Ross Case Book 2013

ROSS CASEBOOK 2013
Ross Consulting Club

December, 2013
Table of Contents
• Cases: Index 3
• Introduction & Acknowledgements 5
• Firm Overview 6
• Industry Overview 22
• Case Interview Basics 34
• Cases 52
• Additional Recommended Cases 181
2
Cases : Index
• Case 1 - HealthCo 53
• Case 2 - Consumer Product Strategy 59
• Case 3 - CM Burns Manufacturing 66
• Case 4 - HitNot Tires 78
• Case 5 - Pharma Business Growth 87
• Case 6 - Federal Motors 93
• Case 7 - Freedom Bikes 103
• Case 8 - Farsung Electronics 112
• Case 9 - Hugo Noos 120
• Case 10 - LabCo 127
• Case 11 - HealthCare Co 138
• Case 12 - eNP & Co 152
• Case 13 - InvestCo 161
• Case 14 - Cut-N-Edge 165
• Case 15 - Chef‟s Best Cutlery Co 172
3
Note to the Reader
We proudly present the RCC 2013 casebook. This document is meant to provide a brief overview of
case interviews and a series of practice cases. For each case, we have specified the type, difficulty
level, and industry. Some cases are also specific to some firm formats. In this case book, the difficulty
level for all cases is medium or hard. Therefore, we recommend that you refer to previous Ross
casebooks for easier cases if you have just started preparing for case interviews.
We have updated the firm section of this casebook, based on the most recent information for the firms.
We have also updated the industry section. The material is a starting point in your effort to learn more
about firms and different industries that could give you some insights while saving you a lot of time.
However, it is only a first step and we encourage you to build upon the information by doing your own
research on industries and engaging with firms to gain a deeper understanding.
Best of luck in the upcoming recruiting season!
RCC 2013 Casebook Team

Philip Anselmino (MBA 2014) Deovrat Kajwadkar (MBA 2014)
Justin Brown (MBA 2015) Saurabh Kumar (MBA 2015)
Shantanu Kumar (MBA 2015)
4
Acknowledgements
Many people contributed to this year‟s casebook. We are really grateful for your help and
support.
• The Boston Consulting Group

• Daniel Andersen
• Nitin Baliga
• Igor Dudchenko
• Mark Eliason
• Deovrat Kajwadkar
• Christopher Kalich
• Aditya Kapoor
• Nikolay Kovarsky
• Elizabeth Mills
• Kristin Wall
5
FIRM OVERVIEW
Accenture
Accenture is a large global management consulting firm specializing in executable solutions and
organizational transformation.
About Quick Facts
 Focused on practical solutions that clients can implement  Number of consultants: 17,000
 Balance of strategy and implementation  Number of offices: 200
 Rapidly growing management consulting division  Services: 18
 Internal Strategy College offers consultants the opportunity for
professional growth
 New consultants hire into the global operating model or a specific
industry
Career path
 Consultant
Interview process overview
 Manager
 First Round:
 Senior manager
o Two 45- minute interviews consisting of a fit portion and a 30
minute case  Senior Executive
 Second Round:
o Two/Three 45- minute interviews consisting of a fit portion
and a 30 minute case
7
A.T. Kearney
A.T. Kearney is a global team of forward-thinking, collaborative partners that delivers immediate,
meaningful results and a long-term transformational advantage to clients and colleagues.
About Quick Facts
 Traditional strengths are operational consulting & strategy  Number of consultants: 2300
 Increased presence in private equity work  58 offices in 40 countries
 Diverse work environment and friendly colleagues  13 Industry groups
 Strongest industry verticals: Consumer, Industrial, Retail and Public  11 practice areas
Sector Energy (CIRP). Financial Services picking up
 Recent Managing Director change and aggressive growth strategy
(including lateral hires) has been announced for the firm
Career path
Interview process overview  Associate
 First Round  Manager
o Two back-to-back 45 min interviews, each includes fit and  Principal
case
 Partner
o Conducted by a Manager/Principal
 Second Round
o Written case (60 minutes preparation, 30 minute presentation
including 15 minutes for Q&A)
o 45 minute fit interview
o 45 minute full case
8
Bain & Company
Bain & Company is a global management consulting firm that differentiates itself in solving business
problems for clients by working with the clients‟ team as business partners and focusing on results.
About Quick Facts
 Expertise across all major industries and across functions  Number of consultants: 5,400
 Bain redefined the boundaries of traditional strategy consulting in  Number of offices: 49
working with companies such as: Tied Economics, BridgeSpan
Group, PE consulting, Bain Capital
 Emphasis on people – opportunities to balance work –life,
international transfers, externships, private equity rotations
 Leading consulting firm sought by major private equity firms
 Generalist model with office-based staffing Career Path
 Consultant
 Case Team Leader
 First Round:
 Manager
o Two-45 minute interviews including a brief fit interview (5-
10minutes) and a case interview  Principal
 Second Round:  Partner
o 45 minute behavioral interview
o 45 minute case interview
o Written case: Interviewee has 60 min to review a written case
followed by a 30 minute presentation/Q&A by interviewer
9
Boston Consulting Group
BCG is a global management consulting firm and one of the world's leading advisor on business strategy.
Commitment to both clients' success and its own standards is what sets BCG apart.
About Quick Facts
 Regional staffing model  Number of consultants: 6,200
 Creative and supportive environment  78 offices in 43 countries
 BCG provides one of the lowest leverage ratios in the consulting  19 Industry groups
industry; senior management works closely with junior consultants  18 practice areas
 Emphasis on a generalist approach. Consultants are not required to
specialize in an industry or service line until becoming a Principal
 Fortune magazine's 2013 rankings listed BCG as the fourth "best
Career path
company to work for"
 Consultant
 Project Leader
 First Round
o Two Case Interviews (Includes a section for behavioral)  Principal
o Conducted typically by 2nd year Consultants to Principals  Partner
 Second Round
o Three Case Interviews typically conducted by senior
representatives
 All Interviews are 45 min with at least 25 min dedicated to the case
 Some offices (such as Chicago) piloting a written case
10
Booz & Company
Booz & Company is a global management consulting firm known for its functional expertise, industry
foresight, and “sleeves rolled up” approach to working with clients.
About Quick Facts
 Booz & Company is been known for deep industry and functional  Number of consultants: 3000
expertise across public and private sectors, influential global studies  Number of offices: 57
and books, and management magazine “strategy + business”
 Emphasis on mentoring and assessment – senior mentor, junior
mentor, 360 degree performance assessment
 Expertise across diverse industries and functional areas and
emphasis to pick either industry or function (See appendix for
details)
 National staffing model Career Path
 Associate
 Senior Associate
 First Round:
 Principal
o Two 45- minute interviews consisting of a fit portion and a 30
minute case  Vice President, Partner
 Second Round:
o Two 45 minute interviews with partners following the same
format as the first round
11
Cognizant
Cognizant is a global consulting firm focusing on business & IT solutions that increase competitive
advantage through added efficiency and effectiveness.
About Quick Facts
 Strong data analytics driven solutions  Number of consultants: 3,000+
 Senior consultants put on high profile projects right away  Number of global offices: 50
 Accelerated promotion track available for top performers  Industry Practices: 12
 National staffing model  Functional Practices: 6
 Customer-focus culture, based on passion, collaboration, cost
reductions and business results
 End-to-end solutions provider with ideation to value realization Career path
framework
 Senior Consultant
 Manager
 First Round:
 Senior Manager
o One 30 interview consisting of fit questions and another 45
minute interview consisting of a technology case question  Director
 Second Round  Senior Director
o Two 30 minute interviews consisting of fit and experience
questions
Note: Technology case will be a general case consisting of a discussion
about a general idea
*Based on best available information
12
Cummins
Cummins is a corporation of complimentary business units that design, manufacture and distribute
engines and related technologies with opportunities in corporate strategy/development
About Quick Facts
 Immediate exposure to senior level executives  Number of employees: 46,000
 Work on actual problems with large impact on operations/future  Global presence: 190 countries, 600
growth independent distributors, 6,500 dealer
locations
 MBAs go on to lead strategy functions within business units or take
challenging roles in the marketing divisions  Cummins earned $1.66 billion on
sales of $17.3 billion in 2012
 Commitment to a solid work/life balance
 Fortune 500 rank: 160
 “Working Right”: committed to building partnerships with their
people, customers, environment and community Career path
 Corporate Strategy/Supply Chain
Interview process overview Management Manager
 First Round:  Corporate Development
o One 45 minute interview consisting of a case and fit questions  General Management
 Second Round: Note: advancement with Cummins can
o Same day, one 45 minute interview consisting of a case and fit take many different paths
questions
Note: Case is industrial and equipment focused.
13
Deloitte
Deloitte is a global management consulting firm specializing in strategy and implementation across a
broad range of industries and functions.
About Quick Facts
 National staffing model provides flexibility to work in a variety of  Number of consultants: 20,000
industries regardless of office location  Number of offices: 89 US offices
 Focused on executable strategy that offers opportunities in both  Practices
strategy and implementation
 Strategy & Operations
 Job flexibility and culture encourage work-life balance
 Technology
 Deloitte University, leadership center near Dallas where leaders
thrive and ideas prosper  Human Capital
 Expanded strategy practice and capabilities with acquisition of
Monitor Group during January2013
Interview process overview Career path

 First Round:  Senior Consultant
o 30 minute behavioral interview  Manager
o 30 minute case interview
 Senior Manager
 Second Round:
 Partner or Director
o 30 minute behavioral interview
o 60 minute individual case interview
o 90 minute group case interview
14
EY
EY is the 2nd largest professional service firms in the world delivering capabilities to help companies turn
innovation into action, information into insight and risk into results.
About Quick Facts
One of the Big Four Accounting +consulting firms  Number of consultants: 167,000
Advisory Services  Vision 2020 is a firm-wide growth
 Performance Improvement (PI) - includes all operations related work and a revenue to double revenues by 2020
strategy function known as “strategic direction”
(largely led by growth of consulting
 Financial Services Organization (FSO) - strategy work for financial services practices)
clients
Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) includes
 Commercial Advisory Services (CAS) - strategy work related to growth
strategies and due diligence
Career Path
 Operational Transformation Services (OTS) - post-merger integration
 Valuation and Business Modeling  Senior Associate
 Transaction Real Estate (TRE)  Manager
Interview process overview  Senior Manager
 First Round (on campus):  Partner
o One or two interviews1
o Behavioral may be separate or part of each interview
 Second Round (off campus):
o 2-4 interviews with Managers, Senior Managers and Partners
o Mixture of behavioral and case interview
1Depends on which service line you are interviewing for.
15
L.E.K Consulting
L.E.K Consulting is a global management consulting firm that leverages its deep industry expertise and
uses analytical rigor to solve the toughest and most critical business problems of its global clients.
About Quick Facts
 Expertise in Private Equity, Airlines and MedTech  Number of consultants: 1000
 5 offices in the U.S: Boston, New York, San Francisco, Chicago and  22 offices in 14 countries
Los Angeles  15 Industry groups and 4 functional
 Office-based consulting model limits frequency of travel areas worldwide
 Provides strong opportunities for international exposure
 Option of declaring an industry focus early on in the career
Career path
 First Round (phone interview):
 Consultant
o Behavioral and case interviews (quantitative and estimations);
45 minutes; conducted by a consultant and manager  Manager
o Behavioral and case interviews (qualitative); 45 minutes;  Principal
conducted by a consultant and manager  Partner
 Second Round (Off-campus):
o Business presentation interview ; 1 hour preparation, 30 minutes
presentation including Q&A; conducted by principal and
manager
o Behavioral; 30 minutes; conducted by a partner
o Behavioral and case; 45 minutes; conducted by a manager
16
PwC Advisory
PwC Advisory is a rapidly growing consulting organization backed by the stability and strength of the
PwC brand. They support clients in designing, managing and executing lasting beneficial change.
About Quick Facts
 National staffing model  Practice areas:
 Focus on four industry verticals: Financial Services, Health Care,  Strategy
Product and Services, Public Sector  Finance
 Consulting practice projected to double in the next two years  Operation
 People & Change
 High investment by the firm on internal networking events to
develop strong intra-company bonds  Risk
 New employees recruit for a specific industry focus rather than a

generalist role Career path
Interview process over view  Senior Associate
 First Round (On-campus, 2 sections, 45 minutes each)  Manager
o Behavioral  Partner/ Principal
o Mini-Case and Fit
 Second Round (3 sections, 45 minutes each)
o Behavioral
o Content interview: Industry Focus Interview
o Case interview: a presentation based on a case emailed 48
hours in advance
17
McKinsey & Company
McKinsey & Co is a large global management consulting firm focusing on high profile studies for
businesses, governments, and institutions.
About Quick Facts
 Strong research department supporting consultants  Number of consultants: 9,000
 National staffing model  Number of global offices: more than
100 offices in more than 60 countries
 High profile clients and studies
 Industry Practices: 22
 Teams with diverse backgrounds (MBAs, PhDs, JDs)
 Functional Practices: 8
 A culture that promotes work-life balance
 Encourages active discussion; individuals have “obligation to
dissent” Career path
 Associate
 Engagement Manager
Selected candidates have to take Problem-Solving test: 26 Qs, 60 mins
 Associate Principal
 First Round:
o Two 45-60 minute interviews consisting of a case and fit  Partner
questions  Director
 Second Round:
o Three 45-60 minute interviews consisting of a case and fit
questions
Note: Fit questions address three main points: personal impact,
leadership, and problem solving skills
18
Roland Berger
Roland Berger is one of the top international consultancies. It prides itself on developing creative
strategies and implementing practical solutions.
About Quick Facts

 Locations in U.S: Chicago, Boston, New York, Detroit  Number of consultants: 2700
 Values entrepreneurial spirit and individuality of consultants  51 offices in 36 countries
 Three core values: entrepreneurship, partnership and excellence  26 Industry groups and 27 functional
 Deep Understanding of diverse cultures and markets areas worldwide
 Internal transfer policy that allows consultants to permanently  3 industry groups and 4 functional
change offices if they have suitable language skills areas in North America
 Every new hire is assigned a senior mentor to help with the
transition and personal development Career path
Interview process overview  Senior Consultant
 First Round  Project Manager
o Fit and short case interview; 45 minutes; conducted by  Principal
consultants
 Second Round  Partner
o Personal fit interview; 30 minutes; conducted by consultants
o Business knowledge interview; 30-45 minutes; conducted by a
partner
o Presentation case interview ; 30-60 minutes preparation, 30
minutes for presentation including Q&A; conducted by
consultants and members of management team
19
The Cambridge Group
The Cambridge Group is a management consulting firm specializing in helping clients identify and
capture market demand.
About Quick Facts
 Acquired by The Nielsen Company in 2009 enables access to key  Number of consultants: 90
customer insights  Number of offices: 1 (Chicago)
 Emphasis on helping Growth strategy – top line growth
 Major industries include retail, CPG, and financial services
 Office-based consulting model limits frequency of travel
 Major industries include retail, CPG, and financial services, but
expanding into other areas including media and technology
Career path
 Consultant
Interview process overview  Consultant
 Project Manager
 Single Round:  Project Manager
 Project Director
o 3 consecutive interviews totaling 2 hours consisting of a case  Project Director
 Principal
and fit questions.  Principal
20
ZS Associates
ZS Associates is a global management consulting firm specializing in using data driven strategies to
provide sales and marketing solutions.
About Quick Facts
 Expertise in marketing and sales with a focus in healthcare  Number of consultants: 2000
 Partnership with clients to design and implement solutions  Number of offices: 20
 ZS services include consulting, outsourcing, technology, and  Practices
software  Business consulting
 Project-specific and formal training provide opportunities for  Business operations
continued professional development
 Business technology
Career path

 Consultant
 First Round:
 Manager
o On –campus consisting of two sessions-a behavioral interview
and a case interview; 45 minutes each; conducted by a manager  Associate Principal
 Second Round:  Principal
o Behavioral interview; 45 minutes
o Case interview; 45 minutes; conducted by a principal
o Business presentation interview ; 45 minutes preparation, 30
minutes presentation including Q&A
21
INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
Auto Industry
Revenue Streams Cost Structure Market Trends
 Vehicle sales  Manufacturing – 50%  Focus on fuel improving
 Vehicle financing  Production Overhead – 17% efficiency
 Extended Warranties  Corporate Overhead – 7%  Increased popularity of hybrid

and electric vehicles
 Branding is key for selling  Selling (distribution, marketing,
similar product at differing price dealer support/discount) – 23.5%  Top 10 firms control 80% of
points mkt.
 Profits – 2.5%
 Average annual growth: 2.5%
 Over 80% plant capacity
utilization required for  Significant model redesigns
profitability occur approximately every 5
years
 Cars – 68.2%  Vans – 7.9%

Customer
Segments  Pickup trucks and SUVs – 23.9%
 Dealership networks – largest domestic segment

Channels  Wholesalers – purchase fleets of vehicles for businesses and resale to dealerships
 Rental companies
 Relationship with UAW union a major factor in industry profitability
Risk
 Consumer Confidence Index  Steel prices

Key Economic
Drivers  Price of crude  Yield on 10-year Treasury note
23
Airline Industry
 Ticket sales  Direct, Indirect and Overhead  Airlines are consolidating
 Charges for bags and on-board costs  Proliferation of low cost
services  Labor – 11% carriers offering pay per service
 Fuel surcharges  Fuel – 32% options
 Capacity optimization is key for  Aircraft depreciation/rentals - 12%  Flexible capacity is an

profitability important factor in airline
 Airport gates/ facility rentals – 6% profitability
 Cancelled flights as a result of  Online booking and checking to
weather conditions can be a reduce administrative expenses
significant expense
 Profit margins around 5%
 Leisure travelers – 71%, generally price sensitive

Customer
 Business travelers – 25%
Segments
 Freight Transportation – 4%
 Online travel agencies (Orbitz, Expedia, Kayak, etc.)
Channels  Airlines‟ sales team: call centers, online, or kiosk
 Travel management companies (TMCs) serving corporate clients
 Changes in fuel prices have a major impact on profitability
Risk  Economic conditions greatly impact amount of leisure travelers
 World Price of Crude Oil Per capita disposable income

Key Economic
Drivers  Trips by US residents
24
Pharmaceuticals
 Pharmaceutical manufacturing  The manufacturing cost is the  Healthcare reform is expected to

industry is highly capital largest share of the industry‟s boost sales as more individuals
intensive with high revenue costs - 31.5% gain prescription drug coverage
volatility in 2014
 Research & Development- 20%
 The effect of seasonality is high  Tariff barriers are no longer a
on certain products (vaccines  Marketing costs – 7% relevant form of protection
and cold medicine) and low on  Demographic shifts will increase
 Wages account – 11%
other products (pain medicines) sales over next five years
 Federal government grants for  The industry also faces high  Loss of patent on key drugs for
R&D liability insurance costs and high many large pharma companies.
legal fees and settlements
Customer  Patients/consumers who need these drugs/medicines

Segments  Two other target stakeholders: 1. Doctors who prescribe 2. Insurance companies that pay
 Over-the-counter outlets – CVS, Walgreens  Mail order pharmacy: Express Scripts,

Channels Walgreens
 Prescription drugs: Hospitals, pharmacies
 Price competition from generic drugs  Unfavorable government healthcare polices

Risk
 Change in drug utilization and mix patterns
Key Economic  Median age of Population

Drivers  R &D expenditure
25
Commercial Banking
 Loan interest – 67.5%  Wages – 26%  Industry consolidation in the
 Service Fees – 32.5%  Bad debt expense – 21%, recent wake of subprime crisis
 Fee based services levels are significantly higher  Increased government regulation
than historical average (5%)  Increasing importance on mobile
 Credit cards
 Interest expense – 15% banking for long term success
 Facilities – 7%  Avg. projected 5-year annual
revenue growth: 7.4%
 Four largest players accounted
for estimated market share of
42.9%
 Retail customers – 53%  Other – 5%

Customer
Segments  Corporate clients – 42%
 Branch offices  Mobile banking

Channels
 Stand alone ATMs
 Non traditional competitors are beginning to offer banking services - Retail Co.
Risk
 Prime rate  Corp. profit  Regulation

Key Economic
Drivers  Household debt  External competition
26
Oil & Gas
 Heavy crude oil – 40%  Exploration – 36%  Four largest players account for
 Light crud oil – 36.2%  Production – 41% estimated market share of 38.5%
 Natural gas – 23.8%  Transportation – 5%  Oil price forecasted to increase
 Refining – 13%  Incentive to invest in research

for oil alternatives will rise
 Distribution – 4%
 Success of „shale gas‟
 Marketing – 1% transformed domestic energy
 Industry divided among supply, with potentially
upstream, midstream and inexpensive and abundant new
downstream source of fuel
 Petroleum refiners – 74.%  Electricity generators – 9.2%

Customer
Segments  Other industries – 10.6%  Domestic and commercial users – 5.6%
 Retail  Wholesale
Channels
 Utilities & commercial
 Access to reserves pose risk from political constraints and competition for proven reserves;
Risk government lands containing large reserves, but currently restricted
 Energy policy is in a continued state of flux in many key geographies, including the US
 Price of crude & natural gas  Downstream demand
Key Economic
Drivers  BRIC nation GDP growth
27
Health Care
Global Cost Structure
Revenue Streams Market Trends
as % of GDP
 Hospital care - $929B  US - 17.9%  Increases in Medicare and a
 push for a national healthcare
Physician and clinical services -  Europe - 10.6%
$588.8B system promise high returns for
 OECD - 12.6% the healthcare providers
 Prescription drugs - $262.3B  Highly fragmented: Top 50
 Latin America - 7.6%
 Nursing - $238.6B organizations account for 15%
 East Asia & Pacific - 6.8% revenues
 Dental services - $116.6B
 Employers pushing health care
 Research, Equipment,  Sub-Saharan Africa - 6.4%
costs onto employees - 44.5% of
Investment - $161.5B  Middle East & N. Africa - 4.8% Americans get benefits, down
from 49.2% in 2008
 South Asia - 3.8%
Customer  Patients/consumers
Segments  All generations: Baby Boomers, Generation X, Y (Millennial generation), and Z
 Hospitals  Outpatient surgery centers  Pharmacies

Channels  Doctors offices  Other centers
 Nursing homes  Medical equipment
 Profitability depends on efficient operations and in some cases, grants and federal funds
Risk  Impact of Affordable Care Act of 2010 still uncertain
 Regulation for Health & Medical insurance  Aging population

Key Economic
Drivers  Federal funding for Medicare and Medicaid  Advances in medical care and technology
28
Private Equity & Hedge Funds
Total Revenue: $89.2bn: Wage compensation and benefits Over 2013-18, industry revenue is
56% from Private Equity Funds are the largest expense incurred by expected to grow at 3.8%
operators, accounting for 21% Tighter regulations and fund
40% from Hedge Funds oversight expected in the wake of
Administrative costs, including
the financial crisis
regulatory filings, record keeping,
No government assistance (tariff or
travel, communication and
stimulus) expected in the next 5 yrs
information services, accounting for
Top 6 Private Equity players
15%
control 15 % of market share
Profits – 33% Top 5 Hedge Funds have 9%
market share
Customer Institutional investors (e.g. public and private pension funds) - 61%
Segments Private investors (e.g. High net-worth individuals) - 39%
Private equity funds and hedge funds

Channels
Fund of funds
 New legislation, forecast increases in interest rates, rising competition and the continued de-
Risk leveraging of investments will temper revenue growth over the next five years
 Investor uncertainty S&P 500

Key Economic
Drivers Access to credit
29
Retail
 Women‟s Apparel sale accounts for  Industry costs are similar for most  Over the four years to 2017, retail
the major share of revenues at 21% operators, but vary between firms of sector revenue is forecast to grow at
 Drugs & Cosmetics and Furniture different sizes & specialties an average rate of 4.5% per year
& Household appliances contribute Largest expense for the industry is  Employment in the industry is
16% each to total revenue Cost of Goods Sold (purchases). Has projected to grow slowly
 Children and Men's wear are each increased due to weak sales &  Consolidation expected to continue
10% of retail revenue accounts for 74% of total costs  The industry's contribution to the
 Toys - 8%, Footwear – 5% and Employee wages account for 9.5% GDP is expected to underperform
misc. items - 13% are other sources Rent and Utility costs are 3% compared to the US economy
of revenue Marketing costs are close to 3% Major players account for 81% of
market share
Customer  The industry is consumer-oriented and, due to the spectrum of products, its markets are generally
Segments segmented into different age groups
 Segment shares of the revenue have remained relatively unchanged over the past five years
 Big-Box Retailers  Discount Department stores
Channels
 Specialty Retail stores
 Changes in consumer disposable income can cause consumers to defer purchasing products from
Risk retailers as industry is sensitive to changes in economic activity
Consumer confidence index Population segmentation

Key Economic
Drivers Per capita disposable income
30
Telecommunication
 Plain old telephone calls, and  Investment and investment-related  Expectations of always-on service
increasing text and images. High- costs are 60% of the costs of everywhere forcing operators to
speed internet access, broadband production boost network capacity and
information services and interactive connectivity
 Wage shares are at about 25%
entertainment Increased demand for emerging
The fastest growth comes from A notable part of the investments services like mobile payment
services delivered over mobile are what economists refer to as platforms and cloud computing
networks. “sunk costs”. These are long term Revenue increase forecast for
Advertising income accounts for investments which can be used only Internet services and wireless
about 5% of total industry revenue. for specific economic activities. telecom are 7.9% and 4.8% per
annum respectively till 2017
Customer  Residential and small business markets

Segments  The corporate market - less price-sensitive than residential customers. Large MNCs, premium
service buyers include those opting for high-security private networks & videoconferencing.
 Retail Channels
Channels
 Direct Sales
 Capital-intensive telecom industry the biggest barrier to entry is access to finance

Risk  New technology is prompting a raft of substitute services, with lower prices and more exciting
services driving down industry profitability
 Number of broadband and mobile internet connections
Key Economic
Drivers  Demand from broadcasting and telecommunications
31
Utilities
 Transmitted electricity is separated  Purchased power accounts for the  Overall growth over the next five
into two categories, base load and largest component of this industry's years is anticipated to be positive
intermittent electricity cost structure – 48%  Advanced metering technology
 Base load electricity is expected to Wages - 9% , wage growth has will become a consistent feature of
account for the bulk of industry fallen due to slower rate increases this industry over the next five years
revenue [95%] ( Coal – 36%, and industry consolidation  Renewable power, such as solar
Natural gas – 25%, Nuclear – 17%, High depreciation costs because and wind, are projected to grow
Others – 17%) infrastructure requires significant strongly over the next five years
 Intermittent electricity is generated capital investments  Public utility commissions (PUC)
from renewable energy sources [5% Marketing, maintenance contracts are expected to grant rate increases,
revenue share] and other costs – 9% fueling revenue and profit growth.
Customer  Residential  Industrial and Transportation

Segments  Commercial
 Transmission grids
Channels
 The Utilities industry is in the mature stage of its life cycle and is associated with low risk s
Risk  Seasonality of electricity consumption (due to weather shifts) can squeeze revenues in the short
term
Electric power consumption Industrial production index
Key Economic
Drivers World price of natural gas
32
Further Reference
Auto Industry - IBISWorld Industry Report 33611a

Commercial Banking - IBISWorld Industry Report 52211
Oil & Gas - IBISWorld Industry Report 21111
Airlines: IBISWorld Industry Report 48111b
Pharma: IBISWorld Industry Report 32541a
Healthcare: IBISWorld Industry Report 52411b
Retail: IBISWorld Industry Report (Retail Trade)
Telecom: IBISWorld Industry Report 51332, 51711c, 51741, 51791a
Utilities: IBISWorld Industry Reports 22111 a-e, 22112, 22121
Private Equity: IBISWorld Industry Report 52599
33
Case Interview Basics
Case Structure
Understand the Develop Form

Analyze
Question Framework Recommendation
(~20 minutes)
(~1-2 minutes) (~1-2 minutes) (~1-2 minutes)
• LISTEN • Ask for a moment to • Refer back to the • State your
• Summarize the organize your thoughts framework as you recommendation as a
problem statement to • Develop 3-4 areas to move through each of direct response to the
make sure you analyze along with a the main areas problem/objective – it
understand the few tailored sub-topics • Use one sheet of paper should not come as a
situation and • Structure the per topic – think of the surprise to the
objectives framework in a logical case as a PowerPoint interviewer
• Ask 1-2 clarifying fashion – it should deck • Incorporate key
questions around the open with the most • Tie back each piece of metrics/findings as a
topic and/or metrics to important topic and analysis to the main part of your
be used for the provide the objective/problem recommendation
analysis interviewer with a statement • Include risks and next
• Make sure you have all roadmap of where you • Walk through the steps
the information you plan to take the case calculations /analysis
need to develop a • Engage the interviewer • Drive insights
framework by turning the whenever possible!
framework towards
them
35
Porter’s Five Forces
Porter’s Five Forces Analysis
Threat of New
Entrants
Bargaining Power of Internal Bargaining Power of

Suppliers Rivalry Customers
Threat of Substitutes
36
Porter’s Five Forces
Concept Key Drivers

Internal Rivalry • Concentration and balance • Exit barriers
• Industry growth • Overcapacity
• Product differences
Threat of New Entry • Economies of scale • Competitor response
(Barriers to Entry) • Capital requirements • Brand identity
• Access to distribution • Proprietary product differences
channels
Threat of Substitutes • Switching costs • Availability of and consumer
• Relative pricing propensity to substitute products
Bargaining Power of • Supplier concentration • Threat of forward integration

Suppliers • Switching costs • Product differentiation
Bargaining Power of • Buyer concentration • Ability to backward integrate

Customers • Buyer volume • Substitute products
• Buyer switching costs
37
Key Marketing Concepts
4Ps Considerations
Product • Features and capabilities • Packaging and size
• Quality and reputation • Positioning and market
• Service and warranties segmentation
• Differentiated versus commodity
Promotion • “Pull” versus “push” • Public relations
• Consumer awareness • Buying process
• Loyalty • Trial/Repurchase
• Advertising medium
Price • Perceived value • Skimming
• Willingness to pay • Strategy  relation to market
• Retail/Discounts size, product lifecycle, and
• Economic incentives competition
Place • Channels • Coverage
(Distribution) • Inventory  levels, turnover, • Transportation  alternatives,
carrying costs efficiencies, costs
38
Key Marketing Concepts
3Cs Considerations
Company • Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats
• Strategy and vision
• Available resources/Capacity
• Experience/Learning Curve
• Financial
• Culture/Organizational structure
Competition • Industry
• Size/Number/Market share
• Economies of Scale/Scope
• Capabilities/Experience
• Resources  financial, distribution
Customer • Perceptions
• Loyalty
• Switching costs
• Purchase behavior
• Segmentation
• Market characteristics/trends
39
General Frameworks
Topic Key Drivers

Revenue • Volume
• Internal Price, Customer Service,
Distribution/Inventory/Capacity
• External Competition, Substitutes/Complements, Market
Forces/Demand
• Price  Competition, Elasticity, Differentiation, Segments
• Product Mix  Attributes (e.g. niche, patent), Quality, % of
Revenue, Variety
• Alternative Revenue Streams
Costs • Fixed Costs  Manufacturing, Labor, Marketing, Overhead, IT,
SG&A, PP&E
• Variable Costs  Inputs, Distribution, Marketing, Maintenance,
Packaging, Inventory
• Balance Sheet Items
• Benchmark Opportunity Cost/Cost Accounting/Capacity Utilization
• External  Union strikes, Technology, Currency Fluctuations,
Tariffs, De-Regulation
40
General Frameworks
Topic Key Drivers

Competition • Rivals (structure) • Reaction
• New Entrants • Position
• Substitutes
Customers • Market Size • Purchase Drivers
• Segments • Price Elasticity
• Needs • Retention/Loyalty
Processes • Manufacturing • Customer Service
• Marketing • IT
• Sales • R&D
• Distribution • Forecasting
Company • Core Competencies • Controls
• Cost of Capital • Financial Capability
• Brand • Management Capability
• Organization / Incentives
41
General Frameworks
Topic Key Drivers

Macro • Legislation
• Unions
• Technology
• Economy  Oil, Interest Rates, Unemployment
• International Issues  Politics, Regulations, Taxes, Tariffs
• Environment
• Socio-Cultural
• Demographics
Supply Chain • Suppliers
• Distributions
Industry • Barriers to Entry/Exit
• Lifecycle
• Consolidation
• Government Policy
• Capital Costs
• Access to Technology, Distribution, etc.
42
Key Formula Review
Topic Formula
Time Value of Money
Rule of 72
Little‟s Law
Inventory
Profitability
Breakeven
Margin
Markup
43
Key Formula Review
Topic Formula
Return on Assets (ROA)
Return on Equity (ROE)
DuPont Analysis
Working Capital
Income Statement Sales

− COGS
= Gross Profit
− SG&A
= EBITDA
− Depreciation/Amortization
= Operating Profit
− Interest Expense
= EBIT
− Tax Expense
= Net Income
44
Economics Review
Concept Definition
Adverse Selection Situation in which an individual‟s demand for insurance is aligned to
their risk of loss (i.e. people with the highest expected value will buy
insurance) and the insurer cannot account for this correlation in the
price.
Consumer Surplus Economic gain achieved when consumers purchase a product for a
price less than their willingness to pay.
• Consumer Surplus = Willingness to Pay - Price
Economies of Scale The average cost per unit for a business entity is reduced by increasing
the scale of production.
Economies of Scope The average cost for a business entity is reduced by producing two or
more products.
Elasticity • If E>1, decrease price to increase revenue
• If E<1, decreased price leads to lower revenue
Law of Diminishing At some point in the production process, the addition of one more unit
Returns of output , while holding everything else constant, will eventually lead
to a decrease in per unit returns.
45
Economics Review
Concept Definition
Marginal Cost Cost of one more unit of output.
Monopoly Entity is the only supplier of a particular good.

• Lack of competition  produce less and charge more
• Barriers may include government regulation, networks, patents, etc.
• Revenue is the midpoint of the demand curve
Moral Hazard The unobservable actions and risks that humans may take once a contract is signed since they
don‟t bear consequences. It is a special case of information asymmetry that affects the cost of
transaction.
Perfect Competition • Firms take price  MR = P
• Maximum profit = MR = MC
• P<AVC  shut down
Price Discrimination Situation in which identical goods are sold at different prices from the same provider.
• 1sr degree  Different price for different willingness to pay
• 2nd degree  Different price for different quantities
• 3rd degree  Different price for different segments (attributes)
Risk Averse Individuals who prefer certainty over the uncertain for the same expected value (EV).
Risk Neutral Individuals who are indifferent on risk taking if the EV is the same.
Risk Seeking Individuals who prefer risk even if the EV for a certain event and the risk is the same.
46
Glossary
Term Definition
Arbitrage The purchase of securities on one market for immediate resale on another
market in order to profit from a price discrepancy.
Break-Even Total amount of revenue needed to offset the sum of a firm's costs. Implies that
the firm's profit will be $0.
CAGR Compound Annual Growth Rate: (Ending value/beginning value)^(1/# of
years)-1. Most likely to show up in a case with graphs and exhibits.
Capacity The maximum level of output of goods and/or services that a given system can
potentially produce over a set period of time.
Competitive When a firm is able to deliver benefits equal to competitors but at a lower cost
Advantage OR able to deliver greater benefits than competitors.
Contribution C=P-V, where P is unit price, and V is variable cost per unit.
Margin
Core The activities that a firm does well to create competitive advantage.
Competencies
47
Glossary
Term Definition
Customer Subdivision of a market into discrete groups that share similar
Segmentation characteristics.
Discount Rate Also known as cost of capital. There is an opportunity cost associated
with every investment, with the cost being the expected return on an
alternate investment.
Entering New Market Three main methods: start from scratch, form joint venture, acquire an
existing player.
Fixed Costs Costs that do not change with an increase or decrease in the amount of
goods or services produced.
Gross Margin A Company‟s total sales minus its cost of goods sold, divided by the
total sales revenue, expressed as a percentage.
Horizontal Integration The acquisition of additional business activities at the same level of
the value chain.
International Main mechanisms: exporting, licensing, franchising, joint venture,
Expansion foreign direct investment (acquisition or startup).
48
Glossary
Term Definition
Inventory A ratio showing how many times a company's inventory is sold and
Turnover replaced over a period. Should be compared to industry averages: low
turnover implies poor sales or excess inventory; high ratio implies either
strong sales or ineffective buying.
Learning Curve Visually shows how new skills or knowledge can be quickly acquired
initially, but subsequent learning becomes much slower. A steeper curve
indicates faster, easier learning and a flatter curve indicates slower, more
difficult learning.
Market Share The percentage of market size controlled by an individual firm.
Payback Period The length of time required to recover the cost of an investment.
Market Size Total size of a population (usually measured in number of people or actual
dollar value) that would purchase a company's goods or services. Market
size is always relevant and is a question that should be asked.
Product Lifecycle Four main stages: market introduction, growth, maturity, decline.
NPV The difference between present value cash inflows and present value cash
outflows.
49
Glossary
Term Definition
Product Mix Total number of product lines that a company offers to its customers.
Often an important area to explore in profitability cases to identify
loss-making products.
Promotion Coupons, discounts, trials, etc. designed to increase sales of a product
or service.
Rule of 72 Also known as the rule of 70, AKA rule of 69. Simply put 72, 70 or
69 in the numerator and the projected annual growth rate in the
denominator to give you the amount of time until the investment
doubles.
Sales per Square Foot The average revenue a business creates for every square foot of sales
space. Used in the retail industry as a measure of efficiency.
Same Store Sales A statistic used in retail industry to determine what portion of new
(SSS) sales has come from sales growth and what portion from the opening
of new stores.
50
Glossary
Term Definition
SWOT Analysis Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Very basic
framework, probably not a good idea to put down as your case
framework, but good to have as a mental checklist.
Synergies The idea that the value and performance of two companies combined
will be greater than the sum of the separate individual parts. Used
mostly in M&A.
Value Chain Another concept from Michael Porter. His Value chain: Inbound
Logistics, Operations, Outbound logistics, Marketing and Sales.
Variable Costs Costs that vary depending on a company's production volume; they
rise as production increases and fall as production decreases.
Vertical Integration Degree to which a firm owns its backward suppliers or forward
buyers.
Weighted Average An average in which each quantity is assigned a weight. These
weightings determine the relative importance of each quantity on the
average.
51
Cases
Case 1: HealthCo
• Type : Market Entry
• Difficulty: Medium
• Industry: Healthcare
• Firm Format: N/A
Difficulty: Medium
Industry: Healthcare
HealthCo Market Entry
Type: Market Entry
RCC Original
Problem Statement Information Provided Upon Request
Your client is HealthCo, a software company Software is provided to hospitals for a

that has developed an innovative software fixed annual fee, independent of the
solution for hospitals. The software is used number of patients served or doctors
for tracking patient outcomes and utilizes an using it
extensive database and proprietary analytics
to recommend procedures based on patient Client is focused on maximizing revenue
comorbidities. Software is patented and there are
HealthCo is preparing to go to market and is currently no competitors in the market
seeking our advice on how to maximize
revenue.
54
Exhibit 1
Hospital distribution by size
Number of hospitals
5400
100.0%
80.0%
55.6%
60.0% Small
Medium
40.0% Large
33.3%
20.0%
11.1%
0.0%
55
Model answer and interview guidance
High level model answer Additional guidance
 Interviewee should recognize that this is a Market Entry/Pricing case  Software is provided to hospitals as a
prompt. fixed annual fee, independent of the
number of patients served or doctors
 Interviewee should identify that pricing should be based on the value the
using it
software brings to the hospital
 A strong candidate will recognize that the value provided to the hospital will  Annually patients served per hospital:
depend on the hospital size. In this case, the software provides less value
to large hospitals because they see more patients and can use that sample – Small: 5000
size to recommend treatments.
– Medium: 10,000
 The interviewee should correctly calculate the number of hospitals in each
segment and the maximum willingness to pay based on the ―Additional – Large: 15,000
guidance‖ to the right
 Annual value of software to hospital
 Next, the candidate should calculate the revenue generated at each of the
per patient:
three price points calculated above ($150k, $250k, $300k).
– 150k: Small, Medium, & Large hospitals all purchase :150k*5400=$810M – Small: $50/patient
– 250k: Small and Medium hospitals purchase: 250k*(3000+1800)=1.2B – Medium: $30/patient
– 300k: Only Medium hospitals purchase: 300k*1800=540M
– Large: $10/patient
 An excellent candidate will notice that software value is significantly based
on total number of users (multiple hospitals), there are significant benefits  Cost are based on a per hospital basis
of a ―network effect‖ provided by a larger data set. There may be a
possibility for a pricing increase after a large base is established.
56
Solution
Calculate willingness to pay by hospital size:
Small Medium Large

Patients per Hospital 5000 10,000 15,000
Value / patient $50 $30 $10
Maximum 5k*$50= 10k*$30= 15k*$10=
willingness to pay $250k $300k $150k
Maximize revenue by multiplying willingness to pay by # of hospitals participating. Hospitals will not purchase if
price is above their maximum willingness to pay.
Size Small Medium Large Total

# of Hospitals 3000 1800 600 Revenue
Priced at $150k $450M $270M $90M $810M
Priced at $250k $750M $450M - $1,200M
Priced at $300k - $540M - $540M
57
Conclusion
Recommendation Next Steps
Recommendation Hire and train a sales team
– Price software at $250k per hospital to Develop marketing pitch to demonstrate

achieve maximum revenue of $1.2B value for hospitals
Risks Develop software for other patient service

institutions such as physical therapy,
– Insufficient adoption, hospitals unable to primary physicians, etc.
achieve maximum value
58
Case 2: Consumer Product Strategy
• Type: Market Entry
• Difficulty: Hard
• Industry: Consumer goods
• Firm Format: BCG provided
Consumer products strategy
Consumer products Market Entry Strategy

Industry Business
(case name) problem type
Our client is a large, multinational consumer products company with business in over 200
countries. Today, we are going to focus on its US business.
Our client has been following US demographic trends and has found that low income
households have been growing two times as quickly as other consumer segments. Low
income is defined as families with income at the poverty level or below.
Description of
the business Our client has always had a premium product strategy. It sells its products in grocery stores,
problem convenience stores, mass retailers, etc. but its products are always priced at the high-end
of their respective categories. It has never targeted the low income segment before and
doesn't have a low income strategy, but given the growth of this segment, our client is
considering entering the low income segment.
Our client has 3 questions for BCG.
1) Should it have a low income strategy?

2) If it should have a low income strategy, what are some tactics it should deploy?
Case
3) What are some of the risks the client may face?
questions
to solve
60
What would you like to know to help the client answer its questions?
[When the candidate asks about products, share Exhibit 1] The client has shared some data
for its key products. What do you make of this information?
If the client achieved its fair share of the low income segment, how much additional revenue
would it generate?
Questions for What else would you like to know about diapers and cold medicine to assess the opportunity?
the candidate
Ok. The client is not interested in cold medicine, but it has done customer research that
suggests low income consumers are interested in buying diapers. [Share Exhibit 2] What do
you see that could help us figure out why low income consumers aren't buying our client's
diapers?
What else should our client think about as it develops a low income strategy? What are the
risks?
Low income consumers purchase largely in smaller, local shops
Information Low income consumers can't afford salons, but will indulge on shampoos
provided upon
request Low income consumers are willing to spend more on baby food to protect their children
There are valid generics that compete with our client's cold medicine
61
The client should pursue a low income strategy, focusing on diapers, which could
generate an additional $25M in revenue.
To pursue low income consumers, our client should reduce its package size.
Today, our client's package size is significantly larger than its competitors. Our
Recommendation client could keep the price /diaper the same, but if it dropped the package size
from 40 diapers to 20 diapers, it would cut the absolute price of the box to $10,
even lower than its competitors.
There will be some risks involved with adopting a low income strategy including
cannibalizing business from existing products and brand risk.
62
Quantitative analysis and solutions
1 Calculate overall share and share of low income consumers by product/category
2 Calculate incremental revenue for cold medicine and diapers

• Cold medicine = (20%-10%) * $75M = $7.5M
• Diapers = (50%- 25%) * $100M = $25M
Total incremental revenue = $7.5M + $25M = $32.5M
63
Exhibit 1
Total LI
consumer
spend on LI consumer
Product/ Total category Client category category spend on client
category sales (US$M) sales (US$M) (US$M) (US$M)
Shampoo 400 100 90 30
Cold Medicine 250 50 75 7.5
Diapers 300 150 100 25
Baby food 300 100 100 30
LI: Low Income

64
Exhibit 2
Average Average price

Product/ Client package size of Client of top 5
category package size competitors price competitors
Shampoo 10 oz bottle 12 oz bottle $4 $3
Cold Medicine 6 oz bottle 6.5 oz bottle $6 $3
Diapers 40-pack 32 pack $20 $16
Baby food 6 oz jar 6 oz jar $2 $1.50
65
Case 3: C.M. Burns Manufacturing Company
• Type : Consolidation / Synergies

• Industry: Consumer Electronics / Manufacturing
• Firm Format: Bain & Co
Difficulty: Medium
Industry: Consumer Electronics
C.M. Burns Manufacturing Company
Type: Consolidation / Synergies
Bain & Co.
Scenario: C.M. Burns Manufacturing Co., a $20B • Product mix is the same, meaning that each
annual revenue consumer electronics company has company generates the same proportion of
just purchased Smithers Electronics, a $4B annual revenues from DVD players, Blu-ray players,
revenue consumer electronics company, and is busy TVs, MP3 devices, and headphones.
integrating the two firms. Both companies spend a • Both manufacture proprietary goods and each
significant amount of money on branding and has its own operations.
marketing their different products. Both are present • Both sell products via retailers, neither sell direct
in all of the major channels, and both produce DVDs (neither is considering direct sales).
and Blu-Ray players, televisions, MP3 devices, and
• Products are not differentiated in terms of quality
headphones.
or functionality, but branding sets them apart and
The CEO of Burns, Charles Montgomery Burns, has distinct customer segments prefer one brand to
come to your firm to request help on identifying the other (though this does not matter which
$350M in near-term synergies in order to justify the segments for this case).
stock-price premium that Burns Manufacturing paid • These are both US-based firms with operations
for the acquisition of Smithers. in the US and both exist in all major channels
across the US.
• Growth of each company is stable.
67
Guidance for interviewer
Directions for this case moving forward
The interviewee should immediately recognize a couple of things:
• First, because their product mixes are the same and the brand is the differentiator, interviewee
should get straight to cost synergies, as revenue synergies are not likely to be relevant in this
case. Feel free to challenge the interviewee if they go after revenue synergies. If they provide
decent justification, then give them due credit, but then ask: what other synergies are available?
If they ID cost synergies, push them forward in the case, but if not, then continue to challenge
until they see cost synergies as the clear path.
• Great interviewees will immediately notice that Burns Manufacturing Co.’s revenues are 5X those
of Smithers’. This ratio plays an important role in the case. If the interviewee does not see this
right away, then give them time to ID this element further down the road. When they absolutely
have to know it, then lead them to this insight through targeted questioning. Bonus points for
anyone who sees it very early in the case, though.
A solid framework will:
• Focus mainly on cost synergies, breaking costs into its various components: FC and VC, down to
PPE, back office, packaging, components for electronics, labor, operations, marketing, etc.
• Have a step for quantifying the impact of each of the interviewee’s findings.
68
Exhibit Guidance for interviewer
Guidance to Exhibit 1
Once the interviewee asks about costs generally, go ahead and give them Exhibit 1, detailing the
specific cost categories. If they do not ask for this, push them in the general direction. Give them this
cost info before giving them any other specific information.
Somewhere in here the interviewee needs to have recognized the 5X multiplier in the revenues of the
company, but don’t just give it away yet.
Once you give the interviewee Exhibit 1, they may reason through it. Pay attention to their logic and
take note. If interviewee wants to tackle marketing, note that it’s not a bad idea at first glance. But
then ask him/her what we know about these companies and marketing (these are companies who
distinguish themselves through their brands, not differentiated products—can’t easily cut marketing).
Plus, marketing won’t cut along the lines of the 5X multiplier the same way packaging and
components will—because these things are proportionally related to the sales volume, whereas
marketing is not.
Interviewee may also mention labor or distribution. If he/she wants to tackle this issue, say that labor
and distribution is optimized and there’s not a lot of room for improvements in that area.
Interviewee should focus in on components and packaging; may also mention overhead, but again,
overhead does not match up with the 5X multiplier as well as components and packaging.
69
Exhibit 1: Cost Categories Across Each Company
Cost Category CM Burns Smithers

Marketing $6,000M $1,000M
Distribution $5,000M $1,000M
Packaging $1,600M $400M
Components $2,600M $800M
Labor $1,000M $200M
Overhead $1,600M $400M
70
Exhibit Guidance for Interviewer
Exhibits 2 - 4
 As stated earlier, interviewee should prioritize packaging and components. Bonus points to the
interviewee who prioritizes components explicitly over packaging because of the cost savings he/she
can see from the aggregate numbers.
 The theory behind these cost synergies is that if CM can buy for a lower price (which it looks like it can),
then now that Smithers is merged with CM, Smithers should be able to get the same price (increased
buyer power, decreased supplier power).
 The cost savings look like this (if interviewee can’t eyeball exact numbers, go ahead and tell them):
Components
Smithers Where cost

Cost Category CM Burns Savings
(current) should be
Molded plastic $600M $200M $120M $80M
Chips, proc. $800M $200M $160M $40M
Metal casing $1,200M $400M $240M $160M
Total savings if CM renegotiates w/ Smithers’ component suppliers: $80 M + $40 M + $160 M = $280 M
71
Exhibit Guidance for Interviewer Cont’d
Exhibits 2 - 4
 A similar process can be done for the packaging costs, which will yield smaller results.
 Interviewee should notice on this analysis that cardboard is different from recycled materials
and that without more information, there is nothing to be done about this category.
Smithers Where cost
(current) should be
Styrofoam $160M $80M $32M $48M
Recycled materials and cardboard can‟t be compared
Plastic $690M $160M $138M $22M
 Total savings from re-negotiating packaging costs: $70M
 If the interviewee wants to analyze overhead costs, let them do the math, but then challenge
the feasibility to use the 5X multiplier in this situation—we don’t have enough information to
know if the costs are proportional with the revenues (unlike components and packaging)—so
these are not realizable savings
Smithers Where cost
(current) should be
Salaried Staff $2,000M $120M $40M $80M
IT $1,400M $280M $280M $0M
72
Exhibit 2: Components Costs
C.M. Burns Manufacturing Co. Smithers Electronics
3000 900
800
2500
600 700 200
2000 600
800 500 200
1500
400
1000 300
1200 200 400
500
100
0 0
Molded plastic Chips, processors, etc. Molded plastic Chips, processors, etc.
Metal casing Metal casing
73
Exhibit 3: Packaging Costs (in millions)
2000 500
1600 400
160
80
1200 300
690
160
800 200
400 750 100

160
0 0
Cardboard Plastic Styrofoam Styrofoam Plastic Recycled materials
74
Exhibit 4: Overhead Costs (in millions)
2000 600
1600
200
400
1200
120
800
1400 200
400 280
0 0
IT Salaried staff IT Salaried staff
75
Additional
Brainstorming section (if you have time)
Some interviewees will work through the case very quickly—if they do, ask them to think about long-term
synergies available to the company
Now that we’ve considered short-term synergies, what long-term synergies might we have?
Possible long-term synergies:

• Distribution: using economies of scale, we should be able to decrease distribution costs for the
combined company below a 5-to-1 ratio (as it currently is)
• Overhead: consolidating our various IT systems and corporate functions will be a long project,
but should also allow us to decrease costs as processes are streamlined
• Labor: another long-term project, labor costs should go down as manufacturing operations are
brought together—removing excess capacity will allow labor costs on a per-unit-basis to go
down over time
76
Conclusion
 Re-negotiate supplier contracts so that raw  Examine contract requirements (long-term

materials for Smithers Electronics will cost the or no?)
same as raw materials for CM Manufacturing
Co
 Identify relevant suppliers and reach out to
 Components: $280M in savings them with new deal information
 Packaging: $70M in savings
 Begin a long-term study of possible

 This results in exactly $350M in savings synergies to be obtained from distribution,
overhead, and labor
 Long-term synergies to consider:

 Distribution
 Overhead
 Labor
 Risks:
 Long-term supplier contracts
 Recommendation assumes same level
of quality between suppliers/goods
77
Case 4: HitNot Tires
• Industry: Manufacturing / Automotive
Difficulty: Medium
Industry: Manufacturing / Automotive
HitNot Tires Type: Market Entry
(Ross Original – modified from Southern California Edison 1st round)
Problem statement narrative Information provided upon request
• The R&D division of ABC chemicals has Objective: 10% increase in total revenues in 2
invented a special rubber with the unique years
quality that the rubber is impervious to any
ABC facts: Mature company with constant annual
impact. This material is also much lighter and
revenue of $10B. No products in the current
slightly cheaper to manufacture than
lineup sold to the auto industry; current chemical
conventional rubber.
products sold to refineries, semiconductor plants
etc. through B2B channels
• ABC wants to produce bullet proof tires for the Product fact: It is patent protected. No other
auto industry using this new material. product in the market right now can stop bullets
completely, competitors tires sustain damage but
allow the car to run at up to 75mph after a hit.
• The client has approached us and they need
Bullet proof Tire Market facts: 5 big players
our help in assessing the market size for bullet
control the market with 20% market share each
proof tires and come up with a pricing strategy.
The client also wants to decide whether Market growth: last 5 years (8%, 11%, 12%, 9%,
entering the bullet proof tire market is a good 10%) (individual year data not important,
decision. interviewee can assume 10% avg.)
Channels: If candidate mentions channels, guide
to bonus section on channels after completing
market sizing and pricing.
79
Suggested Structure
Solution Guide
• Ideal candidate structure will look similar to this

1. Analyze company
• Size
• Revenue Note:
• Brands This is a new product, not only for the company but the
• Channels industry. Good candidates will want to think about price
before sizing the market.
2. Analyze market
• Major Players
• Barriers to entry
• Product differentiation
3. Pricing
• Cost based
• Value based
• Competitions prices
80
Pricing
Solution Guide
• Info to be provided when candidate wants to work on pricing
• Competitors prices: $800 - $1000
• Assume industry profit margin to be 25%
• Our costs to manufacture a tire: $450

• Ask the candidate about pricing strategies (cost-based pricing and value based pricing). Let them
list out pros and cons of each.
• Cost Based Pricing: Ask candidate to calculate price using cost based strategy (Ans. $600)
• Value Based pricing: Any price that the candidate can justify when thinking about value to
customer will work. The final number is not important. Do not let the candidate spend too much
time on this.
• Brownie points if the candidate brings up the conventional tire market. They should quickly realize
though that there is a huge difference in price and ABC will not be able to achieve much
penetration in the conventional tire market
 Conventional tires sell for $60-$300
81
Market Sizing
Solution Guide
• The interviewee should start calculating the market size . Let them make assumptions as and
when needed. Focus on the approach used by the candidate and help with following assumptions
if asked
• 1 percent of US cars have bulletproof tires, US market is 10% of world market
• US population: 320 M translates to 100M households (3.2 people per household)
• Candidate should segment households by income level and calculate total number of cars owned
by the US population: 160M (sample table on next page, the candidate can assume any
breakdown in income and number of cars per household as long as it is realistic)
• Push candidate to realize that there is another important segment besides households (the
Government heads, High ranking corporate executives, Military, Police, Armored trucks,
Celebrities etc.) and should try and assume a number for this market
• Let the candidate assume a number that helps him reach a total number to the nearest round
number (in our calculation lets assume 40M cars)
82
Market Sizing Cont’d
Solution Guide
• The candidate should ask about life expectancy of tires. They can assume 4 years.
• Calculation
• 200M cars on the road, Cars that need new tires every year 200M/4=50M
• Tires per car: 4, Annual Tire market in US: 200M tires
• Bullet proof tire market share:1%, Annual Bullet proof tire market : 200M*0.01=2M tires
• US is 10% of world market, therefore world market: 20M bullet proof tires annually (The
candidate may end up with a completely different number but they should be logical in their
approach)
• If candidate asks, say that client assumes it can capture 10% of mkt.
• Most candidates will calculate revenues at this point in the case and conclude that the
revenue is ($600*20M*10%=$1.2B) which meets the clients objective ($1B revenue)
Income Households # of cars/HH Total cars
High 10M 4 40M
Middle 50M 2 100M

Low 40M 0.5 20M
83
Market Entry
Solution Guide
• When the candidate concludes that the client should enter the market, let them brainstorm the
different modes of market entry
• Some relevant modes of entries that the candidates may bring up are:
• Produce in house and grow organically
• Acquire a competitor (very hard to do given that there are only 5 competitors)
• Sell patent on technology
• Produce and supply to all competitors
The candidate should support one of the modes of entry and be able to present clear pros and cons
of that strategy
84
BONUS – Sales Channels
Solution Guide
Only go through this section if the candidate framework includes channels!
• 75% of tires are sold through OEM’s and 25% are after market
• Tell the candidate that establishing a OEM channel takes at least 3 years
• The candidate should identify that the only viable channel is the aftermarket route
• This reduces the addressable annual global market to (25%*20M = 5M)
• Expected revenues, at 10% market share in this channel are therefore only ($600*5M*10%) =
$300M
• This implies that the client should not enter the market
• Ask the candidate to conclude and provide next steps
85
Conclusion
Recommendation Possible Next Steps
• Do not enter the bullet proof tire market • Look for alternate markets to monetize the new
technology
• Sell the patent on the technology
• Sell the business to a competitor
• Conduct sensitivity analysis to test pricing at
premium above competition
• Explore contracts with government and military
86
Case 5: Pharma Business Growth
• Type: Growth
• Firm Format: BCG Contributed
Pharmaceutical rare disease business growth
Healthcare Growth
Industry Business
(case name) problem type
Our client is a large pharmaceutical company with a strong business in "Rare Disease" (rare
diseases are conditions that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the US).
Historically, pharmaceutical companies have not invested significantly in Rare Disease

because it has not been cost effective to conduct research for such small populations. Due
to the fall off in the number of pharmaceutical blockbusters and improved regulation to make
Description of R&D cheaper for Rare Disease, pharmaceutical companies have begun to invest more in
the business Rare Disease R&D over the last few years.
problem
Our client has hired BCG because it would like to grow its Rare Disease business.
1. How can the client double its Rare Disease business in 5 years?
Case
questions
to solve
88
How would you approach our client's question on growing its Rare Disease business?
Where would you like to start?
[When the candidate asks about the existing business, share Exhibit 1] Based on the
data, how large will the client's rare disease business be in 2016? [If necessary,] what
is the shortfall to its goal of doubling its business?
Questions for
the candidate What does the client need to do to double the Rare Disease revenues by 2016?
[If candidates discusses acquisitions] Who to acquire? How many assets will we need
to buy?
Let's say the CEO walks in, could you summarize for me?
Our client is an industry leader with a track record of success. Its existing business is
$2.5B, expected to grow at 5% per year
Rare disease market is $30B and is as profitable as "Big Pharma"

Information • While research is relatively expensive, the government provides tax credits
provided upon for drugs designated to treat rare diseases
request • Additionally, prices tend to be higher to make up for the upfront research
investment. It's also growing faster than Big Pharma.
There are many small bio-techs that are attractive targets and there are also
other big pharmaceutical companies that have rare disease divisions / assets
89
Internal growth will not be sufficient to achieve your goal of doubling your business.
You will need to acquire ~3 "peak revenue" assets to close the gap between your goal
of $2.5B and the $1.1B your portfolio will generate organically.
Recommendation
90
Quantitative analysis and solutions
Growth from existing assets
• Current baseline is $2.5B, growing at 5% for 5 years
• $2.5B * 5% * 5 = $625M (assumes linear growth – would not ask to calculate compounding
growth)
Growth from pipeline
• Research assets need 6 years to reach the market = $0M
• Phase I = 5 assets * 20% attrition * $500M peak rev * 20% rev in 1st year = $100M
• Phase II = 3 assets * 40% attrition * $500M peak rev * 40% rev in 2nd year = $240M
• Phase III = 1 asset * 60% attrition * $500M peak rev * 60% rev in 3rd year = $180M
• Total = $520M
Shortfall
• Target is to double the business = $2.5B
• Internal growth is $625M + $520M = $1.145M, need ~$1.4B more
• If each asset is $500M, then need to buy 3 peak revenue assets, or more if they are in R&D
2016 Portfolio
• $5B portfolio with: $3.1B (60%) from current baseline, $520M (10%) from pipeline, $1.4B from
acquisitions (30%)
91
Exhibit 1
Assets in research and development

Attrition Peak
Time to market (% expected to be approved to revenue
Phase # Assets (years) reach the market) ($M)
Research 20 6 10% 500
Phase I 5 4 20% 500
Phase II 3 3 40% 500
Phase III 1 2 60% 500
Revenue by years on market
Year on the Revenue

market (% of peak revenue)
1st 20%
2nd 40%
3rd 60%
4th 80%
5th 100%
92
Case 6: Federal Motors
• Type: Profitability
• Industry: Automotive
Difficulty: Medium
Industry: Automotive
Federal Motors
Type: Profitability
Ross Original
Leading car manufacture in Federal Motors FM – biggest US producer of passenger cars

desperately wants to increase profits. CEO has and trucks. Currently it has 5 different brands.
approached us to help them increase profits. Maddilac – luxury brand, Frenchroller – mass
brand, Muick –between luxury and mass
market, Rontiac – sport cars, Lammer – heavy
cars, trucks and regular cars. FM sells cars
across the world, main sales (60%) in the US,
with 20% in China, and 20% across other
countries, such as Russia, India and Brazil.
All these brands are sold in all countries, but the
sales structure and prices for the cars are
different in different countries.
Currently we have sales structure only in for the
North America region.
We do not have any information on competitors.
Market is stable and we do not have any
forecasts on for the future.
94
Federal Motors
Step #1
Interviewer should drive the case. Allow interviewee prepare the initial structure.
Hand out the first slide to interviewee.
Question to ask: What is the revenue structure? What is the total revenue of the company?
Solution: Total revenue = 550*$50K + 1950*$30k + 350*$35k + 200* $27 + 150*$60k= $112.65B
Revenue per brand in North America
Maddillac- $27'500; Frenchroller $58'500; Muik $12'250; Rontiac $5'400; Lammer $9'000.
It is good if the interviewee notices that the two main brands drive ~75% of sales. Too many brands could be
a driver of costs.
95
Federal Motors
Step #2
Hand out Slide#2 with cost structure.
How much does it cost to manufacture each car?
Solution:
Muick, Rontiac, and Lammer are loosing money for the company.
Cost in Thousands Maddillac FrR Muik Rontiac Lammer

Profit 5 2 -1 -4 -8
Profit margin 10% 7% -3% -11% -30%
Ask interviewee what solutions he sees and what additional information he might need to make a decision.
Good answer might include:
 Rise prices for the cars
 Decrease costs (it is not possible at the moment)
 Abandon brands that are loosing money
Do you think it is a good idea to rise prices for the brands that are loosing money? What things should we
consider? Allow interviewee to come with some thoughts and hand out 3d slide.
96
Federal Motors
Step #3,4
Additional information on slide #3:
Clients’ loyalty demonstrates % of clients who stick with the brand after the first purchase of the car.
Clients’ satisfaction shows % of clients satisfied with the car.
Solution:
Due to low customers’ satisfaction and low loyalty it might be a good idea of closing the Rontiac and
Lammer, who are loosing money for the company. However, some work could be done with Muik, custromer
satisfaction is relatively high and satisfaction is not that bad.
Step 4.
To make a final decision it might be a good idea to check profitability and client loyalty in other countries.
Hand out slide#4Muick stands for the most part of the sales in China, as it is vastly seen as an prestigious
American car. Customers like and enjoy the brand. Given the information, it might be damaging for the FM
to close the brand in US, as it might hurt sales in China.
Solutions possible: Increase prices for Muik in USA and close Rontiac and Lammer brands.
97
Conclusion
FM is loosing money by sustaining unprofitable Increase prices for Muik in USA and close
brands – Rontiac & Lammer. Rontiac and Lammer brands.
Restructuring brand portfolio will increase Do not close Muik brand – might hurt sales in
profitability for the company. China.
98
Federal Motors
Slide #1
Sales structure North America

2500
Thousands of vehicles sold
2000
1950
1500
1000
500
550 200 150
350
0
Maddillac Frenchroller Muik Rontiac Lammer
Average price of vehicle by brand NA in Th.$

$70
$60
$50
$40
$30 $60
$50
$20
$35
$30 $27
$10
$-
99
Federal Motors
Slide #2 Cost structure per vehicle
Cost in Thousands Maddillac FrR Muik Rontiac Lammer

Car 30 20 27 22 45
Marketing 10 3 4 4 15
Transportation 2 2 2 2 3
Warehouse 1 1 1 1 2
SG&A 2 2 2 2 3
100
Federal Motors
Slide #3
100%
Clients' loyalty in North America
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
87%
40% 80%
30%
20% 45%
35%
10% 20%
0%
100%
Clients' satisfaction in North America
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
90% 85%
40%
30%
50%
20% 37%
10% 25%
0%
101
Federal Motors
Slide #4
80%
Revenue by brand China
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Maddillac FrRoller Muik
100%
Loyalty by brand China
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Maddillac FrRoller Muik
102
Case 7: Freedom Bikes
• Type: Operations
• Industry: Automotive
Difficulty: Medium
Industry: Automotive
Type: Operations
Freedom Bikes
Intro: Our client is Freedom Bikes, the US-based producer of mountain bikes – luxury sport bikes that
represent the American spirit of freedom. The bikes are fully designed and manufactured in the US and are
sold mainly to US customers, who value independence, freedom and high quality of a US-based
manufacturer.
The client brought us to help decrease costs, which increased in the resent years and eroded the client’s
margins.
General data: Notes for the Interviewer:
• The client asks us to look ONLY costs; no • The case was designed to educate students to use
revenue/profit considerations are necessary the Top-Down approach, focus on 80/20, and be
attentive to the details (read footnotes!)
• There is no fixed target, the more we save – the
better • The good framework will focus on various elements of
costs and possible solutions (outsourcing, Six Sigma
• Overseas sales make up 10% of Client’s operations
etc)
and for this case can be ignored
• Ideally the student shall start with the cost breakdown
• The customers (rich MBA interested in sports) value
(Exhibit 1) and proceed with exploring the details. But
the US-made bikes so the client will not consider
if the student starts elsewhere, let him wander around
outsourcing or sourcing even from Canada! The
providing market, customer, competition and other
student shall remember this fact while considering
data to realize he must focus on the company’s costs.
options
• There are two major competitors on the market, but
they are from Japan and Italy, and we are the only
US-based producer
• The demand for bikes is stable
104
Freedom Bikes
Costs data (Exhibit 1): Notes for the Interviewer:
• Sales and promotion is done via specialized • The student shall focus on attacking the
magazines and bike shows. This is small fixed client’s costs to find the opportunity to save.
cost and can be ignored. Ideally the student request for main cost
• Overhead costs are slim and cannot be categories and then the Exhibit 1 can be
decreased further displayed
• Raw materials are purchased in bulk using • If student is stuck, offer him the Exhibit 1 and
hedging deals, nothing else can be done to ask what he sees. The student shall quickly
decrease them. realize (using 80/20 and Top-Down concepts)
that the bulk of costs sits in Inventory and
• Distribution is done via the regional dealers Manufacturing, but only Manufacturing cost is
with whom the client has long-term rising and shall be addressed.
relationships. This cost is small and stable
and can be ignored.
• Inventory levels are high because of
customization at Michigan factory. The
customers are paying for that and the client is
ok to keep inventory high
• Manufacturing costs are rising! And it is
the problem!!!
105
Freedom Bikes
Manufacturing data Notes for the Interviewer:

• The client operates two factories: in Michigan • By providing the Costs data to the student (on
(the union state) and Tennessee (the right of his request only!) the student shall realize the
labor state) factories can not be closed down, outsourcing
• Tennessee factory converts raw materials into is not an options (the client values its US-
the pre-assembly kits and ship those to Made image) so the closer look at the costs is
Michigan. required.
• Employees at Tennessee are not skilled and • Provide the student with the Exhibit 2. The
paid average salaries. student shall focus on Chrome-plating as the
largest cost-element and also mention he
• The client’s customers value customization would like to explore Re-work cost, caused
and freedom of choice, so Michigan factory mainly by the chrome-plating operations
performs customization of bikes ordered by
customers’ design.
• Workers at Michigan factory are hard to find,
highly skilled, have unique skills and well-
paid. The client considers them essential to
perform complicated manual operations and
won’t consider relocation of Michigan factory
or dismissal of workers
106
Freedom Bikes
Chrome-plating Notes for the Interviewer:

• Chrome-plating is the operation of • 80/20 rule dictates the student shall
covering metal parts (such as suspension immediately focus on chrome-plating as
tubes) with shiny chrome the source of cost-saving
• In 2008 the client initiated chrome plating • After investigating options, the student
operations in-house to react to changes in shall realize the outsourcing is an option
customers’ taste from paint to shiny
chrome • Tenneco is the best option: it is a US-
based company (The client will only accept
• The operation requires only few operators US-based suppliers!), its quality high and
but very complex know-how is above 120 that helps eliminate rework
• Poor quality of chrome-plating causes 75% and it is located close to Tennessee factory
of costly rework operations of the client, thus minimizing the
transportation costs
• The client cannot improve this operation,
so outsourcing is an option – provide
Exhibit 3
107
Freedom Bikes
Now ask the student to calculate the cost saving effect:

Tennaco operations cost: 50M*110% = 55M
Savings on eliminated rework: 20M*75% = 15M
Net effect: 15M-(50-55) = 10M cost saving by outsourcing chrome-plating operations to Tenneco
No further cost study is required, ask the student to wrap-up the case.
The good recommendation will mention:
• Positive effects of improved quality of bikes outlook – important and valued by the customers
• Risks of labor disruptions due to eliminated chrome jobs – mitigated by migration of jobs to Tenneco
• Risk of production disruption – logistics shall account for movement of parts to and from Tenneco
108
Exhibit 1: Freedom Bikes cost categories
USD, Mil
300
250
200
Overhead
Sales and promotion
150
Distribution
Inventory
100 Manufacturing
Raw materials
50
0
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
109
Exhibit 1: Freedom Bikes production process
Tennessee factory Michigan factory
Processing Production Assembly to

of Raw of assembly order of
materials kits bikes
2013 manufacturing costs, USD Mil

Cost category Michigan Tennessee
Workers salaries 16 6
Overhead and administration 1 1
Painting 1 0
Chrome plating 0 50
Raw materials processing 2 23
Re-work* 0 20
Total 20 100
* 75% of re-work expenses caused by chrome plating operations
110
Exhibit 1: Benchmarking of chrome plating contractors
Supplier Location Cost index Quality Index*
Freedom Bikes Tennessee, USA 100 100
Magna Ontario, CAN 95 130
SACI Shanghai, CNI 45 105
Tenneco Tennessee, USA 110 140
MetMex Tijuana, MEX 100 120
Delphi Michigan, USA 135 145
* Operations with Quality Index above 120 fully eliminate the need for re-work
111
Case 8: Farsung Electronics
• Industry: Retail (CPG)
Difficulty: Medium
Industry: Retail (CPG)
Durable consumer goods manufacture
Type: Profitability
Ross Original
Farsung Electronics (FE) is a consumer goods FE produces home appliance of all types – from
producing company based in the US. dishwashers to irons and frying pans. It has
~30% of US market share. The market has been
During the last couple years FE has been
flat during the last couple of years. Competitors
loosing market share to its competitors.
haven’t seen any remarkable growth.
The CEO has approached us to help the
company tackle the problem of decreasing
market share. FE has production facilities located in China and
the US. Most of the products are produced in
China and delivered to the US.
This is an operations focused case. Interviewer

should direct interviewee to cost analysis issue.
Allow time to prepare initial framework, then
present the first slide.
113
Step #1
Allow interviewee to create a structure. Try to guide her/him on the cost side of the problem.
Hand out slide #1. Main takeaways from the slide:
Market size has remained relatively constant at $100B.

FE has started loosing market share to competitor 2 and competitor 3.
Questions to ask:
What is the revenue loss for FE?
It has declined from $35B to $28B, a 20% decrease.
Who is the strongest competitor?
Competitor 2 has captured a lot of market share away from FE; Competitors 3 is the fastest
growing – its market share has increased by 50%. Revenues have grown from $10B to
$15B.
Allow interviewee to come with hypothesis why FE is loosing share to competitors.

Subsequently present the second slide.
114
Step #2,3
Slide 2:
Slide takeaways:
While prices in industry are declining, the prices of FE stay relatively high.
Industry costs have progressively declined. Costs for FE have risen over the same period.
Ask to come with assumptions why cost are rising. Allow to come with assumptions and
then steer the conversation towards demand volatility - Slide#3
Slide 3:
Takeaways:
The most volatile products of the company are sold in most volumes. They might drive high
inventory cost. The most volatile products are produced in China, and then delivered to the
US. Shipping delays may result in lost sales. Long lead times result in increased inventory
that drives transportation and inventory cost.
115
Conclusion
Move production of products with the most Risks

volatile demand to the US. This should result in
• Other costs associated with manufacturing
a decrease in inventory cost and prevent the
will be higher in the US. A detailed analysis
loss of sales.
of these costs is required.
• Significant capital investment required to
relocate a manufacturing facility
Next Steps
• Conduct a full analysis of manufacturing
costs in the US
• Negotiate long-term contracts with
customers (retailers) to decrease demand
volatility.
• Increase collaboration with buyers, think
about integration of unique sales system that
would allow to forecast demand and plan
sales with greater certainty.
116
Slide #1 Total Market in $B
Market Share Total Market Size
117
Slide #2 Total Market in $B
FE price
$380
$360
20 20
$340 20
30
$320 40
50
$300
$280
$300 $310 $320 $330 $340 $340
$260
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Costs Profit
Industry average price

$400
$350
50 50
$300 50
50 50
$250 50
$200
$150
$100
$50
$300 $300 $270 $250 $240 $220
$-
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
118
Slide #3 China v/s US Production
2500
2000
Volume produced in thousands
1500
1000
500
0
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120% 140% 160% 180%
Demand Volatility
Minesota California China Province Hebei China Province Shanxi
119
Case 9: Hugo Noos
• Type: Expansion / Profitability
• Difficulty: Low
• Industry: Retail
Difficulty: Low
Industry: Retail
Type: Expansion / Profitability
HUGO NOOS goes on-line/ Ross Original
Apparel producing company - Hugo Noos wants HB is a premier apparel band that produces
to increase profits by opening an online sales clothes and shoes for men and women of all
channel. They want to increase profit 20%. ages.
There are two lines – regular and premium.
Regular is a less pricy, more casual, and more
Current profit is $1B.
young consumer oriented. Premium – higher
priced and focuses on business attire.
CEO has approached us to figure out if it is HBN sells through large premium retail stores
possible and and how they should proceed. line such as Macy’s and Nordstrom as well as
through own retail stores.
(Only on direct request) - Assume that retail
Focus only on US market.
stores currently do not sell items online.
Industry is stable.
Company has sufficient human, financial and
other recourses to go into this business.
121
Hugo Noos. Ross Original
Step #1
Structure
Allow interviewee prepare the initial structure. It is good if interviewee recognizes that there are at least
three ways to start on-line sales – establish own platform, use on-line platform available at existing retailers
(Macy’s and Nordstrom), or to use existing platforms such as Amazon to start sale.
1. Step #1 Profitability of establishing own platform
What information would you need to start analysis?
How would you price products? Should the price stay the same for on-line and retail?
Investment in creation of own online platform - $5M. Includes development of the site, creation and design.
Retail price of a regular item is $240 and retail price of premium item is $345.
Client decides to decrease the price 20% for regular items and 15% for premium items.
122
Hugo Noos. Ross Original
Step #1 Solution
Step # 1 Solution:
Revenue:
Regular: will be able to sell 5500 SKU / day @ average price of $200
Premium: 2500 SKU / day @ average price of $300
Assume 350 days in a year
Total revenue: 350* (5.5K*$200+2.5K*300) = $647M
Fixed costs: Variable cost:

Annual service: $25M Regular: $80 / SKU
Insurance and other costs $3M Premium: $85 / SKU
Wages: $15M. Delivery cost: $10 per item
Incremental Warehouse cost: $25M Packaging: $3 per item
Marketing: $50M Total cost = $256M
Total cost: $270M+118M=~$388M. Profit = $259M
Cannibalization Cost:
Due to online sales initiatives profit in regular stores drop 20%. Total profit=1B-200M+259=$1.059B
Cannibalization cost are mainly due to premier items.
Ask what solutions interviewee sees. One of the solutions – don’t decrease price for the products
sold on-line, offer them at the same price you offer them in retail stores.
123
Hugo Noos Case. Ross Original
Step #2 Partnership with another platforms
If the company decides to use existing platforms.

What might change in revenue and cost structure? How would you think about pricing in this case?
What are the costs you might think about? Calculate profit in this case.
Solution:
Assume discount for regular line of 20% and no discount for premium items.
In this case:
Regular: will be able to sell 7000 SKU / day @ average price of $200
Premium: 2500 SKU / day @ average price of $345
Total revenue: $790M
Fixed costs: Variable cost:

Annual cost of using platform: $50M Regular: $80 for SKU
Insurance and other costs $3M Premium: $85 for SKU
Wages: $5M. Delivery cost: $10 per item
Incremental Warehouse cost: $30M Packaging: $3 per item
Marketing: $20M Total cost = $313M
Total fixed cost: $108M Total cost: $313.6M+108M=$421M. Profit = $370M,
without cannibalization cost.
124
Hugo Noos Case. Ross Original
Step #3 Pros and Cons of each way
Ask what are strategic benefits of running own website v/s using existing platforms?
Own platform:
 strategic control of sales channel – transparency and availability of shelf place
 opportunity to sell additional staff offered by other retailers – additional source of revenue
 control of marketing and sales strategy will allow to avoid brand deterioration – brand control
Benefits of existing on-line retailers:
 Will offer database to better manage inventory and marketing campaign
 Marketing savings
 Larger consumer base
125
Conclusion
It is up to the candidate to decide which way to go, as Depending on the strategy, the candidate
long as he/she provides good rational. chooses.
Go with own platform:
Own web-site will prevent brand deterioration and might
offer greater business flexibility in future. However, might Sell premium products at the same price.
result in negative NPV. Decrease price only for regular line. Think
about making some items available on-line
Partnership with Amazon-like platform might result in only to prevent cannibalization.
higher sales and better sales forecast. However, might
result in higher cannibalization, and brand deterioration.
Analyze opportunities for cooperation with
other apparel produces that provide
supplements for the HN collections.
Partnership:
Contract should include control over prices to
prevent cannibalization and brand
deterioration.
Sigh sales data sharing agreement to
strengthen sales forecast.
126
Case 10: LabCo
• Type: Growth
• Industry: Private Equity
• Firm Format: Bain & Co
Difficulty: Hard
Industry: Private Equity
LabCo
Type: Growth
RCC Original
Our client is a private equity firm interested in Client:

acquiring LabCo, a company that manufacturers • This PE firm invests in a variety of
specialty epoxy countertops for use in construction materials but no synergies
laboratories. exist between LabCo and other portfolio
companies
Our PE client expects the overall laboratory • The PE firm is look to hold the company 5
countertop market to grow at 10% per year and years
would like you to assess the threat of material LabCo:
substitutes stealing market share.
• LabCo manufacturers only epoxy
countertops. Other materials include
phenolic, laminate, and ceramic
• LabCo is currently the only manufacturer
of epoxy countertops
• LabCo has a manufacturing facility in the
US and current sells in North America and
China (focus for this case)
128
Exhibit 1
Lab Countertop Material Market Share
2M ft2 0.5M ft2

100%
80%
60% Ceramic
Laminate
40% Phenolic
Epoxy
20%
0%
US China
129
Exhibit 2
Material Attributes
Attribute Importance
5
3 Importance
Epoxy
2 Phenolic
Ceramic
1 Laminate
0
Chemical Heat Hardness Cost Design
Resistance Resistance Features
130
Exhibit 3
Customer Feedback
Customer Survey (n=120) Customer Survey (n=120)

“In general, what is the best “At what price discount would you
laboratory countertop material?” choose to use phenolic instead of epoxy”
100% 100%
80% 80%
Laminate >50%
60% 60%
Ceramic 30-50%
Phenolic 10-30%
40% 40%
Epoxy <10%
20% 20%
0% 0%
131
Exhibit 4
Material Pricing
US Price China Price

($) (¥)
Epoxy 15 120
Phenolic 12 70
Ceramic 21 240
Laminate 7.5 48
Note: 6:1 ¥:$ conversion rate
132
Exhibit 5
LabCo Epoxy Cost Structure
$15 $20
100%
25%
33%
80%
20% Profit
60%
27% 5% Labor
SG&A
40% Shipping
7% 30%
7% Materials
20%
27%
20%
0%
US China
Note: All epoxy is currently manufactured in the US at a single facility
133
1. Identify current market position (Exhibit1) 1. Current market position
– Recognize significant differences between US and China markets – Market size numbers are annual
sales for all laboratory countertops
– Market share difference may be caused by different use requirements,
pricing differences, customer preferences… – Market has been stable for several
years and is not expected to grow
2. Customer preferences (Exhibit 2 and Exhibit 3) 2. Customer preferences
– Identify Epoxy as a strong performer across most customer preferences. – Customers are building contractors
for high schools, universities, and
– Identify that Epoxy and Phenolic are closest in material attributes, industrial labs
Phenolic poses the greatest threat of material substitute
– Recognize that although most customers identify epoxy as the best

material, it does not have full market penetration, meaning customers are
making price-performance trade-offs.
134
3. Pricing (Exhibit 4 and Exhibit 5) 3. Pricing
– Calculate price ratio between epoxy and phenolic, recognize US – Company requires $5/sq. ft. profit
customers are unlikely to select phenolic while Chinese customers are
very likely to choose phenolic based on Exhibit 3. (see math solution) – LabCo has investigated moving
manufacturing operations to China
– High shipping costs result increasing epoxy cost in China. and would expect to see a 25%
decrease in labor cost.
– All other manufacturing costs are the same – all product is manufactured
in a single factory – A new facility in China would cost
$15M
– Opportunities exist to reduce cost for the Chinese market by
manufacturing in China – Local shipping costs for product
made in China is $1/sq. ft.
– Estimate share gain made possible by cost reduction, Exhibit 1 can be
used as a reference – Assume a discount rate of 10% and
value as a perpetuity
– An excellent final recommendation should focus on the whether the PE
firm should invest or not. LabCo is the acquisition target, not the client.
135
Solution
Made US US China China

Sold US China China US
Profit $5 $5 $5 $5
Labor $4 $4 $3 $3
SG&A $1 $1 $1 $1
Shipping $1 $6 $1 $6
Material $4 $4 $4 $4
Local Price $15 120¥ $14*6=84¥ $19
Phenolic Price (15-12)/15 = (120-70)/120 = (84-70)/84= No need to
Discount vs Epoxy - 20% - 40% - 16% calculate
[Increase in Chinese market share] x [total market size (sq ft)] x [profit/sq ft] = annual return
[45%-5%] x [0.5M] x [$5] = $1M per year
$15M investment, $1M per year / 10% discount rate = $10M – DO NOT INVEST
136
Conclusion
 Recommendation  Investigate Phenolic cost structure to assess

threat of future price reductions
– Proceed with the acquisition of LabCo if
market growth of 10% is sufficient to justify  Investigate epoxy growth potential in other
investment markets
– Epoxy relative secure in US market with  Look for cost reduction opportunities in epoxy
strong material performance and customer manufacturing process
perception
 Investigate adjacencies in other laboratory
– Limited opportunity exists to grow revenue surfaces where epoxy could be used
in China by reducing cost through local (shelving, cabinets, desks, etc.)
manufacturing
 Further due diligence on management team,
 Risk organizational structure
– Phenolic manufacturers could reduce  Investigate cross selling opportunities with

manufacturing costs, creating a wider price other portfolio companies
gap, causing customers to select over
epoxy
137
Case 11: HealthCareCo
• Type: Basic Support Functions
• Firm Format: McKinsey
Difficulty: Hard
Industry: HealthCare
HealthCareCo
RCC Original – McKinsey Style Case Type: Basic Support Functions
Your client is the CEO of a leading diversified HealthCareCo has about 50,000 employees in
healthcare products and pharmaceuticals approximately 100 countries around the world.
company - HealthCareCo.
The company’s principal business is the Currently, HealthCareCo has 4 different
discovery, development, manufacture and sale revenue generating business units namely -
of a broad and diversified line of healthcare pharmaceuticals, medical devices, health
products. foods, and specialized surgery products.
Thinking ahead for the next 5 years, the CEO of
HealthCareCo wants to consider cost The CEO wants to distinguish the firm through
optimization as one of the important elements of innovation in the healthcare and pharma
his strategy. industry in the next 4-5 years
He has engaged McKinsey to help him with this
effort.
There are 3-4 main competitors, client firm can
be said to be #2, #3 in the market
NOTE: This is upfront information and not the
end of the prompt. Because this is a McKinsey
Case, there are specific questions that follow.
139
What would be the key factors that you would consider in preparation of your first meeting
Question 0
with the CEO and his team?
Financial Reports
Understand the company’s business, Analyze the Income Statement / Balance Sheet, Important financial ratios, Historical
performance, Compare ratios with competitors, similar players in other industries
Value Chain / Company Business / Org Structure:

Because we are taking an overall company view, a good candidate will bring up the concept of a Value Chain. A value
chain helps to identify different business drivers and logically separates the individual elements of a firm. This should also
account for the different business units
Primary Functions: Inbound Operations, Company Operations, Outbound Operations, Marketing, Sales, Service.
Support Functions: Finance, HR, IT, Legal, Procurement, Facilities etc
Competitors
Who are the competitors in the market
How is HCC different from the other competitors, value proposition, target consumer
Strategy
Understand the overall strategy of the firm and also how it relates to the 4 different Business Units, different geographies
A good candidate will bring up the discussion of cost-based differentiation or value based discussion and will also offer an
initial hypothesis that because this is a pharmaceutical / healthcare company, the company will have to invest in R&D and
innovation
Market Trends:
Any trends in the healthcare market across the world
Industry Factors / Regulatory / Patents / Other Factors

Considering the global nature of the company’s operations, we would also have to factor in regulatory changes
Foreign relations, Taxes, Foreign Exchange implications etc.
140
Question 1 Give the candidate Exhibit 1 and ask him to offer initial thoughts / hypotheses
Typical Response:
1. The COGS number is at par with the industry. But this could be an area to explore if the company is to create a cost
–advantage.
2. R&D costs as compared to the industry benchmarks are lower (as a % of sales). This could imply that the firm does
not invest as much in R&D as compared to some of the other competitors. So this could mean either that the firm is
a ―follower‖ in this industry and therefore probably competes on costs OR that the firm competes in a different
segment of the healthcare, nutritional segment that does not require as much R&D.
3. Business support costs as significantly higher than the industry averages. Given that the CEO wants to focus on
cost optimization, this line item offers significant potential to cut costs.
4. Earnings per share are lower as compared to the industry. Assuming everything to be the same for the comparable
companies, this should be a cause of concern for the CEO.
Synthesis: It is important to focus on overall cost reduction for the firm, as this will not only boost the competitiveness of
the firm, but also free up capital to invest in R&D, if the company wants to differentiate itself in the industry based on
innovation. Business Support Functions could play a significant role in helping to reduce costs.
141
Exhibit 1
Income Statement - HealthCareCo

($ in Millions, except per share data)
HCC Industry
Net Sales $ 40,000 COGS (% of sales) 39% 40%
Expenses R&D (% of sales) 10% 12%
COGS $ 15,500 Business Support 30% 25%
R&D $ 3,500
Business Support $ 12,000 EPS** $ 2.00 $ 2.50
Total Expenses $ 31,000
Other Adjustments* $ 3,000
Gross Profit $ 6,000
Taxes $ 2,400
Net Earnings $ 3,600
Total Shares 1,800
* Includes interest adjustments, Forex loss, loss on extinguishment of debt

** Ignore Preferred Dividends
142
Question 2 (See Note Below). BRAINSTORMING.
NOTE: First ask if the candidate understands what BSF means. Let them explain what they think about it. Then give this
information:
BSF: Functions which are necessary for running the main operations of any firm. Typical BSFs include Finance, HR, IT,
Legal, Procurement, Facilities etc. These functions are typically non-revenue generating functions.
Then ask them what would they do now?
Typical answer. Look at the breakdown of BSF. See which ones of those is a problem. Compare numbers with industry
benchmarks. THEN HAND OUT EXHIBIT 2.
The candidate should quickly comment on two things:
1. All key BSF functions are worse for the client as compared to industry benchmarks.
2. Industry benchmarks costs for BSF functions are 30-40% lower than those for the client.
IDEALLY, a candidate should proactively answer why he thinks this could be the reason. IF not ask this
question:
Question 2: Why do you think these costs are high for the client?
Typical Response:
1. The client has grown through acquisitions, each acquiree adds its own BSF FTEs and complexity
2. Geographical complexity / differences
3. Organizational complexity
4. No overlap of tasks between different Business Units / silo’s in the business units
NOTE: Keep asking what else, till the candidate has given 4-5 good answers.
143
Exhibit 2: Basic Support Function Costs Comparison
Legal HR
100% 100%
80% 80%
60% 60%
40% 40%
20% 20%
0% 0%
HealthCareCo Benchmark HealthCareCo Benchmark
Procurement Finance
100% 100%
80% 80%
60% 60%
40% 40%
20% 20%
0% 0%
HealthCareCo Benchmark HealthCareCo Benchmark
144
Assume your team does a further analysis on the type of activities within each of these BSF functions
Question 3 and they find this. (Hand out Exhibit 3).
NOTE:
Transactional activities: Defined as day-to-day activities, low-skill, repetitive
Specialized activities: High skill, specific to each business unit / geography, requires involvement of multiple people etc.
An ideal candidate will try to answer why different departments show difference in Transactional / specialized:
• Procurement / Legal are inherently localized and specialized functions – every location / Business unit has different
requirements / laws / regulations.
• Finance and HR have a fairly large number of day-to-day activities: book keeping, payroll, time and expense etc.
Question 3: Can you think of ways to reduce these costs?
Typical responses:
1. Eliminate redundant activities
2. Automate certain activities
3. Improve efficiency – by reducing number of steps in a process
4. Reduce frequency of unnecessary activities
5. Outsource certain activities (Do not give this away. This is critical for the next part of the case).
ASK THE CANDIDATE, would he think of outsourcing differently for transactional v/s specialized. Give the
candidate a minute to think. If he comes up with an answer, continue with next slide. OR Just move to the next
slide if the candidate cannot think why. (Obviously, he doesn’t get the brownie points!)
145
Exhibit 3
Activity Split across BSFs*

100%
20%
30%
80%
60%
70%
60%
40% 80%
70%
20% 40%
30%
0%
Finance HR Legal Procurement
Transactional Specialized
*Typical Geographical sub-unit of a Business Unit
146
(Hand out Exhibit 4). Some one on your team suggests that this is a way that the client can think about
Question 4 it’s outsourcing / consolidation. What do you think about it?
Typical Answer:
This makes complete sense. Here’s why:
- Transactional activities can be consolidated at a global level. India / Chile make good options because of:
• Cheap labor
• Cheaper costs
• Availability of labor
• Expertise in services outsourcing
- Specialized activities can be consolidated at a regional level because:
• Region specific requirements
• Similarity of business
• Laws / Contracts / Regulation
• Language
147
Exhibit 4
LEGEND
Outsourced Center – Transactional Activities
Center of Excellence – Specialized Activities
148
Let’s say the company goes this route. Ships transactional work to Outsourced centers, and specialized
Question 5 activities to Centers of Excellence. The company also does some IT rationalization efforts How much
cost savings will these changes help the company realize: (Hand out Exhibit 5)
NOTE: IT rationalization: Centralizing databases, establishing common platforms etc, renegotiating with vendors etc)
Typical Response:
CoE Out- Cost Savings

Total BSF $ 12 Bn $ Bn % Tran. % Spc Savings sourced IT Ratz ($ Bn)
Finance 16.66% 2 70% 30% 10% 40% - 0.62
HR 8.33% 1 80% 20% 10% 40% - 0.34
Legal 8.33% 1 30% 70% 10% 40% - 0.19
Procurement 33.33% 4 40% 60% 10% 40% - 0.88
IT 8.33% 1- - 30% 0.3
Facilities 25% 3- - - -
Total Cost Savings $ 2.33 Bn
- A quantitatively strong candidate will be quickly able to calculate that 16.33% = 1/6, 8.33% = 1/12, 33.33% = 1/3, 25% = ¼
- Calcluation: Finance Cost Savings = Total Finance Costs*Transactional%*OutSourcedSavings + TotalFinanceCosts*Spec%*CoESavings
- Similarly for HR, Legal, Procurements
- IT cost savings = IT Costs*ITRationalization%
- Cost Savings for Facilities is out of scope for this case
- An Excellent Candidate will go back to Exhibit 1, and reflect on what effect will this have on the financials. Currently, BSF costs
are higher by 5% as compared to the industry (5% of $40 Bn = $2Bn). The savings that we see above are higher than $2Bn. These
additional savings can be put into R&D, given out as dividends, and also boost the EPS. All great results from the CEOs stand-
point.
149
Exhibit 5
- Total BSF Costs: $12 Billion
Basic Support Functions Cost % Cost Savings

45%
40%
Finance 35%
16.67% 30%
Procurement HR 25%
33.33% 8.33%
20%
IT 15%
8.33%
10%
Facilities
25.00% 5%
Legal
8.33% 0%
Center of Excellence Outsourced Center IT Rationalization
* Facilities are local, Ignore cost savings coming

out of facilities
150
Conclude Ask for a recommendation
Typical Response:
Recommendation:
The CEO should engage into a large-scale organizational transformation. Specifically to optimize the BSF costs. There
are three reasons for this.
1. BSF Costs are higher as compared to industry benchmarks
2. They are hurting the client’s position in the market
3. And are critical for the future strategy of the firm – to differentiate itself through innovation
One of the important highlights of this transformation should be the creation of outsourced centers and Centers of
Excellence to manage the transactional and specialized BSF tasks. This could give a net run-rate savings of $2.3 Bn in
today’s terms.
Biggest Risk:
1. Downsizing repercussions
2. Foreign limitations, time for implementation
Next Steps:
1. Do a cost-benefit analysis. How long will this transformation take. How much will it cost
2. Opportunity Costs
3. Find out ways to manage the implications of down-sizing
151
Case 12: eNP & Co
• Type: Profitability / Divestiture
• Industry: Retail
Difficulty: Medium
Title: eNP & Co – Retail Company Industry: Retail

Type: Profitability/Divestiture
Source/Round: McKinsey, Round 2
Problem Statement Information
Your client eNP & Co is a mid-size department store Additional Information:

(something like Macy's) that has mainly two • Client has only 1 store and is located in Chicago.
categories - apparel and home décor. The
• Home décor - all categories of home furnishing
department store has seen declining profitability products
and has called McKinsey to understand what are its
• Apparel - Mens, Womens and Children apparel
strategic next steps?
Information to be provided upon request:

• The apparel business is seeing declining
profitability
• Industry for both is growing at a steady rate of 5%
to 10%
• The company has only been selling through
traditional sales channels. No online channel
• Latest trend: People shop online, people do not
like to travel long distances to buy apparel. The
store is located in areas similar to where Walmart,
K-Mart are located. People shop more around
downtown.
153
Title: eNP & Co – Retail Company
Question 1: What do you think are some of the key drivers we should evaluate?
Key Ideas:
 Try and understand, which of the two categories is driving the profitability decline?
 For that category evaluate a few more details:
– Industry details
 Is this an industry wide issue?
 What are the latest trends in the industry?
 How does the competitive landscape look?
 Who are our customers and how have their purchase preferences changed?
– Economic analysis
 Break down of profitability of different product categories
 Is this a margin issue, or is the company not able to breakeven?
 Understand the revenue and cost structure of the apparel business and its categories
 Determine the purchase frequency, profitability per category and compare and contrast the apparel
and home décor business
 Historic performance of eNP
– Changes in eNPs at an organization level?
 Has there been any recent changes at eNP: suppliers, management etc
 Has the company looked at expanding its distribution channels to include online?
 Have we invested or divested in categories?
– Changes in and around eNP store?
 Has a new competitor placed a store around eNP?
 Has there been a change in the display at the store?
 Are we holding the right product categories and styles of apparel in our store?
154
Question 2: What is the profitability per square feet per category?
Information to be provided to the interviewee:
Gross Margin:
Home Apparel
Home Décor Women Men Children
Gross margin per customer $80 $60 $40 $40
# of customers per week 100 50 40 20
# of purchases per customer 2 2 2 2
Total sq feet occupied in store 2500 1000 750 750
Fixed Cost:
Rent per year $200,000
Insurance $150,000
Operation and Maintainence $175,000
Marketing & Advertising $250,000
Answer: The gross margin for children's apparel is below the fixed cost per sq. feet. (See answer key)
155
Question 3: How many more customers of children’s apparel should eNP sell per
week to achieve a target average profitability of $200 per sq. feet
Answer: 36 customers -- 80% more than the existing customers per week. Bonus point for interviewee to
recognize the percentage increase and the feasibility of such an increase.
Answer key:
Total desired gross margin for children's apparel = $200
Total number of customers of children’s apparel to achieve target = $200* 750/($40*2*52) = 36
Increase in customers = 36 – 20 = 16
Cut points if the interviewee provides the total number new customers and not the increase.
156
Question 4: Why do you think the Children's apparel category is not doing well?
Key ideas:
1. People who come to buy home décor do not come with the intention to buy clothes for children
2. eNP does not hold the right categories of children's apparel
3. Children's apparel is not strategically placed inside the store
4. Young parents do not have time to go to stores any more. They buy children's clothes online
5. The location is not idea to take an entire family for shopping and hence eNP loses business to better
located competitors
6. The company has used traditional forms of media and have not embraced social media
7. Parents like to buy expensive/stylish clothes for their children. eNP does not hold the latest styles
8. eNP has not been allocating the correct marketing budget for children’s apparel. Bulk of the budget is
used for home décor
157
Question 5: What do you think are some of the strategic alternatives for our client?
Any of the below options is fine as long as interviewee is able to justify the option
 Option 1: Divest from the children's apparel business
○ Business is not profitable
○ Its not intuitive to have a children's apparel store in a home décor
○ Use the shelf space for other profitable categories
○ Risks: Less chance to cross sell between categories
 Option 2: Divest from the apparel business completely
○ Home décor is by far more profitable than any of the apparel categories
○ eNP can be known as an exclusive home décor store, removing any form of ambiguity in the
customer's mind about the store
○ Use the shelf space for other profitable categories of Home Décor, including expanding the
categories (e.g. perhaps a gallery for top paintings etc.)
○ Risks: Less chance to cross sell between categories. Many people may not come to the store
with the intention to buy home décor.
158
Question 5: What do you think are some of the strategic alternatives for our client?
 Option 3: Create a separate store for apparel in the city (maybe with a sub-brand) and hold profitable and
popular categories of clothing
○ Separate brand removes the confusion for the customers between home décor and apparel
○ Introduce an online channel for sales; build up the ecommerce platform
○ Risks: Increase in rent and other fixed costs. Increase in competition because of change in
location
159
Exhibit 1: Answer key to question 2
Home Décor Apparel

Gross Margin All catogories Women Men Children
Profitability per customer $80 $60 $40 $40
# of customers per week 70 50 40 20
# of purchases per customer 2 2 2 2
Total Gross Margin (assume 52 weeks) $582,400 $312,000 $166,400 $83,200
Total sq feet occupied 2500 1000 750 750
Gross margin per square feet per category $233 $312 $222 $111
Gross margin per square feet $229
Costs
Rent per year $200,000
Insurance $150,000
Operation and Maintainence $175,000
Marketing & Advertising $250,000
Total Fixed cost $775,000
Fixed cost per square feet 155
Given values
Calculated values
160
Case 13: InvestCo
• Industry: Financial Services
Difficulty: Medium
Industry: Financial Services
Type: Profitability
InvestCo
A large investment company, InvestCo, is Primary customer segments include retail

considering expansion of its product line to include investors and institutional investors. Customers
precious metals investments. The company has are interested in portfolio diversification.
hired our firm to provide guidance on this decision. Sales of these investments are predicted to be
$150MM in year 1 and double each year for the
next 3 years.
InvestCo collects 100 basis points in revenue (1
bps = 1/100th of 1%)
InvestCo will need to hire 2 new Portfolio
Managers ($1.5 MM per year each) and 6 new
Research Analysts ($250k per year each).
InvestCo will require a technology upgrade of
$1MM with $500k ongoing upkeep per year.
Assume cost of capital is irrelevant for this
decision.
A key competitor has recently expanded into
precious metals. The competitor hired 2 new PMs
and 3 new RAs at a total cost of $2.75 MM per
year. Tech investment is the same.
162
Analysis
Profitability
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4

Sales ($MM) $ 150 $ 300 $ 600 $ 1,200
Revenue ($MM) $ 1.5 $ 3.0 $ 6.0 $ 12.0
Costs ($MM):
Portfolio Managers (2) $ 3.0 $ 3.0 $ 3.0 $ 3.0
Research Analysts (6) $ 1.5 $ 1.5 $ 1.5 $ 1.5
Technology $ 1.0 $ 0.50 $ 0.50 $ 0.50
Profit $ (4) $ (2) $ 1 $ 7
Profitability $ (4) $ (6) $ (5) $ 2
163
Conclusion
InvestCo should expand product line to include InvestCo should conduct a benchmarking study to
precious metals investments. evaluate personnel needs required to offer this
 While not profitable in the first three years, solution and to understand how the competitor
break-even occurs in Year 3, and the company offers the solution at a lower personnel cost.
is profitable by Year 4 assuming sales trend InvestCo should design this solution as soon as
continues. possible to begin marketing efforts and prevent
 Key competitor already offers this solution for its customers from considering switching to the
customers, and customer switching costs are competitor.
low. InvestCo needs to stave off this competitive InvestCo should begin the technology upgrades
threat by offering its own solution. that are required to ensure the infrastructure is in
 The competition has a lower cost structure for place when the new PMs and RAs are hired.
personnel ($1.75 MM per year). If InvestCo
could improve its cost structure, it could be
profitable by Year 3.
164
Case 14: Cut-N-Edge
• Industry: Personal Care
Difficulty: Medium
Industry: Personal Care / Services
Cut-N-Edge Hair Salons
Type: Market Entry
Ross Original
Your client, the owner of Cut-N-Edge, a • Primary objective is short-term profitability

successful chain of hair salons in a large (must be profitable at the end of year one
metropolitan area, believes there is opportunity to go forward with expansion).
to grow her business by adding manicure • The owner will not add space to existing
services to her existing salons. Currently the salons but, instead, swap out haircut
salons offer only premium haircut and styling stations for manicure stations.
services. The salons are staffed by trained hair
• Hair salons are relatively recession-proof.
stylists.
Nail salons see revenue decline in a bad
economy but have high margins to buoy
Your client wants help understanding whether them through tough times.
expanding into manicures is a good idea and, if • The majority of the salon’s current
she were to pursue the expansion, what kind of customers are adult women.
customer volumes she should prepare for in the • The salon is open five days per week,
first year. Tuesday through Saturday.
Note to interviewer: This case proceeds more like a McKinsey case where the candidate will be asked specific questions
throughout.
166
Solution Guide
Sample Structure
 Will manicure stations be more profitable than hair cut stations by end of year 1?
Revenues Costs
Hair Cut - Types of hair services (cut, style, blowout, dye) - Labor
- Product sales (styling products, shampoo, etc) - Materials (shampoo, conditioner, styling
products, hair dye, etc)
- SG&A
Manicure - Different types of manicures (gel, French, - Labor
regular) - Materials (polish, dryers, tools, lotion, towels)
- Product sales (lotion, polish) - SG&A
- Associated services (massage, paraffin wax) - Investment Cost
 Is this an attractive complementary market for the salon owner long-term?

– Market size and growth rate: How big is metro market? Growing? Stable in good economy or bad?
– Customer: Accessing existing customers’ demand? What is their willingness to pay (pricing strategy)?
– Impact on Cut-N-Edge brand: Opportunities for future growth? Maintain premium manicure reputation?
 What kind of customer volumes might the manicure service attract?

– # of existing customers wanting manicures and hair cuts -- Frequency of manicure customers
– # of new customers attracted by new service
167
Solution Guide
Possible Reasons to Consider Expansion
(1) Ask the candidate to brainstorm why the salon might consider this move in the first place. These could
include:
 Capture existing customers who already get manicures elsewhere.
 Attract new customers for nail services who might also want salon services.
 Build brand beyond hair cut / styling; create opportunities for additional expansion (e.g., facials, waxing,
pedicures, massage, etc.)
 Increase utilization of current hair cut setup while creating and utilizing capacity for the new service.
168
Solution Guide
Profitability of Hair Cuts vs. Manicures
(2) Calculate the difference in profitability between existing hair cut stations and the new manicure stations.
 Information provided to the candidate: Your client estimates that, on average, she can replace four
haircut stations with six manicure stations in each salon. The investment here would be $5000 per salon.
 Calculations:
Haircut Manicure
# Stations 4 6
Synthesis:
Utilization 50% 80%
Appt. Duration 60 minutes 45 minutes Adding manicure stations would yield an
incremental $240 in profit per salon per
# Daily Appts 16 48 day, recouping the $5000 investment
Avg. Price $50 $20 cost after about 21 days of operating.
Total Revenue $800 $960 This assumes eliminating four haircut

stations, where in reality some of the
Unit Cost $35 $10
volume could be shifted elsewhere in the
Total Cost $560 $480 salon to increase utilization.
Total Profit $240 $480
169
Solution Guide
Customer Volume in Year One
(3) Calculate the customer volume the client could anticipate in year one of offering a manicure service.
 Information provided to candidate: Your client anticipates two types of manicure customers: (a) existing
haircut customers who will now also pay for manicures and (b) new manicure customers who are
attracted by the new service.
Existing customers:
 The 25 current Cut-N-Edge salons see customers for haircuts once every 10 weeks on average (about
five times a year). Each salon has approximately 500 regular customers, 20% of whom are likely to add a
manicure on to their existing hair cut appointment.
– 25 salons x 1500 regular customers x 20 percent opt-in x 5 times per year = 37,500 appointments
New customers:
 Initial estimates suggest that for every $100 spent on advertising the new service, the salons would
acquire 15 new customers. Their projected advertising budget for year 1 is $15,000.
– ($15,000 / $100) x 15 new customers = 2250 appointments
 Total appointments = 39,750 in year one
170
Conclusion
• Proceed with adding manicure stations within • Consider gradual rollout across network of
the Cut-N-Edge salon network for an Cut-N-Edge salons to ensure success of
incremental $240 in profit per salon per day, new offering.
recouping the $5000 investment cost after • Survey existing customers to better
about 21 days. estimate volume from existing customer
• Cut-N-Edge could anticipate 39,750 manicure segment.
appointments in year one. • Conduct pricing exercise to firm up price
and expected revenue.
• Conduct interviews and hire new
manicurists.
171
Case 15: Chef’s Best Cutlery Co
• Type: Market Growth
• Industry: CPG
Difficulty: Medium
Chef’s Best Cutlery Co. Industry: CPG

Type: Interviewer Led/ Market Growth
McKinsey First Round
Our client is an international manufacturer of medium • Chef’s Best sells primarily through a direct
and high quality kitchen knives. Chef’s Best sells knives sales method (individual sales people
in more than 20 countries, with a focus in Latin America, throughout each region).
US & Canada, and global emerging economies.
• Chef’s Best sales are largest in Mexico, the
US, and Brazil.
Chef’s Best produces five types of knives:
-Steak Knives (Used at the table)
-Butcher Knives (Used for chopping meat) Phase 1: Ask candidate to brainstorm and tell
you how they would approach the problem.
-Carving Knives (Used for carving slices from large
pieces of meat)
Prod for depth/creativity in framework then
move the candidate on to exhibit 1 after 7-10
-Paring Knives (Used for cutting small fruits &
minutes (next page).
vegetables)
-Chef’s Knives (Large all purpose knives) A good framework should include major areas
(e.g. product, customer, company, competition)
but this is really a test of creativity and ability to
Chef’s Best has had slowing sales growth in the past derive a logical framework & brainstorming for
few years. How can Chef’s Best increase revenue this question with only ambiguous information.
growth for the next 5-10 years?
The framework will not be important for the
next steps.
173
Phase 2: Market Overview Exhibit
Exhibit 1 Exercise
 Tell the candidate that you have some information to answer their question on growth and profitability.
Hand out Exhibit 1. Ask the candidate to tell you what they have learned from this and what this
information means.
– Look for:
 Identification of largest profit centers (Mexico & Brazil), etc.
 Identification of poor growth in Mexico, the largest profit center, etc.
 Candidate should be able to confidently reach conclusions about important areas to focus on and
risk areas using basic review of these factors.
– Ask Market Share Math question below [This is a test of the candidates ability to do math (with minimal
rounding) under pressure. To pass this question the candidate must correctly calculate the answer with
minimal mistakes and quickly recover from any mistakes. If the candidate does a good job of sharing
their calculations you may offer corrections.]
– If we have 23% Market share in Mexico, and we grow at the same rate as last year in the next year,
what will our market share be in 1 year? Follow calculations and ask candidate to calculate to 1
decimal place. Example calculations:
 Chef’s Co Growth = (-70/100) = (x/7 -1)  -.7 = x/7 -1  -.7+1 = x/7 -1 +1  .3 = x/7, x = 2.1
 Market share = (23%*1.021) / (100% *1.07)  23.5/107  Long Division  21.9%
174
Phase 3: Product Category Overview Exhibit
Exhibit 2 Exercise
 Tell the candidate that you have some information to answer their questions about what is driving market
share changes. Give them Exhibit 2 and ask them if this will help them answer your overall question.
– Look for:
 Identification of share losses in all categories
 Highlight of both channel and share losses in the butcher knives category
 Prioritization of areas for focus
– When the candidate identifies their focus areas (or ask them to if they do not), move on to Exhibit 3.
This exhibit may only take a few minutes.
175
Phase 4: Butcher Knives Detail
Exhibit 3 Exercise
 Tell the candidate that you have some information to answer their questions about the Butcher Knives
category. Ask them to look at Exhibit 3 and prompt them to tell you how this helps you answer your
question if needed.
– Look for:
 High overall growth rate (correlating to poor market share performance in Exhibit 2)
 Acknowledgement of potential of retail distribution vs. Direct sales model that currently accounts for
majority of sales.
 Development of recommendations to invest behind the butcher knives category and drive increased
distribution, focus on expanding Recycled Steel distribution, Japanese & General Purpose
distribution
 Generally drawing upon earlier exhibits to developer broader recommendations
– After about 5 minutes with this slide move the candidate and ask them to prepare you a
recommendation slide to present to the Chef’s Best CEO.
176
Conclusion
Candidate recommendations should encompass all 3 Examples:

exhibits. Ideally they were developed/discovered by the
candidate as they progressed through the case. • Open negotiations with additional retail
Examples:
distributors to identify next steps towards
gaining additional distribution
• Focus on growing share in Mexico, US, to retain the
core business and avoid losing share and scale • Conduct a competitive analysis in Mexico
economies to competitors and the US to identify specific causes for
• Invest in emerging markets but recognize that top 3 lower than market share growth
markets are 60% of sales and cannot be ignored
• Prepare financial plans for increasing
• Invest in Butcher Knives to expand distribution and investment plans in Butcher Knives
address any weaknesses in marketing
• Begin to shift more of the business away from costlier
and lower growth potential direct sales model to retail
sales (diversify away from declining sales channels)
This case provides a good challenge to force the

candidate to think creatively in addition to identifying the
most obvious recommendations. The 3 exhibits provide
3 tests of their ability to interpret data, and include one
medium difficulty math challenge.
177
Exhibit 1
Overview of Major Markets
Revenue Profits Market Growth Chef's Best Index to Market

Mexico 345 69 7 -70
US 242 17 3.2 -53
Brazil 133 28 6.6 21
Poland 106 16 7.9 -75
Argentina 74 19 16.2 48
Russia 60 7 22.1 -59
Malaysia 54 8 10.2 -12
Japan 43 12 4.5 22
Colombia 39 7 13.2 14
Venezuela 33 5 25.8 5
Index to Market Calculated as [(Chef’s Best Growth/Market Growth)-1]*100
178
Exhibit 2
Overview of Product Categories
Market Category Revenue Change in Rev. Past 5 Years Market Driven Channel Driven Share Driven
Steak Knives
366 128 136 22 -30
Butcher Knives
243 27 186 -46 -113
Carving Knives
226 59 55 7 -3
Paring Knives
165 36 48 -2 -10
Chef's Knives
97 49 35 19 -5
Total 1096 298 460 0 -161
179
Exhibit 3
Details of Butcher Knives Category
Chef's Best not

Distributed
10-20% Share
Over 20% Share
General Japanese Titanium Recycled

Purpose Design Ever-Sharp Edge Light Weight Steel
Chef's Best Sales by
Product 25% 23% 14% 9% 18% 11%
Annual Market
Growth (past 5 years) 9% 11% 6% 7% 1% 12%
High End Mass

market
Mass Market
Discount
180
Additional recommended cases from past
casebooks
Additional Recommended Cases
For additional practice, RCC Casebook team recommends few other cases. List of the
recommended cases has been uploaded at the following Ross Consulting Club location:
Ross Consulting
Club>>Resources>>Casebooks>>
―Recommended Cases‖
(http://cglink.me/d199252)
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ROSS CASEBOOK 2013

Ross Consulting Club

Best of luck in the upcoming recruiting season!

RCC 2013 Casebook Team

• The Boston Consulting Group

Note: Case is industrial and equipment focused.

Interview process overview Career path

 New employees recruit for a specific industry focus rather than a

About Quick Facts

Interview process overview

 Extended Warranties  Corporate Overhead – 7%  Increased popularity of hybrid

 Cars – 68.2%  Vans – 7.9%

 Dealership networks – largest domestic segment

 Consumer Confidence Index  Steel prices

 Capacity optimization is key for  Aircraft depreciation/rentals - 12%  Flexible capacity is an

 Leisure travelers – 71%, generally price sensitive

 World Price of Crude Oil Per capita disposable income

 Pharmaceutical manufacturing  The manufacturing cost is the  Healthcare reform is expected to

Customer  Patients/consumers who need these drugs/medicines

 Over-the-counter outlets – CVS, Walgreens  Mail order pharmacy: Express Scripts,

 Price competition from generic drugs  Unfavorable government healthcare polices

Key Economic  Median age of Population

 Retail customers – 53%  Other – 5%

 Branch offices  Mobile banking

 Prime rate  Corp. profit  Regulation

 Natural gas – 23.8%  Transportation – 5%  Oil price forecasted to increase

 Refining – 13%  Incentive to invest in research

 Petroleum refiners – 74.%  Electricity generators – 9.2%

 Hospitals  Outpatient surgery centers  Pharmacies

 Regulation for Health & Medical insurance  Aging population

Private equity funds and hedge funds

 Investor uncertainty S&P 500

Consumer confidence index Population segmentation

Customer  Residential and small business markets

 Capital-intensive telecom industry the biggest barrier to entry is access to finance

Customer  Residential  Industrial and Transportation

Auto Industry - IBISWorld Industry Report 33611a

Understand the Develop Form

Porter’s Five Forces Analysis

Bargaining Power of Internal Bargaining Power of

Concept Key Drivers

Bargaining Power of • Supplier concentration • Threat of forward integration

Bargaining Power of • Buyer concentration • Ability to backward integrate

Topic Key Drivers

Topic Key Drivers

Topic Key Drivers

Return on Equity (ROE)

Income Statement Sales

Marginal Cost Cost of one more unit of output.

Monopoly Entity is the only supplier of a particular good.

Problem Statement Information Provided Upon Request

Your client is HealthCo, a software company Software is provided to hospitals for a

High level model answer Additional guidance

Calculate willingness to pay by hospital size:

Small Medium Large

Size Small Medium Large Total

Recommendation Next Steps

Recommendation Hire and train a sales team

– Price software at $250k per hospital to Develop marketing pitch to demonstrate

Risks Develop software for other patient service