets
  • Draw out a tree instead of bullet points
  • Be MECE
• Turn paper around to show the structure

Did you solve the

right question?

Don’t force fit any

frameworks

7

Introduction to a case Develop Hypothesis Structure the Problem Develop Hypothesis Deep Dive Develop Solution Synthesize

• Refer to your structure throughout the analysis
• Prioritize your thoughts by forming a hypothesis
  • Use your info provided and any clues from interviewer
  • Use framework and info to form initial hypothesis
  • Sometimes answer is less obvious, don’t feel pressured to form hypothesis without enough data
• Organize your investigation per your structure
  • Organizing analysis in sections may be beneficial (paper mgmt.)
  • This gives interviewers a chance to help if your thoughts go astray
• Engage the interviewer

Use data to form

hypothesis

(80:20 rule)

Be flexible; your

initial structure

may not be the

best

8

Introduction to a case Develop Solution Structure the Problem Develop Hypothesis Deep Dive Develop Solution Synthesize

• Be sure to think critically - Avoid mentioning the most obvious points
• Develop creative solutions - think outside the box
  • Pressure test solutions
  • If you think the goal is not achievable, suggest alternatives
• Always consider implementation risks and mitigation strategies
• Leverage analysis to make a powerful statement
• Always end with a clear recommendation

Your solution:

1) Best among

alternatives

2) Practical

3) Fact-based

10

Introduction to a case Synthesize Structure the Problem Develop Hypothesis Deep Dive Develop Solution Synthesize

• Take a moment to prepare thoughts
  • Avoid mentioning the most obvious points
  • Be prepared for the elevator test
    • Highlight main points as you go over the analysis to facilitate a concise summary
• Provide the answer to the question (“Answer-first”)
• Talk through reasons behind the answer
• Do not focus on the methodology behind the answer

“Executive

Summary”

Style

11

• There is nothing natural about doing computations involving large numbers in your head in front of an interviewer with the pressure of landing your dream job on the line.
• It is crucial that you practice mental math until you are comfortable doing it in front of an actual interviewer, not just in your head, but actually talking someone through your process. Practice! Practice! Practice!
• Mistakes happen, and when they happen, it important that you recover and don’t make the same mistake more than once.
• Don’t let a mistake throw you off course. Stay calm. Say “let me check that again”, and check your work or redo the calculation. Dealing With Mistakes
• When it comes to the math, it is important not only to come up with an accurate number, but that you use the number to guide the direction you take with the case. What does the number tell you about the aspect you are currently investigating? Should you dig deeper into it, or should you look somewhere else?
• This is a quality that can differentiate a great candidate from a good candidate. Use the Numbers

×

÷

13 Case Interviews Math (2)

Case Interviews Frequently Asked Questions Questions How did you prepare for your case interviews? “What I have observed to be the best part of being a consultant is the variety of work. Consulting is rare in the sense that as a young consultant, you have the opportunity to get exposure to many different industries, working with many different problems, often with senior leaders at pivotal moments for companies. Therefore, early in your career, you have both a breadth and depth of knowledge which can be applied to many different career paths. The worst part about being a consultant is that working primarily on strategy projects, you don’t often get to see a project through, and directly witness whether your recommendations were successful.” What is the best thing about being a consultant? What is the worst? “I prepared in a similar fashion to that of other interviews; mainly trying to practice with other students and those in the industry to refine my skills. One addition was to focus on the firm’s specialty. In my case it was pricing strategy, so I made sure to spend time doing pricing-specific cases.” In your opinion, does the preparation/interview of cases reflect the skills a consultant needs to succeed? “The case preparation does reflect a set of skills a consultant needs to be successful, but it does not capture all, or even most, of the necessary skills. Case interviews are in place to test a candidates ability to gather, synthesize (both quantitatively and qualitatively), and present information similar to what a consultant may receive during an engagement. However, this is only a small fraction of a typical project. Consultants need to be able effectively manage team relationships, complex stakeholder management, be an effective speaker both at an individual and group level, learn and adapt quickly, and many other skills that a case interview typically does not measure.” “Although it is critical to master cases in order to be successful in consulting recruiting, it is important to keep in mind this is only one of many skills required to be successful as a consultant. Those interested in consulting should be cognizant of this and look to develop a wide range of skills outside of the case interview format.” 14

16 Introductory Cases How to use this section Purpose of this Section This section of cases are written to try on your own. They are structured such that you read one slide, try and answer the question, then compare your answer to the following slide Structure The first case is basic and its goal is to help you understand how cases flow. The next three match up with a framework outlined earlier (Growth Strategy, Profitability, Market Entry… in that order). How a case flows Case prompt → High-level questions → Framework structure → Analysis (using exhibits) → Conclusion

17 Introductory Case #1: The Wealthy Barber’s Banker Case Prompt → Come up with 2 - 4 key questions you would ask the interviewer about the client’s business to better understand the problem (before you outline a structure), then proceed to the next slide

Try yourself:

1. PROMPT Your client is one of the major Canadian banks. In recent years, they have found that growth in their current businesses has not been as fast as they would like and recent regulatory changes have begun squeezing their margins. As such, they would like to move into the wealth management business as a way of generating additional profits and have hired us to figure out how to do so.

Compare Answers

Compare the questions you thought of with those suggested. Each case has “additional information” the interviewer knows, and your job is to tease as much out as possible to better understand the problem. The more you know, before you make your framework, the better.

Framework

The framework is the roadmap you believe will lead to solving the case. Starting with a basic framework, then adding or removing elements can be a good first step.

→ Draw out the framework you would use to solve this case. Then compare it to the

suggested framework on the next slide

Try yourself:

Introductory Case #1: The Wealthy Barber’s Banker Framework 3. STRUCTURE 19

Market size

• Is there sufficient room to enter?
• Is the size large enough that it reduces risk?
• What groups do we target? (^1 2 )

Should the client move into wealth management?

4

Internal Capability?

• Do we have the resources to make this large change?
• Will other businesses suffer or will we find synergies?

Customers?

• What type of clients will we serve?
• Can we leverage our existing customer base to drive clients in wealth management?

Profitable?

• Will we make money?
• How quickly will the business be profitable?
• Yes/No decision 3. Introductory Case #1: The Wealthy Barber’s Banker STRUCTURE Suggested Framework 20