ISB Consulting Club: Case Book Co19

McKinsey & Co.

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1.

Candidate Information
Candidate Name Alexander Hogeveen Rutter
Company interviewing McKinsey
for
Number of rounds 2.5 (3rd round was just for offer)

Round No. 1
Type of Case+PI
Round
Duration ~ 30 minutes
Interviewer Partner
Name/
Designation
Round PI Questions
Summary Questions were very generic such as why consulting (note that at this point I had
(questions already spent extensive time with buddies and met partners at the Dinners)
asked and Discussed my industry experience (Energy industry)
your
responses) Case
Type of Case: Market Entry/Market Sizing

Problem statement:
What applications do you see for the Hydrogen Economy in the future?

Scoping questions asked: Asked if I should limit based on geography or customer type
(eg. commercial/industrial/consumer) and what time line to consider (10 years)

Frameworks used: Broke into broad categories (eg. transportation, electricity, heat)
then sub-categories (eg. personal vehicles, commercial trucking, rail, shipping)

Structure/ analysis to solve case:

Went through each potential use case one-by-one
Partway through switched to Market Sizing as I was asked to evaluate the market
sizing of one of the segments I had recommended (transoceanic shipping)

Recommendations/ Synthesis:
Recommended a focus on domains which are difficult or uneconomic to electrify such
as trans-oceanic shipping, commercial aviation and industrial heating application

Your Comments (if any): It seemed very fair. He definitely pressed me but gave me the
time/space to succeed

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What went I was able to successfully identify several segments that looked promising (in this
well? case, direct to consumer is a bit of a red herring as it is unlikely to be cost effective)
What could I actually didn’t realize we were doing a case. I thought we were just talking about the
have been energy industry generally. About a minute in I realized we were doing a case and
done better? asked for paper/pen.

Round No. 2
Type of Case+PI
Round
Duration ~ 30 minutes
Interviewer Partner
Name/
Designation
Round PI Questions
Summary Questions were very generic such as what are my future plans (note that at this point
(questions I had already spent extensive time with buddies and met partners at the Dinners)
asked and
your Case
responses) Type of Case: Profitability

Problem statement:
Our client is planning to build an oil refinery in Gujarat and the IRR is below their
hurdle rate, what can they do to improve the IRR?

Scoping questions asked: Is not building an option (they wanted to do it for strategic
reasons). What is the hurdle rate and current IRR? Any other objectives?

Frameworks used: Revenues/Costs.

Structure/ analysis to solve case:

Talked about the risks/variability on the revenue side
Focus was on costs. Initially broke into capex/opex. Capex was the major cost so
focused on that. Financing was the major cost so focused on that

Recommendations/ Synthesis:
Made recommendations to shorten the construction time thereby decreasing the WC
requirement and financing costs, which improved the IRR above the hurdle rate.

Your Comments (if any): I took my time and paused to ask questions. Made sure to be
MECE and cover everything but asked for guides as to what to focus on (eg. “Do you
want me to delve into this deeper”). This “pruning” of the tree really helped-was able
to not spend too much time on paths that were irrelevant

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What went I was able to “crack” the case (it was based on a real problem the partner had worked
well? with and there was indeed a solution that he had identified)
What could NA
have been
done better?

2.

Candidate Information
Candidate Name Shubham Gupta
Company interviewing McKinsey & Company
for
Number of rounds 1 Round (2 Interviews)

Round No. Round 1, Interview 1

Type of Case + PI
Round
Duration 35 minutes
Interviewer Sudipto Paul/Partner
Name/
Designation
Round PI Questions
Summary We started with discussing about Mohali campus and how different it is from
(questions Hyderabad. Then discussed a bit on my work experience. He specifically asked me
asked and what was my most memorable moment at J.P. Morgan.
your
responses) Case
Type of Case: Profitability
Problem statement: Our client is a leading Indian airline company which has
appointed us to improve their negative EBITDA

Scoping questions asked: This was the time when Jet Airways was going through a
rough patch and they were consulting McKinsey, so I didn’t ask the basic questions.
Checked if we have any EBITDA increase target. If this negative EBITDA is on
international or domestic route. Within international if there are any specific routes
which have negative EBITDA. He asked me to choose any international route for
analysis and so I chose India to London (8-9 hours flight in line with employees work
timing)

Frameworks used: Profitability framework

Structure/ analysis to solve case: Used the normal profitability framework to solve the
case. Started by analyzing different sources of revenue. He restricted me to ticket
sales. Went into different type of customers, average occupancy in each type and

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revenue per seat (corporate and retail separate) in each type to calculate the total
revenue. The numbers were not rounded up and required some calculations. He was
happy with the approach and calcs, so we moved to the cost side. There I divided the
expense by fixed and variable. Listed down all the costs. There was a discussion on
whether employee cost should be considered fixed or variable. Also, since the trip
time was 9 hours, aircraft could be used for another travel reducing the per day
leasing cost or depreciation cost by half. He gave me some numbers on expenses and
asked for recommendations since we were short of time then.

Recommendations/ Synthesis: Basis the numerical data, I recommended to shift some

of the economy seats to business. Reduce some of the major expenses by doing few
things. We had no time to discuss the recommendation or synthesis the case. He
asked me if I had any questions and we discussed a little on his experience.

Your Comments (if any): At the start of interview, I asked him about his background
and that helped me ask a meaningful question in the end.

What went PI went really well. I established a connect and we spoke for 15 minutes out of the 30
well? minutes interview slot. I felt the case was quant heavy and there was no calc mistake.
What could This was my first interview and my nerves were out of control. I fumbled initially with
have been dividing revenues in different buckets but fortunately got back to drive the rest of the
done better? case.

Round No. Round 1, Interview 2

Type of Case + PI
Round
Duration 30-35 minutes
Interviewer Vivek Arora/Partner
Name/
Designation
Round PI Questions
Summary Small introduction to start and then he asked me what was the most challenging
(questions aspect of my job.
asked and
your Case
responses) Type of Case: Market entry
Problem statement: Our client is an Indian pharmaceutical company well established
in selling human drugs. They’re evaluating if they should enter animal drug business
and if so which segment to target.

Scoping questions asked: Clarified the objective of expansion plans. Checked their
current business profits to see if animal drug business is worth chasing for. Asked the
usual company details (specialty if any), understood the value chain. Next asked about
the animal drug market

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Frameworks used: Market entry, market sizing

Structure/ analysis to solve case: Following up with the scoping questions, I started
sizing the market. He asked me to think on how the market looks. I dissected the
market in terms of types of illness. Drawing a parallel with human drugs, identified
the major buckets. Then further dissected the market based on pets, cattle and
poultry (customer segments). In this matrix, based on our discussion we found a sub
sector which had a good market and profitability. Having identified the niche, I said
let’s evaluate if it makes sense to enter or not. I looked for synergies and risk. In
synergy, I evaluated revenue and cost synergies. After analyzing each of the aspect,
we found brand of the company to be the big asset. We discussed few risks to
conclude the case.

Recommendations/ Synthesis: I recommended our client to enter the cattle drug

business because of its market size, profitability and good income customer base.
Further the supply chain and established brand made our client a suitable company
for this market.

Your Comments (if any): I didn’t have much idea on the pharma business, but I was
able to move smoothly because I involved Vivek in the case and drew the right
parallels. Since, we were conversing he gave me certain leads which guided me to find
the niche in animal drugs.
What went PI again went well. Laying the structure was crucial for the case. Once the objective
well? was clear, case traversed smoothly.
What could -
have been
done better?

3.

Candidate Information
Candidate Name Anshul Aggarwal
Company interviewing McKinsey
for
Number of rounds 1 Round (2 Interviews)

Round No. Round 1, Interview 1

Type of PI + Guesstimate
Round
Duration 1 hour
Interviewer Sr. Partner (Saurabh Misra)
Name/
Designation

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Round PI Questions
Summary The interviewer browsed through my profile presented to him.
(questions Question 1: Tell me a little about yourself
asked and Answer 1: Gave info on personal and professional background. This is a standard
your question. Make sure you have points prepared beforehand.
responses)
Question 2: How was your experience with Amazon.
Answer 1: Talked in detailed about my work, my major projects and my transition into
leadership role.

Guesstimates
The interviewer smoothly transitioned into a guesstimate by implying that I would
have travelled a lot by air during my time at Amazon and asking me to guestimate the
number of airplanes being handled by the Delhi terminal.

Approach: The key here was to scope out in the initial 1-2 mins that he wanted the
unique number of planes that visited the terminal in a day. Once that was scoped out,
I estimated # of planes = The number of gates * average planes handled by a single
gate in an hour (15 mins to board so 4 per hour) * 24 hrs. Of these 50 percent would
be unique (justifying using qualitative factors). The interviewer probed further if this
would be right approach. So, I began revisiting each assumption. I told the interviewer
that the assumption of 4 planes per gate per hour might not be possible as there
could be bottleneck at the runway. Re-did my calculations by assuming # of runways,
#planes landing and taking off and diving by 2 for uniqueness.

What went Even though I fumbled a couple of times in the guestimate and the case, I maintained
well? a conversational rapport till the very end, asking him questions about what he did and
providing my two cents on the issues we talked about.
What could Read all past case books. Most questions are hidden/transformed ways of asking
have been similar questions
done better?

Round No. Round 1, Interview 2

Type of Case
Round
Duration 20 mins
Interviewer Sr. Partner (Somnath Chatterjee)
Name/
Designation
Round Case
Summary What technological innovations can help improve primary education in India?
(questions
asked and I started by identifying all stakeholders. These included government, students,
teachers, private entities like NGOS etc. Next I asked the interviewer which of these
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your would he like to focus on. We started from the government perspective. Here I went
responses) ahead that government has 2 instruments: policy and provisions. On the policy front,
we decided problems for students , teachers and parents (primarily in rural areas).
The issues boiled down to the fact that the education material should be
understandable for students, accessible and timely updated for teachers and cost
efficient for parents. Next for solution I tapped into the fact that India has high mobile
penetration. The solution proposed running mobile classes on hand held devices with
high storage capacity, in a manner that they are easy to use for teachers.
What went I had prepared for government as well as education based cases so I could borrow
well? ideas from there.
What could It was a tele presence interview and the interviewer was checking his phone during
have been the middle of the case. I could have been most engaging given the remote presence.
done better?

4.

Candidate Information
Candidate Name Shwetal Karade
Company interviewing McKinsey & Co.
for
Number of rounds 1 round (2 interviews)

Round No. Round 1, Interview 1

Type of PI + Case
Round
Duration 30min
Interviewer Suyog Kotecha (Partner)
name
Round PI Questions
Summary Question 1: I’ve gone through your resume in detail. Is there anything else that you’d
(questions like to tell me?
asked and Answer 1: I talked about 2 things that weren’t on my resume – one professional and
your one personal
responses)
Question 2: What are the problems that you have faced in your work life?
Answer 2: I stated a problem, mentioned why I considered it to be a problem, and
explained how I overcame it.

Case
Type of Case: Capacity expansion + Profitability

Problem statement: Your client is an Aluminium manufacturer and has a capacity of 5

mn tonnes. A) He wants you to evaluate whether she should add another 1 mn tonne
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of capacity to his plant. B) [this part was asked after I completed part A] What can the
client do to increase his profitability?

Scoping questions asked:

• Why does he want to add capacity (what’s the objective)? Ans. Increase
profits
• How much investment is required for adding the capacity? Ans. $5000 per
tonne
• What’s the geography in which the client operates? Ans. Exports all over the
world
• Who are the competitors? What’s the market share of the client? Ans.
Chinese firms have 50-60% market share
• What is the rate at which the industry is growing (just to check if there’s
enough demand)? Ans. 5-6% globally
• What’s the hurdle rate? 15%
• What are the steps in the Al manufacturing process (the process flow)? Ans.
Bauxite mining – raw material procurement – processing to get Alumnia –
energy input – aluminium is obtained – shipping

Frameworks used: Profitability; Concepts of ROIC & hurdle rate

Structure/ analysis to solve case:

1. Calculated the profitability (Per unit revenue – per unit cost)
Revenue/tonne = $ 2400
Cost/tonne for energy = $ 1450
Cost/tonne for other processes = $350
So, total cost per tonne = $1800
Therefore, profit per tonne = $ (2400 – 1800) = $600

2. Calculated the ROIC to check if it is greater than the hurdle rate

Investment required per tonne = $ 5000
So, ROIC = ($600/$5000) = 12%
ROIC was less than the hurdle rate of 15%, so advised that the client should
not add the additional capacity

3. What can the client do to make it a profitable investment?

The interviewer had given me 2 different types of costs. Energy costs were
given separately. I had made a mental note of it that it might be required for
further analysis. So I mentioned that the energy costs seem too high to me.
Suyog agreed and asked me to suggest some ways in which I can cut down on
these costs.

I then asked – how does the client meet his energy requirements currently?
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Suyog mentioned that they use coal to generate power. So I broke the
solution as follows – Either they should increase the efficiency of their coal
power plant or use alternate sources of energy. He agreed that exploring
alternate sources is a good idea.

Recommendations/ Synthesis: The client should not add the 1 mn capacity because
the 12% return is less than the hurdle rate. The client should look at lowering his
energy costs by exploring alternate sources of energy to increase his profitability.

Your Comments (if any):

What went PI part: My interview started with PI questions and I felt I could connect well with the
well? interviewer during this part.

Structured answers, confidence and a smile will help you a lot as the interviewer is
looking for people he/she can take to the client and are pleasant to talk with.

Also, while answering the PI questions, it’d help if you give examples that are
relevant. For example, if you have faced a problem that you’d likely face in your
consulting job also...the answer would probably have more impact as the interviewer
will instantly be able to connect with you and understand you.

Case part: I proceeded very slowly with my calculations so that I do not make any
errors. I’d advise you to do the same. It’s fine to go slow and take a few seconds to
divide 60 by 12 rather than blurting out an incorrect answer for a very simple
calculation.
What could I asked 1-2 extra scoping questions, which in hindsight could probably have been
have been avoided. But overall the interview went extremely well, and about a minute after I
done better? stepped out of the interview room I got a feedback from one of hiring team members
that ‘it looks very positive’.

Round No. Round 1, Interview 2

Type of PI + Case (over VC)
Round
Duration 30min
Interviewer Prashanth Vasu (Partner)
name
Round PI Questions
Summary Question 1: Tell me a little bit about yourself
(questions
asked and
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your Question 2: A) What sports do you like to engage in and why. B) You seem to know
responses) how to play most racquet sports expect for lawn tennis. Any particular reason for
that?

Case
Type of Case: Abstract

Problem statement: A) Your client is a private mid-sized regional bank. It wants to

expand its SME loans portfolio. The client wants to sell more and in a faster way.
Advise. B) [This was asked after I completed part-A] How many RMs to hire if it ramp
up time is 1 year for them?

(Note that the interviewer used a lot of banking related abbreviations, which I think he
expected me to know considering I had worked in a banking setup (that too on loans)
earlier. Thankfully, I knew those and did not have to ask him for any full forms.
RM= relationship manager, SME = small and medium enterprises)

Scoping questions asked:

• When you say the client wants to sell more, is there a particular target he has
in mind? Ans. They want to grow at the industry growth rate.
• What’s the industry growth rate? Ans. 25%
• What’s the rate at which the bank is growing? Ans. It is growing at ~16-17%.
• What’s the size of their current book size? Ans. 10,000 crores.
• Which region does the bank operate in (since it was a regional bank)? Ans.
South India
• Are they open to expanding to different regions? Ans. No
• What’s the market share of the client? Ans. Pretty low
• Who sells the loans’ products…RMs only or RMs & branch mangers both? Ans.
Both. However, they already have stretch targets.

Frameworks used: None

Structure/ analysis to solve case:

1. I observed that the bank is growing at 16-17% but industry is growing at 25%.
And considering that the current sales staff is already over-burdened, I asked
if the client is looking to hire more people (I also explained this rationale
behind asking the question). The interviewer said Yes.

This was the real problem statement for me then!! Essentially – how many
RMs to hire to get 25% additional business

2. I started with breaking down the problem as follows –

#RMs = #RMs per customer * total #customers
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I asked about the average loan amount per customer and tried to find the
number of new customers that the RMs will have to onboard (given the 10k
loan amount target). We had a little bit of discussion on this. The interviewer
then asked me to use loan amount directly. So the equation became –
#RMs to hire = (Total new business / Business done by each RM)

Total expected loan book size was 10,000 * 1.25 = 12,500 crore.
The bank was already growing at 16-17%. I checked with the interviewer if I
can assume it to be 15% for easier calculations. He said yes, absolutely.
So, out of 25% growth, only 10% would come form new business that the new
RMs get. So target for new RMs = 10,000 * 10% = 1000 crore

Business that RMs can = 1.5 crore per month

So, #RMs required = 1000/(1.5*12) = ~55

3. Follow-up question: Now suppose these RMs need to be trained extensively

and their ramp up time is 1 year (linear ramp up). How many RMs would you
hire then?

Average business that can be done by these RMs in a year = (0+1.5)/2

So,
55 * 1.5 = n * 1.5/2
Ans. n=110

Recommendations/ Synthesis: The client should hire 110 new RMs for growing at the
industry growth rate.

Your Comments (if any):

What went PI part: Answering every question in a calm, truthful and logical manner helped. Also,
well? keeping in mind that the interviewer is just trying to break the ice is crucial because it
helps you to be more comfortable.

Case part: Not having to ask the interviewer about the abbreviation used by him
helped.
What could -
have been
done better? (Got an offer after round-1)

5.

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Candidate Information
Candidate Name Shatakshi Sharma
Company interviewing Mckinsey & Company
for
Number of rounds 2

Round No. 1
Type of PI + Case
Round
Duration 40 minutes
Interviewer Indraneel Banerjee- Partner, Tech. Practice
Name/
Designation
Round PI Questions
Summary Question1: Tell me about yourself?
(questions Answer 1: Just quickly ran him through my “practiced” answer of professional and
asked and personal journey.
your
responses) Question2: Asked me about my experience at Groupon India and what are the scope
of improvements?
Answer 2: Mentioned the areas of weakness and how the company already seemed
to be attacking the same already.

Case
Type of Case: PE Case

Problem statement: You are a PE company and you want to evaluate factors for
investment in 2 tech. firms: one in mobile application and other in financial services
ERP solution.

Scoping questions asked: Asked about the product and services in both the segment,
customers and competitors in both. Also asked about specific IRR and exit period. No
special information was found after it.

Frameworks used: Standard PE framework.

Structure/ analysis to solve case: Divided the problem into 3 parts: Market analysis
for both segments, business model for both and finally returns for both segments. (at
this stage he seemed little disinterested in the approach, hence I turned the sheet 180
degree and made sure he was with me while solving the case)

Market analysis: Highlighted that would look into market size, growth, competition,
suppliers and most importantly interaction effect and synergies between both
segments and not look at things in silos.

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Business model: Would look at capability in terms of employees, tech capabilities and
operations. Would also look at profitability and pricing of both segments. On tech.
capabilities, he questioned how you would measure the quality of platform, I
mentioned KPIs like a) frequency of breakdown b) app store rating c) time spent while
engagement d) conversion ratio. He further probed me how would you check quality
of employees, I mentioned that a) hiring practices b) appraisals and feedback can be
leveraged as data point to benchmark.

He seemed happy with the approach and asked whether we can one more guestimate
case.

Guestimate:
Question: How would evaluate the revenue of online taxi drivers at the airport of
Hyderabad?
Approach: Asked whether I should go by supply/demand/competitor approach?
Remarks from Interviewer: Anything is fine.
Your take on approach: I realized that supply approach is the best and took below
steps to solve the case.

1. Started with capacity of the airport in terms of landing belts. Took them as 2
for domestic and 2 for international. From thereon, was asked to focus on
domestic.
2. Mentioned that airport operates for 9 hours let’s say and one flight takes 5
minutes to land. Calculated total number of flights landing in a day.
3. Categorized different types of aircraft and assumed on average 100 people
are carried in an aircraft. The number however will vary depending on
seasonality of the destination.
4. Mentioned that consumers can either take single cab or sharing cab and the
prices will vary according and from here calculated the daily revenue.

At this stage the partner stopped me seeming happy with approach (especially when I
covered seasonality and sharing cab aspect). He asked for questions, which I did
around digital practice of Mckinsey and how it ties to policy projects at Mckinsey.
What went 3 things:
well? 4. Engaged the interviewer
5. Personal genuine stories are always the best to connect
6. Structured approach and big picture thinking in cases
What could
have been N/A
done better?

Round No. 1
Type of Case
Round
Duration 40 minutes

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Interviewer Sasi Sunkara- Partner, Financial and Policy Area

Name/
Designation
Round Case
Summary Type of Case: Abstract Case
(questions
asked and Problem statement: Your client is a state government and you are asked to plan the
your capital city of the state. How would you go about it?
responses)
Scoping questions asked: Asked about the geography and was told that this is in
South near Kaveri river. I asked whether we are talking about Amravati, the partner
smiled and nodded. (I had somehow expected this case in the hindsight given my
policy background and Mckinsey’s public involvement in Amravati’s establishment and
infact this is something I would recommend all to do, map your background to the
practice areas of interview firm as firms check your grip on your experience). This
interview was the highest point of my day’s performance.

Also asked about the allotted land area, if any and was informed that is something we
have to estimate. Discussed the time frame and was told 3-5 years.

Frameworks used: Abstract case

Structure/ analysis to solve case: Divided the problem into 5 parts:

Customers/Residents, Products/Services to be provided; Capabilities:
Financial/Labor/Operational; Collaboration and Challenges. Asked where we should
start with and he mentioned we can start with customers.

Residents: Here we will have to account for residential buildings, education institutes.
I asked whether there are rural habitations around and the partner nodded. So I
highlighted that we will have to make “Adarsh Gram/Model Village” around Amravati
to ensure that not more than threshold value of rural citizens occupy residents. Sasi
genuinely seemed intrigued by the idea and asked me further. So I applied the GDP
cobb douglas equation to explain that quality of labor is a very important component
to drive the GDP of the capital city.

Product Services: Mentioned we will have to look at a) public transport, b) airport, c)

commercial markets, d) hospitals, e) manufacturing hubs, f) roads, g) government
offices and h) service sector jobs. We will also have to align with the United Nations
Sustainable Development goals and look into the i) heritage of the city by allocating
area and building monuments to attract tourism.

Capabilities: We will need labor to build construction, construction companies to be

present and the raw material to be accessible. At this stage, Sasi asked me how you
would get residents in the city.

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Here I applied learnings gained via my ELP project with Telangana Government and
mentioned that we move supply first and give subsidy/discounts to manufacturing
and service companies to come to Telangana, eg: Microsoft in Hyderabad and also
establish international institutes to attract young labor eg: INSEAD in Singapore. Once
jobs will be established by the supply, residents will start moving in. He probed me
further what are the other factors residents look for, I mentioned ease of living index
such as security, family nearby and happiness index. However, we mutually agreed
that employability will be the number one factor. (After a point in the case I realized
Sasi was not interviewing me but perhaps picking fresh ideas for the live case, which
was fantastic point I had achieved during the 30 minutes)

He asked me so how would you eventually go about it?

I made the 3* 2 matrix and put in rows: Strategy and policy around attracting
investors on supply end, getting the city infrastructure executed and lastly marketing
to the demand about the city and put in columns: short term and long term.

Sasi seemed happy with the overall case and eventual action plan and asked me
whether I had questions.

I genuinely was intrigued how was he managing financial division and policy project.
He told me about the same and his experience.

Moved to the 2nd round 😊. However, had already happily accepted offer from BCG
by then.
What went 3 things:
well? 1. Picking hints as to where the interviewer wishes to lead me.
2. Thinking cross functionally. Setting up a city literally requires all aspects to be
covered.
3. Genuine connect with interviewer and passion for the sector.

What could
have been N/A
done better?

6.

Candidate Information
Candidate Name Aashish Sharma
Company interviewing McKinsey & Company
for
Number of rounds 2

Round No. 1

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Type of Case+PI
Round
Duration 30 minutes
Interviewer Sasikanth Dola, Partner
Name/
Designation
Round PI Questions
Summary Where all have you been? How was your day so far? Why consulting after years in oil
(questions and gas? We also talked for about 10-12 minutes on my role at Schlumberger
asked and
your Case
responses) Type of Case: Profitability

Problem statement: A pharmacy chain with 2000 stores and annual revenues 2000
crores has profits of 60 crores. They asked us to help them double their profits
without capital expenditure.

Scoping questions asked: What are the revenue streams of the pharmacy chain?
Where are they located – concentrated or dispersed?

Frameworks used: Profitability. Broke down revenue into #Stores x #Revenue/store

Structure/ analysis to solve case: Before I could ask the scoping questions, the
interviewer asked me to do a couple of quick Maths questions.
a. If the client wants to double their profits, what should be their revenue for
that? While instinctively I replied that the revenue should also be twice, the
interviewer replied asking – will all the costs get doubled up? That reminded
me to consider the Fixed and Variable parts of the cost. I enquired about the
fixed cost to which he replied that Fixed costs are Rs. 500 crores and the
variable costs are 75% of the revenue. Solving the equation, I got Rs. 2480
crore as the required revenue for a profit of 120 crore.
b. What will be the revenue required if the clients wanted to keep its profits
margin constant at 3%?
(0.25R-500) x 100/R = 3
=> R = Apprx. Rs. 2500 crore.

The interviewer then asked me to proceed with the analysis. As the client did not
want to do capex, I focused on increasing the #Revenue / store.

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#Revenue/stor
e

#Revenue/Cust
#Customers
omer

Product Range
Marketing / Loyalty Discount / App
Product Range Tie-ups Price Cross Selling - To increase
Advertisements Programs Offers Development
basket size

Customer Repeat
Government
Analytics Purchase

Customer
Profile ->
Doctors Home Delivery
Customer
Insights

Hospitals Reminders

Insurance Firms

Recommendations/ Synthesis:
Your Comments (if any):

What went I could break down the revenues into appropriate components and came up with a
well? number of recommendations to increase them.
What could
have been
done
better?

Candidate Information
Candidate Name Aashish Sharma
Company interviewing McKinsey & Company
for
Number of rounds

Round No. 2
Type of Case + PI
Round
Duration 30 minutes
Interviewer Sasi Sunkara, Partner
Name/
Designation
Round PI Questions
Summary 1. What is your leadership style? What was your offshore rotation at
(questions Schlumberger? What were you doing when you were on your off days?
asked and We spent a good 10-15 minutes on the PI part.

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your Case
responses) Type of Case: Go-to market strategy

Problem statement:
A start-up which provides therapeutic treatment / services post treatment of chronic
diseases such as diabetes, cancer, etc. They want us to help them design their go-to
market strategy.

Scoping questions asked:

What is their product / service exactly?
Is it ready to enter the market? Yes
Where are they planning to launch it? Pan-India
Who are their competitors? Their competitors are scattered specialized service
providers. There are no direct competitors providing an aggregation of therapeutic
services.
Who prescribes these services? Usually doctors.
Frameworks used:

Structure/ analysis to solve case: I broke it down as follows:

Go-To Market
Strategy

Product Price Place Promotion Preferences

What is your Marketing /

Cost-based Online Tie-ups Referrals Success Stories
product? Advertising

Is it ready to be
Value-Based Offline Insurance Doctors Freemium
launched?

Competitor-
Governments Hospitals
Based

Hospital Chains

Recommendations/ Synthesis: Being short of time Sasi asked me to highlight top-3

things I would recommend to the client.
Your Comments (if any): Sasi was very pleased with the points I mentioned that he
kept my sheet and said he will pick up pointers from the discussions we had.

What went Do’s – a. Keep the interviewer engaged. Attempt to strike conversations. Build a
well? connect with the interviewer. Be enthusiastic during the interview.
d. Walk the interviewer through your approach. If stuck somewhere, layout your
understanding and interviewer will guide you.
e. Keep a target of around 2 cases/day. Make sure to reflect back on learnings
from each case.
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Don’ts – a. Don’t ramble.

d. Don’t try to fit in a framework. No matter how many frameworks you
practice, it is the logic and your structural thinking that will help you cross
the line.
e. Don’t stick to one line of thought. Be open to feedback.
What could
have been
done
better?

7.

Candidate Information
Candidate Name Abhishek Amar
Company interviewing McKinsey & Company
for
Number of rounds 1 Round (2 Interviews)

Round No. Round 1, Interview 1

Type of Case + PI
Round
Duration 35 minutes
Interviewer Sasi Sunkara, Senior Partner
Name/
Designation
Round PI Questions
Summary 7) What factors and influences would you attribute your academic performance to?
(questions 8) Was there a time you faced conflict within your study group? How did you handle
asked and it and how did it pan out?
your 9) What is your opinion on how conflict/disagreements should be handled at the
responses) workplace?

Case

Type of Case - Go-To-Market Strategy

Problem statement –
Your client is a provider of therapeutic services that are offered over and above
traditional treatments. These services improve both patient outcomes and
management of the disease. Design a go-to-market (GTM) strategy for this service
line.

Initial instinct of Approach –

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Given the relatively broad scope of this case and my lack of experience/knowledge in
the domain, I decided to spend some time on the scoping on rely on the interviewer
to guide me through the case.

Scoping questions asked –

• How exactly do these services work? - They are typically managed services and
treatments that are of a broad scope. Let’s just assume that their specific details
aren’t necessary.
• What kind of diseases are we talking about? - Chronic diseases and terminal
illnesses, both. The major ones are diabetes, cancers, hypertension and
pulmonary diseases.
• What do we mean by patient outcomes and disease management? - Patient
outcomes are things like survival rates, mortality rates. Disease management
refers to the physical effort that goes into managing a patient and the toll it takes
on the patient.
• Do we have a target segment in mind? What are the price points? - Customers are
all those patients who have the above-mentioned illnesses. Pricing is a case by
itself, so let’s not delve into it.
• Are we looking to focus on any specific aspects of the GTM strategy? - Yes. Focus
on channels, advertising methods and salesforce development. (Personally, I felt
that this was the most important question. It narrowed down the scope of the
case significantly)

Frameworks used –
None. GTM cases are quite like Market Entry cases from a case-approach perspective,
so you can use that as a starting point. But, I decided to ask the interviewer which
aspects I should focus on and started off with those.

Structure to solve case –

Took each aspect identified above and stated explicitly that I would be analyzing each
of them separately.

Case flow post scoping –

Caveats - My PI went on for a long time. Sasi stated that we don’t have much time for
the case and that he’d like to wind it up quickly. Despite this warning, I did scope
because I had zero knowledge of how the service works. Hence, my time to solve the
case reduced even more.

I started with the channel aspect. My first statement was that we have two groups to
market the product to - doctors and patients. Sasi then asked whether I was referring
to channels by which products/services were to be sold or channels through which we
could market. I said that my understanding was that it was a marketing channel and
asked him if I could continue along the same lines, to which he agreed. I then
mentioned the primary ways in which doctors can be marketed to - medical journals,
word-of-mouth and conferences. I also asked Sasi if I was missing out on something,

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to which he said that other methods were sales representatives and continuing
medical education.

At this point, he also said that since we were running out of time, it would be best if
he guided me to a different direction. He asked me to list out as many ways as
possible in which we would be able to appeal to doctors and patients. I listed out two
for each. For doctors, I said we can focus on the efficacy of the treatment and the fact
that the doctor’s reputation would increase if they were perceived as prescribing
better and less painful treatments. For patients, I said that we could focus on the
improved quality of life (being able to continue with existing living patterns) and the
fact that the effort of disease management would come down significantly. We
wound up the case at this point.

Recommendations/ Synthesis –
Didn’t really have time for one. I presented my final recommendations as a summary.

Your Comments (if any) –

None.

What went I think I was able to have a really good conversation with Sasi. My PI lasted for more
well than 25 out of the 35 minutes that I spent with him. This phrase (“An interview is a
conversation”) will be beaten to death during your case preparation, but its
importance cannot be emphasized enough. If you’re able to draw in the interviewer’s
interest, you’ve made it easy for her/him to select you.
What could I could have solved the case a little quicker, but I would have had to sacrifice the
have gone scoping questions, which I was unwilling to do.
better

Round No. Round 1, Interview 2

Type of Case + PI
Round
Duration 30 minutes
Interviewer Kunwar Singh, Partner
Name/
Designation
Round PI Questions
Summary Run me through your profile.
(questions
asked and Case
your
responses) Type of Case –
This was a McKinsey Structured Case (a real problem solved by McKinsey in the past,
which has been documented in a specific manner as a set of questions and answers).

Problem statement –
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Case Narration (all upfront) - You have been roped in by the Ministry of Health of an
African nation to help design an eradication programme for the Rubida disease. This
disease affects children under the age of 5 and is transmitted due to poor quality of
water and sanitary conditions. The disease can be eradicated by vaccination but does
not require expertise in administration. The vaccines, however, need to be stored at
temperatures between 4 and 8 degrees centigrade. To be cured of the disease, all
children under 5 years of age need to be given a minimum of 5 doses by the time they
are 5 years old and the doses need to be separated by at least a month.

Question 1 - How will you go about identifying the areas that need to be prioritized
for the implementation of this program?
Question 2 - What questions will you ask the Minister of Health to know how you
should go about implementing this program?
Question 3 - Calculate the number of vaccines required over the next year if 90% of all
children need to be vaccinated (this was a straightforward set of calculations)
Initial instinct of Approach –
There wasn’t an overall approach. Each question was very specific and required
thinking along those lines alone.

Scoping questions asked –

All the details were given. I only asked if the disease was communicable, to which he
said it was.

Frameworks used –
None. This case (according to me) tested how you could streamline your thought
process to answer specific questions in an exhaustive manner.

Structure to solve case –

Honestly, the only way I thought about approaching the problem was to break down
the question into as many tiny and MECE (mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive)
buckets as possible. I also relied on inputs from the interviewer.

Case flow post scoping –

Question 1 -
My answer was very brief for this. Since the disease was communicable, we’d have
two kinds of areas - affected areas and prone areas. Affected areas could be identified
through reports and existing information sources. Prone areas could be identified
based on analytics and on-ground surveys by medical teams. (I’m not sure how good
an answer this was, but I was asked the next question).

Question 2 -
I started off by being redundant and giving roughly the same answer as the previous
one. Kunwar gave me a little guidance and told me what he expected in terms of the
kind of questions - focus on understanding the country first, etc. Based on this, I
stated that I would start off by asking about the demographics, population
distribution geographical access and public facilities distribution of the country. To

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this, he said that it was a good set of questions, but he would also include financing
constraints, supply chain considerations (because of the temperature restrictions),
existing access to health facilities and potential partnerships with international
organizations (WHO, Doctors without Borders, etc.).

Question 3 –
It was a straightforward bunch of calculations. Direct percentages and multiplications.

Post this, after a couple of hours, I was called in at the beginning of round 2 and made
an offer.

Recommendations/ Synthesis –
None. The case didn’t require it.

Your Comments (if any) –

None.

What went While the case was very detailed, the questions required a linear thought process,
well which I was fortunately able to implement. I also focused on listening more and
writing less, which was helpful since this case was frontloaded with information.
Additionally, I was able to work through it despite never having solved a similar case
during the preparation phase.
What could I could have worked a little harder at solutioning and thinking more exhaustively. That
have gone would have helped in this situation.
better

8.

Candidate Information
Candidate Name Aksh Sheth
Company interviewing Mckinsey
for
Number of rounds 2

Round No. 1
Type of Case+PI
Round
Duration 40 mins
Interviewer Shirish Sankhe, Senior Partner
Name/
Designation

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Round PI Questions
Summary 1: Tell me about yourself?
(questions 2. How has been your day and what are you thinking at this point?
asked and 3: Tell me your contributions to ISB other than grades, club activities, and case
your competitions?
responses)

Case
Type of Case: Market size and cost estimation

Problem statement: Our client is a global automobile major and wants Mckinsey to
estimate the proportionate of electric cars sold by 2022

Scoping questions asked: What geography are we talking about? What is the current
market size of non-electric cars in India? What is the average cost of electric and non-
electric cars? (The interviewer didn’t answer this and asked me to estimate the cost).
The case was then focused on the estimation of the cost of both types of cars.

Frameworks used: Clean Sheet costing (breakdown of various costs involved in

making a car)

Structure/ analysis to solve the case: I broke down the car assembly into the car
body, engine, and ancillary components.
He asked me to estimate the cost of each of them and provided hints whenever
needed. For instance, engine cost was based on factors such as fuel capacity, mileage,
etc. I assumed the cost of the car body to be the same, and the interviewer approved
the same. Similarly, the interviewer asked me to consider the cost of ancillary
components to be the same for electric and non-electric cars.
I finally came up with both the cost and cost of electric cars came to be approximately
20% higher than the non-electric cars.
Then I mentioned that customers would only buy electric cars if a)they are ready to
pay the 20% premium and b) There is the economic benefit of paying 20% premium.
For part a), I segmented the population into the high-income group, mid-income
group, and low-income group. I eliminated mid-income and low-income group as they
would not be able to afford a 20% premium. Within, high-income group, I eliminated
customers who already possess a car and unwilling to scrap the old car. I included the
demand from people moving from mid-income to high-income group.
For part b), I estimated savings in operating cost (fuel and maintenance) due to the
adoption of electric cars. Considering four years of usage of the car, I could come up
with a hypothesis that electric car is cheaper than non-electric car considering both
capital cost and operating costs.
The interviewer then asked me the pros and cons of electric cars.

Recommendations/ Synthesis: The proportion of electric cars of the total market will
be xx% considering the addressable segment will only be a high-income group who
will be able to afford the upfront premium

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Your Comments (if any): If you don’t have much idea about the composition of a
product, ask rather than assume things on your own. In this case, I was not much
aware of what are the factors impacting engine costs. So, I guessed something and
immediately asked the interviewer if that’s right
What went Right calculations.
well?
What could Knowing about components of the car, electric cars in general.
have been
done better?

Round No. 2
Type of Case
Round
Duration 20 mins
Interviewer Abhijit Kulkarni, Partner
Name/
Designation
Round Mini-Case
Summary Type of Case: Guestimate
(questions
asked and Problem statement: Estimate average number of marriages
your
responses) Scoping questions: Are we talking about the Indian market?
What time frame are we talking about?
Should I include same-sex marriage?
The interviewer asked me to look at the Indian market, estimate average marriage in a
day and exclude same-sex marriage

Structure/ analysis to solve the case: I segmented the populated into rural and urban
population. I mentioned that I would take the average age of marriage for rural people
as 22 for males and 19 for females and urban people as 26 for males and 24 for females.
The interviewer was fine and asked me to proceed. Now I had to estimate the
population in each age bracket. I knew that India has more than 50% of its population
below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35. Also, I knew that the rural
population is 70% and the male-female ratio in India is 0.95 females per 1 male. Based
on the above information points, I estimate males and females in rural and urban areas
at the relevant age. I came up with a number of people eligible for marriage. From that,
I excluded people who would not marry and people opting for same-sex marriage. I
clarified to the interviewer that I am excluding repeat marriages for this estimation. I
divided the final number by 365 to come up with average marriages in a day.

Recommendations/Final Statement: The average number of marriages in a day is XX

in India

I was given an offer post Round 2

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What went Identifying early on that average age for marriage is most important. If I would have an
well? estimated number of marriages at each age, then the entire analysis would have been
a mess
What could NA
have been
done better?

9.

Candidate Information
Candidate Name Akshay Kumar Athuri
Company interviewing McKinsey & Co
for
Number of rounds 1 Round (2 Interviews)

Round No. 1 (Interview- 1)

Type of Guesstimate+Case+PI
Round
Duration 50 Mins
Interviewer Kunwar Singh- Partner (Extensive projects in steel and auto industries)
Name/
Designation
Round PI
Summary My interview was at 8 AM in the morning and hence it was the partner’s first
(questions interview for the day. We had a brief discussion about how my life at ISB had been till
asked and now. Post which he had asked me to walk him through my resume. During the
your discussion on my work ex he had mentioned that he liked my profile and the kind of
responses) work which I did at JSW and would love to have a chat on that post the interview. At
this point he had also mentioned that he had worked extensively in steel & auto
projects. This helped me get comfortable and confident for the case interview ahead.
The PI definitely helped me break the ice and build a rapport with the partner. The PI
took roughly 10 mins.

*Enter a cup of tea*

And the partner quickly signaled at doing a case

Case & Guesstimate

The case was a HBS type booklet case. He opened the deck which he claimed he was
also reading for the first time (which I later came to know was a signature style of this
particular partner). He started reading the case and asked me to note down the
details. The case was about a vaccination for a non-communicable disease in Africa
and how would McKinsey help the Ministry of health to plan and administer the

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vaccination to achieve a particular target (80% of children aged below 5 years) in next
2 years. (This was like a mix of an abstract and market entry case)

After giving a flurry of details about the current situation in Africa, the cold storage
requirement for the vaccine (< 8 degrees), the total dosage required (5 doses) and the
frequency of dosage required (minimum gap of 6 months but all 5 doses to be
administered before the child turns 5), the partner had told me that we need to solve
this case together by answering some key questions.

His first question to me was to determine the certain questions which I would like to
ask on our first internal brainstorming session with the team. (Ring any bells? Yes, he
wanted to understand the scoping questions which I would ask). So I went ahead
understanding the severity of the disease globally and in Africa and its effect (Basically
Africa was severely hit by the disease vis a vis the other countries and hence the focus
by MoH), the R&D for the vaccine (A Global team at UN was working on the vaccine),
the procurement method, the target patients (preventive vs curative), other
alternatives if any and the cost of the vaccine to the patients/govt (Free)

Next, he wanted me to estimate the total dosages of vaccine required to achieve the
target set by the Ministry of Health (MoH). I don’t remember the exact data, but it
was a pretty straightforward guesstimate that is starting with estimating the no of
children in < 5 years bracket, next removing the children who have already been
administered all the 5 dosages and taking certain % for children with 1 dosage, 2
dosage etc. and finally multiplying each segment with the amount of dosage required
to cover 80% of that segment gives total dosages required for 80% administration.
After checking my math, here he wanted to have a more qualitative discussion and
ending notes and recommendations which, I would give to the ministry of health.

Post the case discussion he had asked me if I had any questions for him. I had asked
him about his journey at McKinsey and what kind of steel projects he had done till
now. We had a good 10 min discussion on his recently concluded steel project in
China. I think this discussion also helped the partner understand me as a person and
the job role I had done at my previous organization.

At this point there was a knock on the door and the partner realized that it was
already 50 mins and that he had to close the session.

Overall, the interview was pretty good, and I was confident that I left a good
impression

What you Building good rapport with the partner initially

did good? Linking the examples in the case with my previous work ex
Keeping my calm and being confident during the whole interview
What you Honestly it couldn’t have been better
could have
done better?
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Round No. 1 (Interview- 2)

Type of Case+PI
Round
Duration 40 Mins
Interviewer Arjun Balaji- Partner (Extensive projects in Tech-Media-Telecom sector)
Name/
Designation
Round PI
Summary My second interview was 10 mins after my first one. The interview started with
(questions typical “Tell me about yourself”. Here we had a good 10 min chat on my resume and
asked and life at ISB. Post which he signaled at doing a case.
your
responses) Case
Client was a software company looking to increase its revenue per employee. I began
with a few scoping questions understanding the company (Involved in providing
softwares for accounting, marketing and HR softwares to their clients), the client and
company location (Clients based out of US and the company was located in India),
Industry and company metric comparison (Company was doing better than the
industry average on revenue/employee but wanted to improve more)

To go ahead I had divided revenue/employee as revenue/product*product/employee.

The interviewer asked me what these two terms are called. I couldn’t answer the first
one, but I had answered the second term (Product/employee) as efficiency. The
interviewer didn’t look happy. Then I went ahead to further break and discuss the
factors affecting revenue/product. Wherein points on increasing the price via
differentiated product/service, Increasing the customer base for similar products to
increase the quantity of similar softwares sold was discussed. Next, I went on to
discuss the factors to improve the efficiency of the employees (i.e.
Product/employee) wherein modules structure of a software, automation in the
supply process was discussed along with discussion on the lines of salesforce
efficiency framework was discussed with lengthy discussion on offshore/onshore
employees, hiring process, training, motivation etc. The interviewer was impressed
when I could draw parallels between a software module and Lego blocks and how the
efficiency could be improved. Overall, the interviewer looked decently satisfied but I
was scared deep down that I had screwed up somewhere as I couldn’t answer some
of his questions.

After the case he had asked me if I had any questions for him. We had a discussion on
strategy vs implementation aspect in McKinsey.

After a long and painful wait for 4 hours for first round results, I got to hear the four
golden words which I had been waiting to hear since eternity- “Welcome to the Firm
!!”

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What you Keeping my calm inspite of a flurry of lows (Read not answering questions, fumbling,
did good? blanking out etc.)
What you Being upfront to the partner about not knowing certain things. Its completely OK to
could have not know some things. All that matters is to keep your calm and answer the questions
done better? to the best of your knowledge and logic. The partner is not interested in whether the
answer is right or wrong all he/she cares is the way the interviewee thinks and
approaches a problem.

10.

Candidate Information
Candidate Name Prerit Varun
Company interviewing McKinsey & Company
for
Number of rounds 1 Round (2 Interviews)

Round No. Round 1, Interview 1

Type of Case + PI
Round
Duration 30 minutes
Interviewer Shashikant Dola, Partner
Name/
Designation
Round PI Questions (10 mins)
Summary 10) Tell me about yourself.
(questions 11) What did you do in your last job? Why did you switch from your previous job?
asked and 12) What kind of challenges did you face in changing your role from field engineer to
your a product manager?
responses) 13) What was my biggest takeaway from the first job I did

Case (15 mins)

Since I had worked as a product manager in my last role, he told that he will give me a
case where in I had to develop an application.

Type of Case – New Product Launch/Market Entry

Problem statement –
Your client is a healthcare giant and is currently present in 3 sectors namely – hospitals,
pharmacy and diagnostics. All these services are provided separately and have different
mobile based applications for users. The company wants to act as a one stop solution

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for all kind of medical services. Devise a strategy to achieve this target and propose a
roadmap to develop mobile based application(s) for users.

Initial instinct of Approach –

Given my lack of experience of healthcare industry. I decided to get more information
on each type of service to understand pain points.

Objectives -
I started by asking the objectives of the service to be developed in terms of target
market, size, timeline and limitations in terms of costs. I was told that there is no
limitation in terms of funds and the aim was to start as soon as possible.

Scoping questions asked –

I told the interviewer I wish to start by understanding more about the company and
its services offered. I asked the following questions
(Company and Product)
• Where is the company located? – India
• What is the USP of the company? – they provide value for money
• What kind of cities are the services offered? - tier 1 and tier 2 cities
• How exactly do these services work? – standard appointment - based services
• What kind of services do they offer, premium or economy? – economy services
(Competitor)
• Are there any competitors who provide one-stop solution for medical services? -
No
(Customer)
• Who are the primary customers for these services? – Middle and Upper class

Frameworks used –
I started by applying the market entry framework and explained my overall approach.
He said he wanted me to not use any standard framework and approach the case
using first principles.

Structure to solve case –

I took a minute before proceeding and mentioned that I would take up the persona of
a customer/patient and map out the user journey. He liked the approach and asked me
to proceed with it.

Case flow post scoping –

I listed all the steps involved in the journey of the customer starting from the point
where they have some illness to post-treatment checkups. For each stage I listed down
all the services that the customer would need. In addition to the areas our client
currently operated in, I added services such as insurance, physiotherapy. telemedicine
etc. I was quite detailed in explaining why the customer would need every service and
the logic behind introducing additional services at any stage. He asked me some
questions about the implementation of new services and potential challenges for all. I

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suggested that our client should develop one application that would provide access to
all the services to improve customers convenience.

It was around 25 mins at this stage and he said that he was satisfied with the progress
we made and asked me to summarize the case.

Recommendations/ Synthesis –
Didn’t really have time for one. I presented my final recommendations as a summary.

Quant Question (5 mins)

He then told me that he wants to do a quick quant check with me. He said that a
company has 30Cr Profit and 100Cr revenue. The company wants to achieve 60Cr
profit. How much should be the revenue.

I split the cost into fixed and variable costs.

Then I asked the contribution margin to understand the variable costs per unit and he
gave me the figure as a %age.

At this point I fumbled with the numbers and made a calculation error. He pointed out
my mistake and worked with me to solve the question and arrive at the answer.

Your Comments (if any) –

Even if you make a mistake in calculations do not lose focus. The interviewers are
relaxed and are there to help you with the process.

What went I think I was able to have a really good conversation with Shashikant. I connected well
well with him during the case and involved him in creating the customer journey. I was
able to come up with my own structure at the right spot and suggested additional
services that would help client achieve their goal of becoming a one stop solution.
What could Avoiding calculation errors
have gone
better

Round No. Round 1, Interview 2

Type of Case + PI
Round
Duration 30 minutes
Interviewer Abhijeet, Partner
Name/
Designation
Round PI Questions (10 mins)
Summary 1) Tell me about yourself?
(questions 2) Run me through your resume. Few cross questions about the projects that I had
asked and mentioned in terms of how I contributed.
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your
responses) Case (20 mins)

Type of Case –
This was a Structured Case (a real problem addressed by McKinsey three months ago)

Problem statement –
Case Narration (all upfront) – There is a metal producing company in Africa. They own
the mines and have their own extraction and refining process. The company has been
facing losses since beginning of operations while the rest of the companies are not
facing such losses. The client needs your help to identify the cause and determine ways
to address this problem.

Initial instinct of Approach –

This was a standard profitability case and given that it came from metals and mining
industry, I was pretty sure this case would need me to investigate the cost side of the
operations.

Clarifying questions – How much loss is the company seeing? – Irrelevant

1) What has been the trend in losses? – There is fluctuation in the degree of loss but
overall it remains
2) Market growth? – market is growing at 10% p.a.

Scoping questions asked –

(Company and Product)
1) What are the different revenue streams and the split? – Cobalt (20%) & Copper
(80%)
2) Is it a commodity product? – yes
3) Value chain – Extraction -> Transportation to refinery -> refining -> warehousing
(post warehouse it was handed over to customers)
4) How is our product quality as compared to competitors? – it’s at par with our
competitor

(Competition)
Since the issue was not being faced by the competitor, I decided to not ask about the
competitor and focus on the company itself

(Customer)
I was told the customers were enough and were willing to purchase more product
given the high growth rate of the industry.

Frameworks used –
Profitability Framework.

Structure to solve case –

Profits = Revenue - Costs

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Case flow post scoping –

I started by going with the standard opening of profitability. Given that the company
had been making losses since its incorporation, I did not ask for any trend. I said we can
either start with the revenue or the costs. I chose to start with costs and the interviewer
stopped me there. He said, he wants me to investigate the Revenue aspect and had no
information on the costs incurred. I tried to ask for the marginal profit of unit produced
to evaluate whether any incremental production was even useful to which I was told
there is no information.

As this point I took a break to gather my thoughts. Going back to the revenue equation
Revenue = Qcopper*Pcopper + Qcobalt*Pricecobalt
I asked for the selling price of copper and cobalt. Copper sold at $10,000/ton and cobalt
sold at $100,000/ton. I asked for the production split in terms of quantity and was told
the copper-cobalt split was again 80-20. I could see that the revenue split given earlier
was not matching but got the intuition that our client was producing far more copper
than cobalt and I decided to investigate this further.

I was told the mining process wherein both cobalt and copper ore occurred
simultaneously and their percentages in mix is not controllable once extracted. I
investigated further and understood about the mining process. I found that the
company was not being selective in extracting ore and was simply extracting whatever
they encountered in the ore layer. At this point I started trying to evaluate the minimum
%age of cobalt that would make production profitable. I started asking for more
information on costs which the interviewer refused to give. I tried to get some
percentage based on the previous data given but could not proceed.

I communicated to the interviewer what I was trying to do, and he was satisfied with
my approach. I continued trying to arrive at some conclusion but was unable to arrive
at any concrete result.

The interviewer gave me the main solution – extract ore selectively from zones that
have %age of cobalt>% of copper. He then said he wants me to take a few minutes and
come up with one more recommendation.

I took a couple of minutes and proposed that the company should set up a threshold
%age of cobalt for different depth and extraction should be permitted only if the cobalt
content of that zone was above this threshold. Additionally, this value would increase
as one went deeper because the cost of production increased with increase in depth of
extraction.

Post this, after a few of hours, I was called in at the beginning of round 2 and made an
offer.

Recommendations/ Synthesis –
No synthesis.

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Your Comments (if any) –

Do not worry if you are unable to solve the case. Having a right approach and identifying
the root causes correctly are more important. No idea is bad, so do communicate
whatever you are thinking to the interviewer. They are there to help you.

What went My approach was on target and I asked the right scoping question. The
well recommendation I gave was also in line with practical solution implemented.
What could I had thought of the recommendation the interviewer mentioned but did not say it
have gone out loud thinking it was too obvious a solution. I should have continued
better communicating with the interviewer even when stuck to get their support in solving
the case

11.

Candidate Information
Candidate Name Rukmi Sarmah
Company interviewing Mckinsey & Company
for
Number of rounds 1 round (3 interviews)

Round No. 1
Type of Case + PI
Round
Duration 45 mins
Interviewer Gaurav Sharma, Associate Partner
Name/
Designation
Round PI Questions
Summary Mostly resume questions, biggest challenge at Goldman Sachs, why consulting, what
(questions would make you stick with consulting, what would make you leave consulting
asked and
your Case
responses) Type of Case: Abstract/ Numbers based
Problem statement: Hyderabad airport wants to open a new terminal. Help them

Scoping questions asked: Is the terminal replacing the existing one or is it a new
terminal? What exactly does the airport authority want help on? The interviewer told
me that this will replace the existing terminal and the AA wants help on determining
the people capacity needed for the airport

Structure/ analysis to solve case: I divided the terminal into domestic and
international arrival/departure. I assumed number of runways to be 20, took average

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turnaround time of a flight in an airport to be 20 mins (domestic) and 30 mins

(international).
The equation to come up with the number of people from flights each hour
(arrival+deparature) was
Number of runways * (60 mins/ Time taken for one flight turnaround) * Utilization of
runway during different hours* no of people in the flight
I mentioned that utilization will vary by times of the day (e.g., there are fewer
domestic flights between 2am and 5am)
Then I assumed different number of seats for domestic and international flights and
came up with different utilization of flight seats as well (not all flights will be
completely occupied)
Once I had the number of people travelling by flight in a day, I said 70% of these
people will come in the peak hours for flight travel and hence I would like to estimate
the peak hour capacity (5am-9am). The interviewer happily nodded, and I assumed
that a typical person spends 1 hour navigating from check in- boarding in the airport
and calculated the peak hour capacity.
The interviewer probed a little more and asked what the implicit assumption was in
the analysis and how would I verify my number.
I said that we must factor in flight delays and layovers into the analysis and factor in
the people who are waiting at the terminal because of that
For verification, I suggested that we could look at the toll collected at the toll gates,
use a number from a different city like Hyderabad, say Bangalore.
The interviewer looked happy then and the case was closed. He asked me if I had
questions in response to which I asked a few questions about Mckinsey’ s
involvement and projects in FinTech

What went Being very thorough with my resume

well?
What could Stating all assumptions more clearly
have been
done better?

Round No. 1
Type of Case + PI
Round
Duration 45 mins
Interviewer Sudipto Paul, Partner
Name/
Designation
Round PI Questions
Summary Questions about Goldman Sachs and my experience with classical music. The
(questions interviewer played the Tabla and asked me about my favorite Ragas. We connected
asked and on the fact that both of us had learned classical music
your
responses) Case
Type of Case: Cost optimization
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Problem statement: A major FMCG company (like Unilever) wants to optimize their
supply chain
Approach: I asked initial questions about the company, the geography, the product
line and laid down the value chain. I then probed which was the element in the value
chain that was to be optimized. The interviewer told me it was inbound and outbound
logistics. On probing and asking more questions I figured out that the company had
very scattered warehouses and there wasn’t a centrally controlled logistics system. I
then asked about the transportation and the interviewer told me that transportation
was inefficient, and the trucks were going back empty, that was leading to a lot of
costs. The case involved a lot of number crunching in terms of the EMIs of truck using
simple interests, cost of fuels, tolls, road taxes etc to find out the costs associated
with the supply chain
Recommendation: I suggested few measures to standardize this delivery network and
improve utilization of the trucks to not go back empty, by partnering with a logistics
player or sending back finished goods via the truck

What went Applying the 80-20 rule at all junctures of the case to find out the major cost buckets
well? in the supply chain
What could
have been
done better?
Round No. 1
Type of PI
Round
Duration 30 mins
Interviewer Toshan Tamhane , Senior Partner
Name/
Designation
Round PI Questions
Summary This was mainly a discussion round but felt more like a stress interview. I was mostly
(questions grilled on my work at Goldman Sachs and the current happenings in the investment
asked and banking/ financial services space (1MDB Scandal). The interviewer was laughing at
your everything I was saying so I couldn’t figure out if the answers were correct. He also
responses) banged the door in between, and it was difficult to understand if this was part of the
stress interview script. Suddenly the conversation went on to retail banking and I was
grilled on Marcus, the retail banking arm of Goldman. I was asked which countries
Marcus is present in and should they enter India. Having worked for Women in Tech
group at Goldman, I was asked why do engineering and MBAs have less women and
what can be done to improve that

What went Remaining very calm and smiling all throughout a stress interview
well?
What could
have been
done better?

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12.

Candidate Information
Candidate Name Mohit Batra
Company interviewing McKinsey & Company
for
Number of rounds 1 Round (2 Interviews)

Round No. Round 1, Interview 1

Type of Case + PI
Round
Duration 40 minutes
Interviewer Brajesh Chibber, Expert Associate Principal, Automotive Practice
Name/
Designation
Round PI Questions
Summary 14) Tell me about yourself?
(questions 15) Why do you want to do MBA after doing MBBS and M.D.?
asked and 16) Give me 3 specific changes you did in emergency services of your Hospital which
your had the greatest impact according to you?
responses)
Case

Type of Case: Process improvement

Problem statement –
Your client is one of India’s largest pharma players. It has entered into an exclusive
contract with Japanese pharma company, giving it exclusive rights to produce the latest
type of insulin, for which the demand is much more than the supply (leading to bad
name in media as people think we are doing it to boost our profits). What can be done?

Initial instinct of Approach –

Tried to gather the basic facts of the case first by asking usual scoping questions about
competition, price, demand, etc. Then asked questions to figure out the bottle neck,
which turned out to be in the manufacturing process.

Scoping questions asked –

• Details of the manufacturing process - Brajesh explained that it was an automated
process and described in detail about the process.
• Tried to eliminate options like raw materials, machinery limitations, logistics, etc.
by asking the necessary questions. Bottleneck found: we had a limitation on the
maximum no. of vials that can be filled with insulin by the robotic machine.

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• Asked about the no. of hours the machine currently works, breakdown time, set up
time for the machine, etc.- he said machine is working at the maximum level
possible and said to look at other options.
• Asked can a new machine be installed to supplement the existing process to which
he denied and said we are looking at options within the existing infrastructure.
• Asked questions about the design of the insulin filling machine - how many vials are
filled in a single go, what is the area of the platform on which vials are placed,
design of the vials, can more amount of insulin be filled in the existing vials.
• Then finally asked about the dimensions of the vials and gave the recommendation
to increase the height of the vials and decrease the base, which will lead to increase
in number of vials in the existing platform. To this he replied McKinsey also gave
this as the first recommendation which boosted the output by 25%.
Frameworks used –
None. It was clear that he wanted me to delve directly into the manufacturing process
and guided me there in the beginning only.

Recommendations/ Synthesis –
He was happy to hear the recommendation and didn’t ask for synthesis separately.

Your Comments (if any) – None.

What went Although the case was from an industry I was familiar with, but the solution didn’t strike
well me in the first go. I kept my calm and tried to ask questions in a structured manner
which I think helped me solve the case.
What could I was able to come up with the solution at the last moment and that too because
have gone Brajesh nudged me in the right direction. Thinking from the very basics and trying to
better solve every case as a new one should help most of the times.

Round No. Round 1, Interview 2

Type of PI only
Round
Duration 45 minutes
Interviewer Toshan Tamhane, Senior Global Partner
Name/
Designation
Round PI Questions
Summary It was purely a conversation and not an interview. He basically wanted to understand
(questions why I decided to have a career change and why specifically McKinsey.
asked and
your Be very clear with your answers as they will not be satisfied with any superficial
responses) answers. You need to be very clear how McKinsey fits in your career goals and how can
you add value.
Also, PI has a lot of weightage, at least equal to the case if not more.

Post round 1, I was called in at the beginning of round 2 and made an offer.

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What went I think I was able to connect with him really well. He seemed interested in what all I did
well during my med. school and residency. Also, I asked him questions regarding McKinsey’s
life sciences practice and how can I fit into it.
What could
have gone
better
13.

Candidate Information
Candidate Name Rakhi Goyal
Company interviewing McKinsey & Company
for
Number of rounds 2 Rounds (3 Interviews)

Round No. Round 1, Interview 1

Type of Case + PI
Round
Duration 45 minutes
Interviewer Akash Lal, Senior Partner
Name/
Designation
Round The discussion started as Akash introduced himself and his work in Mckinsey and then
Summary he asked me to introduce myself.
(questions
asked and In my introduction as I mentioned about current PAEV project around social
your entrepreneurship idea of providing mentorship to underprivileged students. Akash
responses) asked few cross questions about PAEV and then jumped onto case discussion:

Type of Case - Abstract

Problem statement –
Since you are working on providing mentorship let’s assume that you started your
work now in suburbs of Mumbai. Your research shows that there are people from
different parts of India there and they have to send their kids to Marathi
municipality school nearby only. They can’t understand or speak Marathi, so they
can’t help their kids with anything and their kids always stay in stress since
language at school and home doesn’t match. What will you do to solve this
problem using mentorship?

Initial instinct of Approach –

Since I was working on similar kind of situation with a government school, I had some
ideas what can be done but I knew I have to structurally approach towards the given

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problem. I started by asking some clarification questions and to understand the

problem properly:

Scoping questions asked –

• Who are these people, where do they majorly belong to and do we have some
information about their occupation or income levels? – Mostly these people come
from UP and Bihar and they work majorly as construction workers.
• Why do these people send their kids to Marathi speaking school and not any Hindi
medium school? – Hindi schools are 20 km away and they neither can afford nor
want their kids to go through the travel stress.
• What kind of services do these kids get at the current school they go to? – It’s a
government school and you can imagine the level of services being provided.
I added so I can imagine normal government school situation where teacher to
student ratio is poor and students are struggling to get their queries clarified both at
school and at home.
He nodded.

Frameworks used –
Majorly I went with an approach to identify Cause, effect and then the proposed
remedy of major problems identified in the scoping part.

Structure to solve case –

Took each problem identified in scoping above and stated explicitly that I would be
analyzing each of them separately and one at a time.

Second Case -
Aakash was very quick to finish this case once he observed that I am going with an
approach and a systematic way. Also, he was certain that I am working on my PAEV
project seriously by this point and not just bluffing in my resume.

He jumped straight to next case which was finance heavy case.

He asked a bank is facing problems in growing after a point and asked your team to
identify reasons and come up with a solution.

I started by asking general scoping questions about the bank, it’s business, target
customers, area of operations. Then I asked how client defines growth what are the
targets in client’s mind. This brought a smile on Aakash’s face. He answered by asking
cross questions. What are general streams of a banking business. I answered majorly
we can divide bank’s revenue in two parts – Primary and secondary. Primary - Interest
(net-off i.e. interest received on loan started - interest payments on deposits) and
secondary may include service fees on ancillary services such as wealth management,
locker providing etc., credit card – late payment and annual charges etc.

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Then he started asking me question on each of the revenue stream what you can do
to increase interest income for bank. What can you do to increase the service fee?
What can you do to attract more customers? I found the case was very generic and
from my observations of a banking system I gave solutions from top of my head such
as reduce idle money at any point of time so that we don’t lose interest income. Try
to get more deposits and then utilize that money efficiently by getting more loan
customers or by giving inter-bank loans.

At this point, after asking many general questions about banking industry and finance
aspects Akash seemed happy and he asked if I had any questions for him. I asked if he
could tell me about the challenges for a new person in Mckinsey initially and what are
the main parameters he/she is expected to meet. Akash explained all of that very
patiently while also narrating his own example. I then before leaving asked for a quick
feedback on my performance in this round so that I can do better in next round. He
said you are doing good, keep the confidence up and just keep going.

Recommendations/ Synthesis –
The case was very generic and just included general discussion.

Your Comments (if any) –

None.

What went I think I was able to have a really good conversation with Aakash. The initial
well conversation about my PAEV project and my real time experience on the project
helped me a lot in this round. Also, there is always area of expertise for everyone for
me it is always Finance. I could strike good rapport by showing good knowledge about
banking industry.
What could I think this round was nearly perfect for me.
have gone
better

Round No. Round 1, Interview 2

Type of Case + PI
Round
Duration 45 minutes
Interviewer Indranil Singh, Partner
Name/
Designation
Round PI Questions
Summary Run me through your profile.
(questions Why Mckinsey.
asked and
your He wasn’t convinced by my answer of why Mckinsey and seemed not happy with my
responses) answer. He asked again don’t give me a general gyan but tell me reality of why
Mckinsey. This made me really nervous and I started fumbling. But I gave a genuine
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answer why it makes an obvious career path for me and he seemed convinced this
time.

Case

Type of Case – Guestimation

Problem statement –
Indranil seemed interested in checking my calculations and structured approach as he
asked me you need to tell me a number (definite number) of taxis needed at Delhi
Airport.

Approach – The key was to come up with a structured approach as to how number of
taxis can be computed. I stated the number of taxis at airport will be directly
correlated with the number of customers arriving at airport. Then the capacity of taxis
and average travel time of each taxi can help us arrive at number of taxis needed.
Indranil was closely observing my all computations and approach. I arrived at a
number from this approach and Indranil just nodded.

He then moved to a next case.

Your friend has approached you who is a partner in VC firm. He wants an advice if he
should make an investment in a company which provides data analysis and call center
services.

Initial instinct of Approach –

I knew that call center business is having lot of risk in near future so need to ask the
current business model and future model as well.

Scoping questions asked –

I started following CPCC model and asked all relevant questions. Majorly I wanted to
ascertain what is the main purpose of investment by VC firm.

Frameworks used –
None. This case (according to me) tested how will I go ahead for current valuation of
the company and what needs to be checked before making any investment decision.

Structure to solve case –

Honestly, there is only one structure to solve any case i.e MECE (mutually exclusive,
collectively exhaustive) buckets. Listening skills are also very important since the
interviewers give lot of hints for solving the case.

Case flow post scoping –

After that he asked me suddenly what are my viewpoints on #Metoo campaign. I told
my honest opinion that how there are some positive as well as negative effects of the
campaign.

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Post this, after a couple of hours, I was called in at the beginning of round 2 and made
an offer.

Recommendations/ Synthesis –
The valuation of the company was attractive looking at future growth, but the
investment should be made under certain caveats.

Your Comments (if any) –

None.

What went The guestimation part went really well since I didn’t make any calculation mistake
well which I always fear. The listening skills helped me catch the cues Indranil was
throwing my way while solving the case.
What could PI part could have been much better. Never make generic answers to any questions.
have gone After few hours I was called for second round of interview.
better
Round No. Round 2, Interview 1
Type of PI
Round
Duration 30 minutes
Interviewer Toshan Tamhane, Senior Partner
Name/
Designation
Round The discussion started as Toshan introduced himself and his work in Mckinsey and
Summary then he asked me to introduce myself.
(questions In my introduction as I mentioned about how even after coming from a village I could
asked and dream of many big things and achieve most of them because my father used to tell us
your inspiring stories every night since mostly we never had access to electricity in dark
responses) hours.
Toshan seemed very impressed from my introduction and told he would like to listen
one of the stories my father used to tell me.
I was surprised by this turn in interview since I never expected any such thing. But
anyways I narrated the one most inspiring story which was most strongly engraved in
my heart and really inspired me a lot.
Toshan smiled at end of it and said that he tells the same story to his kid many times
😊
He said that they are very impressed from my profile and the success I achieved after
the hardships I faced. They wanted me to continue doing that in Mckinsey. Saying so
he said the words I wanted to hear from long time –
“Welcome to the Firm”.
Your Comments (if any) – Believe in yourself. Even if you have one good shortlist,
don’t worry you can make it if you just work hard and have faith in yourself 😊

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PWC DIAC

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