Manual to Acing Consulting Interviews

by the Alumni of
Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies

B. NAWALAKHA 20 Guesstimates | 20 Cases | Consulting Interview Best Practices

D. SINGH
K. VERMA

cover photo by Sai Raunaq Gosain

 Disclaimer Caselette

© 2022 by Bhavya Nawalakha

All Rights Reserved.

This casebook is licensed for personal use and is meant for educational purposes only.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, recording, photocopy, or any information storage and retrieval
system or otherwise without the permission of the authors.

This casebook is not to be sold or used by any means for monetary gains.

ISBN: 978-93-5668-070-8

First Edition: August 2022

© 2022 Bhavya Nawalakha. All rights reserved.

 About the Authors Caselette

Bhavya Nawalakha Divjas Singh Karan Verma

Divjas is currently working as an Karan is currently working as an

Bhavya is currently working at the
Analyst at Bain and Company. In the Analyst at Everest Group. Having
CEO’s office in Samagra. He was a part
past, he has interned with prominent worked with organizations such as Duff
of the placement cell, where he served as
firms like YES Securities, KPMG, Ernst & & Phelps and Ernst & Young, he carries
the Head of Corporate Relations, and the
Young and Indian Angel Network. He experience in the sphere of valuations
Economics Society in college. At the end
was also the Founding-President of and risk management. He served as the
of his second year, he interned at Ken
India’s first ASCM Students Chapter. He head of internships in the placement cell
Research, where he secured a PPO for
has been associated with IFSA Network and was also associated with the finance
Research Analyst II.
and the placement cell of his college. society in the college.

© 2022 Bhavya Nawalakha. All rights reserved.

 Index Caselette

S. No. Name Difficulty Page Number

How to Use This Book 10
Guesstimates Datasheet 11
Guesstimates 15
1 Total Distance of Delhi Metro Rail Network Easy 21

2 Revenue of Taj Mahal Easy 23

3 Number of Luggage Trolleys used in IGI Medium 26

4 Number of Garbage Trucks in Delhi Medium 29

5 Number of Wine Bottles sold in India in a Week Medium 31

6 Number of Rented Flats in Delhi Medium 34

7 Quantity of Detergent used in Delhi in a Day Medium 37

8 Revenue Earned through Delhi-Gurgaon Toll Plaza Medium 40

9 Revenue of Dream11 Medium 43

10 Annual Paint Consumption in Gurgaon Hard 45

11 Revenue of Consulting Industry Hard 48

12 Number of Bottled Water Units sold in Delhi Hard 51

© 2022 Bhavya Nawalakha. All rights reserved.

 Index Caselette

S. No. Name Industry Difficulty Page Number

13 Market Size of Luxury Cookies in Europe Hard 54

14 Market Size of Car Tyres Hard 57

15 Weekly Revenue of a Haldiram’s Outlet Hard 60

16 Number of Red Ties Worn in New York on a Monday Hard 63

17 Number of Swiggy Users in Delhi Hard 66

18 Number of Refrigerated Containers required to export Fruits and Vegetables from India Very Hard 70

19 Number of Selfies taken at Select CityWalk in a Day Very Hard 73

20 Revenue of Indian Film Industry Very Hard 76

Cases 82
Profitability 83
Framework 84

1 Leather Garment Company Fashion Medium 88

2 Private Taxi Driver Transport Medium 92

3 Restaurant Chain Hospitality Hard 95

© 2022 Bhavya Nawalakha. All rights reserved.

 Index Caselette

S. No. Name Industry Difficulty Page Number

4 Insurance Company Insurance Very Hard 99

Market Entry 104

Framework 105

5 Bottled Water Manufacturer Water Easy 108

6 Cosmetics Company Beauty Medium 112

7 Indian Retail Company Retail Medium 116

8 Freight and Fleet Management Platform Supply Chain and Logistics Very Hard 120

Growth Strategy 126

Framework 127

9 Book Store Owner Retail Medium 130

10 Test Prep Company Education Hard 136

11 Diagnostic Service Provider Health Care Hard 140

Pricing 144
Framework 145

© 2022 Bhavya Nawalakha. All rights reserved.

 Index Caselette

S. No. Name Industry Difficulty Page Number

12 Newly Launched Electric 2-wheeler Automotive Hard 147

13 Subscription Fee for a Newly Launched OTT Platform Entertainment Very Hard 152

Mergers & Acquisitions 159

Framework 160

14 Acquisition of a Tech Company by a Logistics Company Multiple Hard 165

15 Acquisition of a loss-making Mineral Company Mining & Minerals Hard 169

Unconventional 174
Framework 175

16 ITI Courses for GoI Education Easy 177

17 Performance of a Manager Market Research Easy 180

18 Shark Tank India Judge Retail Easy 184

19 Education Strategy for a State Government Education Hard 187

20 Innovational Healthcare Technology Healthcare Hard 194

Full Page Graphics for Screen-share 199

© 2022 Bhavya Nawalakha. All rights reserved.

 C #1 Profitability Problem in a Leather Garment Company Caselette

Profits of a leather garment company are diminishing. Identify the possible reasons.
Case #1
To begin, I would like to understand more about our client, the geographies operated in, product information, value chain etc.
The client is a leading manufacturer and retailer of western clothing, particularly leather. The company has over a 100 stores
across tier 1 & 2 cities of India. Last year, it was ranked as the ‘Most Fashionable Brand’ of India by India Times.
Category
So clearly, the brand enjoys a good position in the Indian market. I am interested to know more about the quantum and
duration of diminishing profits.
Profitability
Script
Despite performing well in the market, the brand has failed to show robust numbers when it comes to the bottom line.
Trends show that the profits have been falling short by 15-20% from the expected figures every quarter.
Interesting. Since you mentioned that the client has been performing well in the market, it puts me into hypothesizing that Type
the problem lies in the cost side rather than revenue.
Yes. Revenues have in fact shown a consistent uptrend. Interviewee Led
Great. To analyse it further, I wish to segregate costs into fixed and variable and understand if a particular branch has been
showing has been contributing to the decline in profits.
Well, our client has been effective in regulating the fixed costs within permissible range. The variable costs, however, have
gone out of hand in the recent past. Medium
Got it. Now, since the problem is with variable costs, I would like to segregate them further.
And how would you do that?
You earlier specified that the client is both manufacturer and retailer. So, it would be incurring a number of variable costs at Industry
each step of value chain. If we can somehow get to that part of value chain where costs have increased in excess, we would
Summary
then be able to drill down to the root cause much more easily.
Fashion
Fine. What do you want to know?
The brand’s value chain can be divided into three major buckets – supply side, distribution and demand side. Do we know, if Origin
costs for any of these have grown disproportionately per unit?

Adapted | Bain & Company

© 2022 Bhavya Nawalakha. All rights reserved. 8

 C #1 Profitability Problem in a Leather Garment Company Caselette

Here’s some data:

As a % of total costs
Particulars
2018 2021
Pre-Production Costs 20 15
Processing Costs 30 50
Script
Distribution Costs 30 20
Selling Costs 20 15

From this data, it can be inferred that the relative proportion of pre-production costs, distribution costs and selling costs has gone down. However, the
processing costs have shown a spike in their share of total costs from 2018-2021. I would further like to identify the possible processing costs to see what
has been causing the problem.
Alright. Go ahead
Sure. Some of the processing costs that I can immediately brainstorm are:
1. Labour costs;
2. Power & Fuel Costs
3. Losses by Defects
Summary
4. Packaging & Labelling Costs
Spot on. We have gathered that the client has been incurring an increasing number of losses over the past 7 quarters due to manufacturing defects caused
during production process. Our research indicates that the defect percentage has gone up from 0.5% in 2018 to almost 2.5% in 2021. This has indeed
resulted in loss of raw materials, labour time, power and other company resources in totality. What all do you recommend to the client to bring profits back
on track?

© 2022 Bhavya Nawalakha. All rights reserved. 9

 C #1 Profitability Problem in a Leather Garment Company Caselette

On the basis of given information, I would like to list down a set of recommendations, both short and long term, to help our client reduce such losses in the
coming future:
Short term:
• Identifying ways of realizing (higher) salvage value on defective products
• Improving supervision over the production process
• Reducing the number of short runs, i.e., turning the machines on and off at short intervals
• Improving workmanship standards through labour training
Long term
Script • Replacing existing technology with newer, more efficient one
• Improving product designs and production flow that minimize such defects
*synthesis*

Summary

© 2022 Bhavya Nawalakha. All rights reserved. 10

 C #1 Profitability Problem in a Leather Garment Company Caselette

Moment–to–Shine

Profit Number of Short Runs:

Structure
Generally, short runs lead
to higher wastage as there
are additional efforts and
Revenue Costs resources attached with
discontinuing and re-
Script continuing production
Variable process again and again
Fixed Costs
Costs
Authors’ 2 Cents

Pre-production Processing Distribution Selling When it comes to variable

costs, it is always a good
strategy to confirm the
value chain first and
Losses by
Packaging Labour Power & Fuel identify the costs within
Defects
each step of the value
chain
Summary

Short-term Long-term

1. Identifying ways of realizing (higher) salvage value on 1. Replacing existing technology with newer, more
defective products efficient one
Recommendations 2. Improving supervision over the production process 2. Improving product designs and production flow that
3. Reducing the number of short runs, i.e., turning the minimize such defects
machines on and off at short intervals
4. Improving workmanship standards through labour training

© 2022 Bhavya Nawalakha. All rights reserved. 11