Customized approach to developing a business (JV, license, acq, startup) to maximize best chance for long-term success. Conducted rigorous feasibility study of. The case addresses questions of strategy and finance as Beta considers its options to commercialize the technology. Also presents an opportunity to discuss. Beta considered Odyssey to be a beta golf case analysis of a fruitful start-up golf gear business. Odyssey, which had opened in with $5 million of capital from budgetary. Beta has developed a new golf club technology that allows golfers to reduce the dispersion of miss-hit golf balls. The case addresses questions of strategy and.
Ensuring that the market the company is going after is big enough and has high enough margins to be attractive is important, as is understanding their competition. Startups are small, nimble companies with only a handful of key employees and limited access to cash.
These factors need to be taken into account. A student from Iceland studying in the U. How would you recommend he proceed. A software company has developed video technology that can be used to quickly and easily create short videos that can be sent to a colleague in place of typing a long email.
The company has a small number of beta customers and is looking for advice on how to ramp up their product to attract a wider audience. When answering this type of case, focus on the key things that help these small, fast-growth ventures move with agility as they search for the product and business model that will attract customers and investors. They need the right people —ones with product savvy, marketing savvy and investor savvy to make it.
They need a minimum viable product. This is an initial version of their product offering that will attract paying customers, allowing them earn money and to collect feedback that can be used to improve the product. It will also serve as a proof-of-concept to investors. Start-up and early stage venture also need an initial business plan addressing how they will bring their product to market.
Not all case study interview questions have to do with revenues and costs. Some might focus on charitable organization. An overview of how to approach non-profitability cases is found on this page. This section focuses on key concepts to address in a few common types of non-profitability cases. Nonetheless, they do important work that affects many lives.
They might hire a consulting company to help them improve their effectiveness, or a consulting firm might take on an important project for a charitable organization on a pro-bono basis. The state agency that administers the free summer lunch program for children of families under a certain income threshold wants to increase the reach of its program.
How would you advise they approach this. Beta golf case analysis Malaria is a devastating disease, affecting hundreds of millions of individuals each year. The disease is a strain on the economies of several nations, perpetuating the cycle of poverty. What can be done to alleviate this disease and its adverse economic effects. A detailed example of how to approach a lives affected case is provided here.
As discussed in that case, the key to answering this type of question is to find the key performance indicator KPI the organization is trying to improve. In the case of the first sample question above, this is the number of free lunches served to needy children. If they are falling behind, drill down into the factors that might be causing them to do so.
Cases focused on employee retention are not directly about profits, though the loss of key skills when employees depart and the cost of training new hires require hurts the profitability of organizations with high turnover. A fast-food chain is experiencing an increase in the already-high rate of employee turnover typical in its industry. What would you suggest. The school system in a middle-class suburban town is experiencing higher-than-normal rates of teacher attrition.
With a tight budget, they are unable to simply raise salaries to hold onto experienced teachers. What options does the school system have for increasing teacher retention. Ask your interviewer for this information, as well as survey data on the job satisfaction of all employees.
It can be used to develop a multi-pronged approach to improving employee retention. Cases focused on the landscape of an industry and its competitive dynamics are about the big-picture strategic issues that must be taken into account to compete effectively in that industry.
The publisher of an award-winning regional paper would like your help in assessing and responding to this new threat. The food and beverage industry faces disruption to their traditional brands as organic and small-batch products gain favor with consumers.
How should companies in this industry respond to this new of competitive threat. Ensure you know what the source of change is before you begin to look for a strategy to help the client succeed in the new marketplace. For tips on structuring a case like these, visit the Business Frameworks page.
SWOT analysis and other frameworks include some factors to consider in this type of consulting case interview question. Market sizing cases are focused on establishing the size of a market in terms of annual revenue or the number of units sold rather than determining how to compete successfully in the market. Consulting firms often ask market sizing questions early in the consulting interview process or in interviews of undergraduate students who may not have a deep business background.
They can also be one component of complicated, multi-step cases in later-round interviews. Market sizing questions focus on making logical estimates, showing creativity, and doing basic math. What is the size of the market for organic toothpaste in the United States. How many golf balls would fit inside the Empire State building?
Committing a few key facts to memory would serve you well. For example, knowing the population of the United States or the country you live in would give you a good place to start as you think through the size of the market for various retail goods. Gross domestic product can help with sizing industrial markets. World population in — 7. Department of Commerce. Statistics like these give you a good foundation to start your market size analysis.
For instance, you could begin estimating the size of the U. From there, make logical assumptions:. These assumptions will allow you to calculate the size of the overall toothpaste market in terms of annual revenue. You can and should bring paper and a pen into consulting interviews. Use these to keep track of your assumptions as you work through them and to do the basic math required to come to a conclusion.
Our Market Sizing Questions article has a list of the 7 steps to answering this type of question. Management consulting interviewers screen candidates to ensure that they can do basic math. You may also be asked to extract data from charts and convert from one unit of measure to another. As mentioned in the discussion of market-sizing case questions above, you can and should bring a paper and pen into the interview.
We want our answer to be as grounded in fact as possible. The population of the United States: million. The number of times the average American brushes their teeth — 2 times per day. To get to an annual number of toothpaste applications, we need to multiply by A tube of toothpaste usually lasts me about 2 months.
This means the total revenue for toothpaste sold in the U. I think that people would be less likely to buy organic toothpaste than organic food, because you eat organic food, but you spit organic toothpaste out into the sink. Probably not exactly. 3 man golf betting games There are different sizes of toothpaste tubes, a complication that we did not consider in this analysis.
That would mean that we overestimated consumption. But our estimate of the market size for organic toothpaste is reasonable and grounded in logical assumptions. We could sniff-test our answer by comparing it to a market size we know, or to GDP, one of the facts we suggested having in your back pocket for market sizing case questions. That sounds plausible.
If your answer showed that the market for organic toothpaste was larger than U. GDP, it would be a clear indication that you made a mistake somewhere along the way. The best way to prepare for your consulting case interviews is NOT to spend hundreds of hours reading every case study question and answer you can get your hands on.
Instead, see our page on Case Interview Practice to find out how to make the most of your interview prep time. In addition, check out this video where Davis Nguyen, Founder of My Consulting Offer, talks about how mastering the case interview is made easier when you focus on the most common types of cases.
Here in an online workshop he conducted for Columbia University, NYU, and Cornell students, you can see why this approach is so effective:. After studying the information on this page, you have an in-depth understanding of the types of cases you could be asked to analyze in consulting interviews.
If you still have questions, leave them in the comments below. Thanks for turning to My Consulting Offer for advice on case study interview prep. My Consulting Offer has helped almost For example, here is how Thomas was able to get a BCG offer with just a short time to prepare.. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
We are sharing our powerful strategies to pass the case interview even if you have no business background, zero casing experience, or only have a week to prepare. Back to all. Last Updated January, Rebecca Smith-Allen. Former McKinsey Engagement Manager. Here are the types of cases you might come across during your case interview : Profitability Cases 1.
Your Name. Your Email. Your Background Choose from below. Send Me Access. Profitability Cases. This formula can help ensure you address all the key aspects of straightforward profitability cases like the following: A sports apparel retailer has experienced declining sales in its stores over the past year and declining profits. Beta golf case analysis Or A cell phone manufacturer is experiencing declining profitability despite strong sales.
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