Ross Case Book 2011

Ross Consulting Club
Casebook 2011
CONSULTING INTERVIEW GUIDE
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Table of Contents
I. Introduction 3
II. Key Concepts 7
III. Frameworks 12
IV. Economics Review 17
V. Glossary 19
VI. Practice Cases
1. Retail Bank (McKinsey – Case Contest) 27
2. ChairCo. (BCG Round 1) 37
3. Molds R’ Us (Bain Round 1) 44
4. Dr. Rossman’s Magic Eye Drops (Bain Round 1) 50
5. Baby Dinosaur (McKinsey Round 1) 57
6. Save Mart Distribution (Accenture Round 1) 60
7. Diesel Transportation (AT Kearney Round 1) 64
8. Midwest Hospital (BCG Final Round) 70
9. Caribbean Pay Phone (Bain Final Round) 77
10. Hotel Co. Spinoff (Bain Final Round) 82
11. Upscale Restaurant (McKinsey Final Round) 90
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Table of Contents
12. Marie’s Café 94

13. Chinatown Bus 102
14. Content Publisher and Distributor 107
15. Ross – Summer Employment 116
16. Bolly Flix 121
17. Retailer Business Restaurant 131
18. Electric Auto Manufacturer 135
19. Pharmacy in Grocery Store 146
20. Lonestar Oil 151
VI. Recommended Cases from other Casebooks 156
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Introduction
Ross Consulting Club Casebook Committee
The casebook committee edited and formatted cases that were written by the student body in
addition to contributing to the content sections.
Reed Hansen, RCC Casebook VP, Class of ’12

Cara Howieson, RCC Casebook VP, Class of ‘12
Anvar Huseynov, RCC Casebook AVP, Class of ‘13
Joydeep Mukherjee, RCC Casebook AVP, Class of ‘13
Robbie Pratt, RCC Casebook AVP, Class of ’13
Contact Reed Hansen (reedhans@umich.edu) or Cara Howieson (howieson@umich.edu) with any

questions
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Introduction
Important Information Regarding the Casebook
By accessing this casebook, you agree not to share it with anyone who is not a member of the
Ross Consulting Club. This casebook is a product of the work of Ross Consulting Club members
who wrote the cases and Casebook committee members who compiled and edited these cases.
• Access to the Ross Casebook is a privilege of club membership.

• Many of the cases provided to the club were provided by consulting firms who did so with the
understanding that the audience for these cases would be limited.
• When the opportunity arises, the RCC will coordinate casebook exchanges with other MBA
programs. These exchanges will be facilitated by the RCC Casebook Committee.
• Contact Reed Hansen (reedhans@umich.edu) or Cara Howieson (howieson@umich.edu) with
any questions
Copyright 2011© by the Ross Consulting Club. Copyright act of 1976, no part of this publication
may be reproduced or distributed in any for or by any means or stored in a database or retrieval
system , without prior written permission by the publisher.
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Introduction
How to Use the Casebook
The Cases have been formatted for easy use by both Interviewer and Interviewee. Follow these
guidelines for a practice case interview:
1. The Interviewer reads the problem narrative out loud.

2. The Interviewee may ask initial questions then construct a framework for solving the case.
3. Follow the instructions given in the case, it should be clear what information should be given to
the interviewer (at times information should only be provided if the Interviewee asks).
4. Proceed until the case conclusion and allow the Interviewee to present recommendations.
5. Interviewer: take notes throughout the case and provide feedback to interviewee.
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Acknowledgements
Case Contributors
In addition to the RCC Casebook team, the publication of this casebook would
not have been possible without the support of the following individuals:
Chandra Arya
Rohit Bakshi
Steuart Botchford
Tyler Cole
Matt Harms
Ameera Hiary
Chris Hicks
Jonathan Hunt-Glassman
Jonathan Huynh
Noy Jacobsberg
Alex Sedler
Adam Schanfield
Cecilia Tian
Rick Wilmot
John Zhang
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Case Structure
The overall structure of the case interview takes the following form:
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 plan your structure framework as you recommendation as
problem statement • Develop 3-4 areas to move through each a direct response to
to make sure you analyze along with a of the main areas the
understand the few tailored sub-topics • Use one sheet of problem/objective –
situation and • Structure the paper per topic – it should not come
objectives framework in a logical think of the case as as a surprise to the
fashion – it should interviewer
• Ask 1-2 clarifying open with the most
a PowerPoint deck
questions around important topic and • Tie back each piece • Incorporate key
the topic and/or provide the of analysis to the metrics/findings as a
metrics to be used interviewer with a main part of your
for the analysis roadmap of where you objective/problem recommendation
• The questions plan to take the case statement • Include risks and
posed should • Engage the • Walk through the next steps
necessitate a short interviewer by turning calculations
response – you don’ the framework /analysis
towards them
• Drive insights
whenever possible!
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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
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Porter’s Five Forces
Concept Key Drivers
Internal Rivalry Concentration and balance
Industry growth
Product differences
Exit barriers
Overcapacity
Threat of New Entry Economies of scale
(Barriers to Entry) Capital requirements
Access to distribution channels
Competitor response
Brand identity
Proprietary product differences
Threat of Substitutes Switching costs
Relative pricing
Availability of and consumer propensity to substitute products
Bargaining Power of Supplier concentration
Suppliers Switching costs
Threat of forward integration
Product differentiation
Bargaining Power of Buyer concentration
Customers Buyer volume
Buyer switching costs
Ability to backward integrate
Substitute products
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Key Marketing Concepts
4Ps Considerations
Product Features and capabilities
Quality and reputation
Service and warranties
Packaging and size
Positioning and market segmentation
Differentiated versus commodity
Promotion “Pull” versus “push”
Consumer awareness
Loyalty
Advertising medium
Public relations
Buying process
Trial/Repurchase
Price Perceived value
Willingness to pay
Retail/Discounts
Economic incentives
Skimming
Strategy  relation to market size, product lifecycle, and competition
Place (Distribution) Channels
Coverage
Inventory  levels, turnover, carrying costs
Transportation  alternatives, efficiencies, costs
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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
To make this a 5Cs analysis, one would also evaluate costs and channels. Data for
these two dimensions is covered elsewhere in the casebook.
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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
Number of Stores
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
Competition Rivals (structure)
New Entrants
Substitutes
Reaction
Position
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General Frameworks
Topic Key Drivers
Customers Market Size
Segments
Needs
Purchase Drivers
Price Elasticity
Retention/Loyalty
Processes Manufacturing
Marketing
Sales
Distribution
Customer Service
IT
R&D
Forecasting
Company Core Competencies
Cost of Capital
Brand
Organization / Incentives
Controls
Financial Capability
Management Capability
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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.
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Key Formula Review
Topic Formula
Time Value of Money
Rule of 72
Little’s Law
Inventory
Profitability
Breakeven
Margin
Markup
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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
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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.
• Restrict choice
• Equalize information
• Signaling
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
Insurance Form of risk management used to hedge against the risk of a loss in which
the cost is equal to expected loss.
Law of Diminishing At some point in the production process, the addition of one more unit of
Returns output , while holding everything else constant, will eventually lead to a
decrease in per unit returns.
Marginal Cost Cost of one more unit of output.
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Economics Review
Concept Definition
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.
Oligopoly Market is dominated by a small number of sellers.
• Dominant strategy is always better
• Sequential games – commitments help
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.
• Ist 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.
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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 OR
Advantage 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
Customer Subdivision of a market into discrete groups that share similar characteristics.
Segmentation
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Glossary
Term Definition
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.
Five Cs Company, Customer, Cost, Channels, Competition
Fixed Costs Costs that do not change with an increase or decrease in the amount of
goods or services produced.
Four Ps Product, Price, Promotion and Place
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 Expansion Main mechanisms: exporting, licensing, franchising, joint venture, foreign
direct investment (acquisition or startup).
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Glossary
Term Definition
Inventory Turnover A ratio showing how many times a company's inventory is sold and 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.
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.
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Glossary
Term Definition
Porter’s Five Forces Buyer Power, Supplier Power, Threat of new entrants, Substitutes, Internal
Competition. Used for evaluating markets. Also key to think about
complements even though that's not mentioned by Porter.
Profit Revenue minus cost.
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 sales has
come from sales growth and what portion from the opening of new stores.
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.
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Glossary
Term Definition
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.
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Key Facts Review
Market Sizing Facts
A selection of facts that can be useful to review before case interviews. You don’t have to know the
exact population of Canada, but you should at least be able to get in the ball park. Furthermore, you
should memorize numbers that occur commonly such as the population of the U.S. It is good to get in
the habit of using numbers that work with the math you are planning to perform. For example, if you are
estimating the population of the U.S. and you have to divide by 4, use 280 MM rather than 300 MM.
Doing math quickly in your head can impress interviewers and make you sound more confident.
Additionally, we would recommend you develop a system to keep track of zeroes while you are doing
your calculations. You don’t want to get tripped up because you get 1 MM instead of 10 MM!
Lastly, get in the habit of taking second to think before you speak. It is better to take an extra few
second and be right than to blurt out the wrong answer. Remember, the interviewer is evaluating
whether they would be comfortable putting you in front of a client!
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Key Facts Review
Location Population Metric Value

World 7B Avg. Household Size 2.5
China 1.4 B Average HH Income $47,000
India 1.2 B % With Internet Access 92%
Europe 800 M % Computer in Home 80%
U.S. 310 M Corporate Tax Rate 40%
Brazil 200 M Corporate Discount Rate 10%
Japan 130 M Wal-Mart Revenue $408 B
Mexico 107 M Wal-Mart Profit $14 B
France 65 M Exxon Mobile Revenue $275 B
Canada 34 M Exxon Mobile Profit $19 B
Australia 22 M % Americans Over 65 13 %
New York City 8M % Americans Under 20 27 %
Los Angeles 4M Average GDP Growth US 4%
Chicago 3M Average Inflation US 3.3 %
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Decimal Calculations
Decimal Calculations
Many decimal calculations can be made easier by remembering a few numbers. For example, if
you know that 1/8 is .125, it will be easy to calculate 3/8 = 3*.125 = .375. Numbers divided by 7
are also easy to calculate once you memorize the number sequence 142857.
1/2 .5 1/7 .142857

1/3 .333
2/7 .285714
$K * $K = $M 1/4 .25
$K * $M = $B 3/7 .428571
1/5 .2
1/6 .166 4/7 .571428
1/7 .142857
5/7 .714285
1/8 .125
6/7 .857142
1/9 .111
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Retail Bank
(McKinsey Quick on your Feet Competition)
Guidance for interviewer and
Problem statement narrative
information provided upon request
Our client is a bank in the US. It has a large retail
footprint and offers a mix of services to end-  Ensure the candidate is familiar with how a bank
customers (checking, debit, credit cards). They also earns its profits (e.g. the spread between what
have loan centers to sell mortgages in the same they lend money out at and borrowing costs, fees
markets. The bank currently serves 15 million on various services).
customers. Our client has historically been
profitable, but increased regulation and the downturn  Note that this is an interviewer-led case; there
in the economy have caused the bank to see a sharp are seven questions that the Interviewer will ask
decline in profitability. The client has engaged us to the Interviewee.
help determine next steps for its business and has
asked us to assess ways they can increase profits
within the next 12 months.
Difficulty: Medium Quant Heavy Industry: Financial Services Type: Profitability
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Retail Bank
Additional Questions to Steer Discussion

Questions for the candidate
1. What are some of the ways the bank can increase profits in the next 12 months?
A good answer is structured and contains a comprehensive set of ideas to both reduce costs and boost revenues as
well as clear examples. Interviewee should use a Profitability framework to approach this problem. Answers include
but are not limited to:
Reduce Costs
•Fixed Costs
•Reduce underperforming branches (close branches, lease branches to other banks)
•Reduce workforce (e.g., push greater use of online channels for banking, outsource functions)
•Consolidate the branches and the loan centers
•Variable
•Reduce costs associated with transactions (paper free, decrease error rate)
Increase Revenue
•Quantity
•Current Customers
•Cross-sell different products (home purchase mortgages, refinancing, credit card, debit card, money market,
advisory services)
•Change product mix to higher revenue products
•Get rid of unprofitable customers
•New Customers
• Increase Number of customers
•Product Mix
•Launch new products
•Price
• Increase bank fees (Debit fees, ATM fees, call center fees)
•Raise rates charged
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Retail Bank

We have worked with our client to narrow down their options to two choices. The first is shutting
down unprofitable retail locations, the second is a better customer segmentation strategy. Lets
explore both:
2. What are some of the risks with shutting down branch locations?
Note: there are a number of ways to think this through – look for the structure in how the candidate
responds. A good answer includes, but is not limited to:
Near Term
•Poor PR
•Legal/contractual complications
•Extra costs (severance)
•Lose a portion of customers who bank through that branch
•Selling off assets could scare investors
Long Term
•What happens when the market rebounds?
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Retail Bank

3. The second option the bank is considering is a better retail segmentation strategy: What
segments do you think a retail bank has?
Note 1: This response could have a lot of answers. Look for clear delineation between customers
who are profitable and unprofitable and then list characteristics of each (i.e. Segment 1 is mass
affluent and is highly profitable, uses checking accounts, has a money market account, and has a
mortgage with the bank; they are low cost as they generally use ATMs and the internet to manage
their transactions; Segment 2 is lower income, keeps a small balance in checking, uses tellers and
call centers often) etc.
Note 2: Ensure the candidate does not spend too long on this question.
4. Can you take a look at the below chart and walk me through what the bank is experiencing?
Please walk the interviewee through any questions they have on the chart in Exhibit 1:
Key insights include, but are not limited to:

- Only 30% of the bank’s customers are currently profitable
- 20% of the banks customers have low revenue potential and could be eliminated
- Our client needs to change the mix of products from group 1 and 2
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Retail Bank
Exhibit 1
Our client has 5 distinct groups of customers
Annual $ per customer1
Revenue Margin from Transaction % of total

Potential banking costs costs Cost to serve Profit clients
Working Draft - Last Modified 10/23/2011 8:45:44 PM Printed

Group 1 100 15 -5 -15 -5 30%
Group 2 100 50 -60 -15 -25 20%
Group 3 20 15 -5 -15 -5 20%
Group 4 100 50 -20 -15 15 10%
Group 5 100 75 -15 -15 45 20%
1 15,000,000 customers
SOURCE: Team Analysis McKinsey & Company | 0
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Retail Bank

5. What is the average annual profitability of a customer?
Average Customer
Category Profit Percent of clients Weighted profitability
Group 1 -5 0.3 $ (1.50)
Group 2 -25 0.2 $ (5.00)
Group 3 -5 0.2 $ (1.00)
Group 4 15 0.1 $ 1.50
Group 5 45 0.2 $ 9.00
Total N/A 1 $ 3.00
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Retail Bank

6. What is the annual bank profitability?
Total Profitability
Total Customers Average Profit per customer Total Profit
15,000,000 $ 3.00 $45,000,000.00
Note: If the interviewer decides to calculate each group out individually, push them to look
for shortcuts.
Our client has decided to institute a $.85 fee each month for all checking accounts. We have
advised them that they will lose a number of customers. We expect the following % of
customers to remain (read this chart to interviewee):
Percent of customers
that remain
Segment Percent
Group 1 60%
Group 2 60%
Group 3 20%
Group 4 60%
Group 5 70%
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Retail Bank

7. What is the new annual profitability per customer?

Note 1: If the interviewee is running out of time, help them along to ensure they get to
conclusion (e.g. ask them for their approach).
Note 2: Feel free to let the interviewee round off numbers here. Suggest $0.85 per month
should become $10 per year.
% of % of Profit
Customers customers from
who fit that will # of Profit per fees Total
each stay with remaining group (@$10 profit per
Segment Profit segment the firm customers (w/o fee) per yr) segment
Group 1 $ (5) 30% 60% 2,700K (13,500K) 27,000K 13,500K
Group 2 $ (25) 20% 40% 1,200K (30,000K) 12,000K 18,000K
Group 3 $ (5) 20% 20% 600K (3,000K) 6,000K 3,000K
Group 4 $ 15 10% 60% 900K 13,500,K 9,000K 22,500K
Group 5 $ 45 20% 50% 1,500K 67,500K 15,000K 82,500K
(Continued)
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Retail Bank

Total Profit 103,500K

# of Customers 6,900K
Average Profit per Customer $ 15
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Retail Bank
Suggested Solution and Structure

Solution Guide
You are walking down the hall and run into the CEO, he wants to know your recommendation:
A good answer includes, but is not limited to:
• Intro:
-The bank should institute a bank fee in order to meet the initial goal of increasing profits. This
is the quickest way to earn new streams of revenue, while segmenting out the unprofitable
customers. By instituting a fee you will be able to increase profit by 5x per customer on an
annual basis.
Note: The interviewee should include a detail or two on each group and how they are able to
increase profits (e.g. Group 3 was losing $3M per year we are now earning $3M in profit from them
on an annual basis).
• Risks
-Bad PR
-High transaction costs as people try to figure out if they are affected
-Estimates could be off
-Lose customers that could become profitable in the future
• Next steps
-Move forward with instating the fee
-Look at exempting certain groups from the fee
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ChairCo – BCG Round 1
Our Client, ChairCo manufactures metal parts* that  If the candidate asks, tell them that there are no
are used to manufacture chairs. ChairCo primarily specific financial targets.
sells these parts to US based chair manufacturers.  Give the exhibits in the subsequent slides only
They are facing declining revenues and the CEO has when the candidate asks for the relevant data.
asked us to evaluate the problem and suggest
corrective measures.
*Metal bases that are used in the revolving office

chairs.
Difficulty: Easy Industry: Manufacturing Type: Profitability, Operations, Chart Based
- 37 -
After seeing Exhibit 1, the candidate should make an observation that prices and volume are
decreasing and both these issues need to be addressed.
 Why did ChairCo have to decrease prices? Because competition has decreased prices.
 Why did competition decrease prices? Because metal parts are a commodity and they might
have a lower cost structure than us.
 Why do you think our competitor has a lower cost structure? Material and labor could be the two
major reasons.
 Why is our client loosing unit sales despite decreasing price? Because their customers are
moving to low cost countries.
 Can the client reduce costs? Client is already very efficient and cannot decrease their costs
without shifting operations to China, Indonesia etc.
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Solution Guide
 Exhibit 1 – Volumes have decreased and so have prices ($10 to $9.5). Ask candidate why he/she
thinks the price must have gone down. The most logical answer should be that since this is a
close to commodity product, prices for the entire industry have fallen down and ChairCo had to
respond. Competitors might have become more cost competitive because their operations are
located outside US.
 Exhibit 2 - Competition has significant cost savings in material and labor. The most logical
reasons are that they are based in low wage counties such as China, Indonesia and that they are
using an inferior/cheaper metal.
 Exhibit 3 – ChairCo customers are moving geographically away which explains the drop in
volume despite the drop in price.
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Conclusion
Recommendation Next Steps
To become cost competitive and gain proximity to  Analyze which country has low cost
customers (chair manufacturers), ChairCo has base, high proximity to customers and
to shift manufacturing to Asia. low barriers (regulations, etc.) to set up
manufacturing.
Risk – downsizing in US will lead to a PR
backlash.
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Exhibit 1 – ChairCo Sales
$500 M
50M Units
$380 M
40M Units
2010 2011
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Exhibit 2 – ChairCo Vs. Competitor cost
ChairCo Costs
Cost Structure
SGA COGS
ChairCo Competitor
Materials 4.9 2.5
Labor 2 1.5
Transportation 0.5 1.5

$7.5 $7.4
Tax 0 1
IT 0.5 0.6 $1.5 $1.6

Overhead 1.1 1 2010 2011
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Exhibit 3 - Manufacturers of Finished Chairs selling in US
Europe Canada US Asia
10.0%
30.0%
50.0%
80.0%
60.0%
40.0%
5.0% 5.0% 5.0%

5.0% 5.0% 5.0%
2009 2010 2011
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Molds R Us – Bain 1st Round
Our client is a private equity firm interested in Molds The PE firm wants to see growth of 20% in the first
R Us, small company that makes plastic moldings for year to justify this purchase
houses in Russia. They want to know if we think This company only plays in the Russian market and
investing in this company is a good idea. The firm the PE firm is not interested in expanding across
also wants to understand what the 2011 market for borders
moldings, particularly in plastics, will look like.
This company is the only player in plastic moldings
Moldings are used where walls meet the ceiling to
add a decorative appeal to houses and are only
used in residential buildings
All housing starts require moldings in the year they
are started, and are all completed by the next year
Molding Product Mix (Exhibit A)
Market Size and Competitive Landscape (Exhibit B)
Difficulty: Hard Industry: Manufacturing Type: Mergers and Acquisitions
- 44 -
Molds R Us
Exhibit A: Types of Moldings
No PVC Plastic Rubber Wood Plaster

Molding Options Moldings Moldings Moldings Moldings Moldings
Price per 10 Meters 0 1 Ruble 1.5 Rubles 5 Rubles 15 Rubles
Installation Need Need
Requirements None Need Contractor DIY Contractor Contractor
Every 10
Replacement None Every 5 years Every 7 Years Years Every 25 Years
Other Important Information
A contractor can lay down 1000 feet of molding per hour

A contractor makes, on average, $50 Rubles per hour
DIY-Do it yourself or self installation
The average house has 4000 Meters of walls
- 45 -
Molds R Us
Exhibit B Moldings Used in the Russian Market
Moldings Used in the Russian Market

No Moldings PVC Plastic Moldings Rubber Moldings Wood Moldings Plaster Moldings
8% 8% 8% 8% 7% 7%
15% 13% 11%
18% 16% 16%
0% 1% 2% 5% 9% 12%
25% 26% 26% 26% 26% 25%
49% 48% 47% 47% 46% 45%
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Total
Residences 29,689,297 30,145,394 30,696,939 31,375,374 32,170,804 33,122,149
Housing
Starts 456,097 551,545 678,435 795,430 951,345 1,245,890
- 46 -
Molds R Us
Case Progression
Case Progression
 Once the candidate lays out a framework and asks the relevant questions you should give
them Exhibits A and B.
 After the candidate analyzes the exhibits ask them to calculate their estimate for the
number of meters of plastic moldings being sold in 2011. This can be done by
multiplying the market share of plastics for 2010 by the number of residences in 2011 (2010
residences + 2010 starts) plus the estimated housing starts in 2011. This gives the
expected number of houses using plastics in 2011. Given that plastic moldings are
replaced every 5 years, the candidate should realize that only 1/5 of existing households
will be replacing their moldings in 2011.
 MATH: 34.3M Residences + ~1.4M Starts = Approx. 35.7M houses in 2011
 34.3M Residences*25% market share of plastic moldings = 8.6M houses
 8.6M Residences/5 years (replace moldings) = 1.7M existing houses replacing moldings in
2011
 Estimated 1.4M Housing starts in 2011 *25% market share = .35M
 So, 1.7M existing homes + .35M starts = 2.05M Houses in 2011 using plastic moldings.
 2.05M*4K meters of wall per house = 8.2B meters of plastic moldings being sold in 2011.
- 47 -
Molds R Us
Case Progression
Estimating the growth opportunity
Once the candidate lays a framework and asks the relevant questions provide them Exhibits
A and B
 After reviewing the charts and graphs the candidate should notice the stagnant pace of the
market share of plastic moldings.
 A good candidate will begin to calculate the overall changes in market size to see if there is
enough growth to make this deal worthwhile.
 Either way, have the candidate calculate the overall market growth rate from 2005-2010.
 This will begin to clue the candidate into the major issue, that the growth will not be high
enough for the PE firm to move forward with these moldings.
 Existing homes growth rate ~((33.1M – 29.7M)/29.7M) / 6 years (2006-2010) = 2%
 New homes growth rate ~((1.25M-.45M)/.45M) / 6 years = 30%
 The key here is for candidate to recognize that the market of plastic moldings for
existing homes (about 85% of market) far outweighs housing starts (about 15% of
market - see calculations on previous slide) and thus recognize that overall market
growth will fall well short of required 20%. Actual growth rate < 10%.
Once candidate recognizes low growth rate ask them for their final recommendation to
the PE firm
- 48 -
Molds R Us
Conclusion
The PE firm should not purchase Molds R Us.  The PE firm should look at rubber molding
 Plastic molding market share is stagnant companies to see if there is an opportunity to
among all moldings sold. purchase an organization because of high
growth of market share in the market.
 The overall growth in housing does not
make up for the stagnant growth and they  They should look at the sales and marketing of
will not grow revenues by 20% in their first Molds R Us to see if there is opportunity to
year. spurn sales to increase growth by investing in
marketing, distribution, or sales channels.
- 49 -
Dr. Rossman’s Magic Eye Drops
Bain, 1st Round

Our client, Dr. Rossman, has invented an amazing  Dr. Rossman has secured an exclusive,
product. He has discovered the chemical formula for worldwide patent for the next 20 years. After the
Magic Eye Drops. One drop in each eye will cure patent expires, generic versions will quickly be
short- or long-sightedness in any patient. But Dr. developed.
Rossman is a scientist, not a businessman, and he  Obstacles to regulatory approval are not
has come to our firm because he wants to sell the foreseen
rights to his Magic Eye Drops to a business that will
commercialize the invention. What should his asking  The Magic Eye Drops have no known side
price be? effects or risks.
 Give the candidate bonus points for identifying
laser surgery as the closest competitor, but tell
him to focus only on corrective lenses (glasses
and contacts) as competitors for the purposes of
this case.
 Direct the candidate to focus only on the US
market.
Difficulty: Easy Industry: Pharma/Med.Devices Type: Pricing/Valuation
- 50 -
Bain, 1st Round
Solution Overview
 An interviewer should allow the candidate to build a framework

 Help candidate understand that this is a valuation problem. The candidate will develop a
structure to estimate the NPV of future expected revenues and costs.
 To develop revenue projections, the candidate will have to estimate the market size and the
optimal price. An illustrative example of market sizing is given on slide 2 and an estimate of
revenue, including pricing, is given on slide 3.
 Make the candidate brainstorm cost drivers. Once the candidate has listed cost drivers, provide
him with the figures listed on slide 4.
- 51 -
Bain, 1st Round
Solution Guide: Market Sizing
Age Group Pop. Rate of Sight Rate of Adoption Market Size

Problems
0-15 50M 20% 10% 1M
16-30 50M 30% 50% 7.5M
31-40 50M 40% 50% 10M
41-60 50M 50% 50% 12.5M
61-75 50M 60% 40% 12M
75+ 50M 75% 20% 7.5M
Total = ~50M
 Give candidate bonus points for thoughtful and creative explanations of the assumed rate of sight
problems and assumed rate of adoption within each segment (e.g., adoption among young and old
patients will be lower because parents will be unwilling to test out a new technology on young
children whose eyes are still changing and elderly patients with fewer years to live will realize
fewer years of savings from not having to purchase new corrective lenses).
 Give candidate bonus points for recognizing that the market will grow over the course of the 20
year patent. If the candidate raises this point, provide a projected annual growth rate of 3.5%. By
the rule of 70, this means that the market will double before the patent expires, resulting in a true
market estimate of 100M consumers.
- 52 -
Bain, 1st Round
Solution Guide: Pricing & Revenue
 The candidate should weigh different pricing strategies: competitive, cost based and value based.
 One pricing strategy is to use competitive pricing, using corrective lenses as the relevant
competition. Based on personal experience, general knowledge or interviewer-provided
information, the candidate should assume an annual cost of corrective lenses at about $200.
 Revenue over the life of the patent can be calculated as shown below:
Market Size * Annual Value of Magic Eye Drops * Patent Life= Total Revenue
 ~100M * $200 * 20 = $400B
 The candidate may suggest factors that alter the price point – such as convenience (suggesting a
higher price point) and riskiness (suggesting a lower price point). The interviewer should accept
reasonable alterations.
 The solution’s assumption of 20 years of revenue assumes that all customers will purchase as
soon as the product comes on the market. The candidate may reasonably adjust the years of
revenue downward to account for some customers waiting several years before purchasing.
 Make sure that the candidate understands that we will disregard discount rates for the
purposes of this case. In other words, assume a discount rate of 0%.
- 53 -
Bain, 1st Round
Exhibit 1: Costs
Costs
Driver Cost
Management/Overhead 33% of operating costs
Operating Costs
Marketing $150M per year for first 10 years
$50M per year for last 10 years
Production $20 per drop
Distribution $100M per year
- 54 -
Bain, 1st Round
Solution Guide: Costs
Driver Cost Math Total
Management/ 33% of operating costs 1/3 * 6B 2B

Overhead (i.e. 33% of Marketing
+ Production+
Distribution)
Marketing $150M per year for $100M * 20 yrs 2B
first 10 years
$50M per year for last
10 years
Production $20 per drop $20 * 2 eyes * 50M 2B
customers
Distribution $100M per year $100M * 20 yrs 2B
Total = 8B
- 55 -
Bain, 1st Round
Conclusion
Dr. Rossman should put the invention up for Solicit buyers

sale at ~ $392 B (400B Revenues-8 B in Focus on strategic acquirers
Costs). Sales could however continue even
after expiry of the patent. Attempt to start a bidding war
Speak at conferences extolling the value
This solution has been simplified by assuming
a discount rate of zero, because calculating the
NPV for this case by hand would be overly
complicated.
- 56 -
Baby Dinosaur (McKinsey)

You are an MBA2 student, you walk into your  Dinosaur is the only one in the world, and it turns
apartment and you find a baby dinosaur in the corner out he is friendly. No other information is
of your room, what do you do? available.
 Candidate should layout some initial decision
tree that could include:
Take Action: run, call 911, call family/friends for
help, pick up a stick to hit it with, stay there and cry
Take No-action: Dinosaur leaves on its own,
Dinosaur is friendly, Dinosaur is not friendly and you
may die.
 If Dinosaur is friendly, student should think of

ways to monetize it.
Difficulty: Easy Industry: Other Type: Abstract, Decision Trees
- 57 -
Structure to Steer Discussion

A strong candidate will be able to structure their thought process to include the following issues:
 Should they approach the dinosaur or run away? (depends on whether it is friendly).
 What can they do with the dinosaur? (Monetizing activities, vs. non-monetizing activities such as research,
etc.).
 When monetizing dinosaur, they should consider selling vs. building a dinosaur business/franchise.
1. What are possible ways to monetize or make money in this situation? Sell it, or create business
around it. Student should brainstorm possible ways to create a business like using it for a movie, leasing it
to a zoo or an entertainment show, or creating an ecosystem around the dinosaur like a theme park.
1. What would you prefer to do, sell the dinosaur or use it for a business? Why? What are the
possible costs and revenues you can generate in each case?
2. What are the potential risks in this situation? Dinosaur dies, dinosaur attacks/eats spectators,
government seizes dinosaur and claims right to it, environmental concerns, etc.
3. What are the possible ways to hedge against the possibility of dinosaur death? Insurance, clone the
dinosaur, asking science experts in field for ways to take care of it, create an ecosystem around Dinosaur
like a theme park or having it star a movie.
- 58 -
Conclusion
A good recommendation will include creating  Next steps may include conducting a feasibility
an ecosystem around the Dinosaur such as a study around creating an ecosystem/theme
theme or entertainment park. It will touch on park.
other ways to hedge against the death of a
dinosaur, and potential risks like legal or
environmental risks.
- 59 -
SaveMart Distribution
Accenture, Round 1
Your client, SaveMart, is a discount superstore  SaveMart owns multiple distribution centers
similar to Wal-Mart. They have 1000 retail stores across the United States. (Show figure)
across the United States. Each store receives one  The 4 primary distribution centers are
delivery per day from a distribution center. located in New York, Chicago, Dallas, and
SaveMart has hired you to investigate if the costs San Francisco.
related to distribution can be reduced.  The 20 secondary distribution centers are
also spread out through the country.
 All of SaveMart’s products are imported from
Asia and arrive daily at the San Francisco
distribution center.
 Steer the candidate away from attempting
numerical calculations.
Difficulty: Medium Industry: Retail Type: Operations
- 60 -
Accenture, Round 1
Primary DC
Secondary DC
- 61 -
Accenture, Round 1
Wait for candidate to specifically ask about…
Current Distribution Routes Capacity
 Every day, trucks transport products from the  Not all distribution centers (primary or secondary)
San Francisco center to each of the primary and are at full capacity. The three primary DCs
secondary distribution centers. (excluding the West Coast DC) are well under
 Trucks from each of the primary DCs also make capacity.
daily deliveries to the nearby secondary DCs.  Most trucks are NOT at full capacity.
 Each secondary DC makes one delivery per day  Demand for products is not the same at all
to its assigned stores. stores.
 All routes to and from the DCs are the same
each day regardless of demand (static routing).
 Trucks are rented and are of uniform size.
- 62 -
Accenture, Round 1
Sample Recommendations Sample Risks/Next Steps
 Deliver from the West Coast DC to the other Risks

primary DCs and secondary DCs on the West  Other primary DCs may not have
Coast. Do not deliver from West Coast DC to enough capacity to hold the additional
other secondary DCs. inventory.
 Consolidate secondary DCs that are not at full  By consolidating secondary DCs,
capacity. capacity risks are magnified if demand
 Determine optimal routes to and from the increases drastically.
DCs. Next Steps
 Dynamic Routing – do not make daily  Determine capacities of different DCs
deliveries to stores/DCs if there is low to see which trucks to consolidate.
demand, or keep some extra inventory at the
stores.  Determine differences in demand of
different stores.
 Consolidate trucks:
 Investigate trucking contracts and if
 Use smaller trucks if it decreases the using different truck sizes or buying
cost. trucks would save money.
 Buy trucks instead of renting.
- 63 -
Diesel Transportation Co
A.T. Kearney, Round 1
Our client is a national shipping company that  Our client has identified a supplier to provide the
focuses on ground transportation of commercial electric vehicle technology since it does not have
freight. For the past 15 years, it has been using in-house capabilities.
diesel engines to power its fleet of vehicles, but now  Since it has an extensive fleet of vehicles, our
wants to explore the possibility of switching to client wants to retrofit existing vehicles instead of
electric powered engines (EV technology) due to buying new ones.
rising fuel costs. The CEO has approached us for
guidance and wants to know how to proceed.  No other ground transportation company has
used EV powered engines. If our client proceeds
with the conversion, it will be the first in the
industry to do so.
 The candidate should now ask questions about
the current costs of transportation and determine
potential cost savings.
Difficulty: Medium Quant Heavy Industry: Transportation Type: Cost Reduction
- 64 -
Guidance to Steer Discussion

Overall guidance Possible framework
 The candidate should explain his/her overall Revenue

framework, then identify that the current and  Explore impact on revenue (e.g. improved
future costs of ground transportation will business relationships due to sustainable
determine feasibility of project. operations or reduced carbon footprint in
 The candidate should then ask questions to supply chain for partners).
determine the initial investment required for Costs
EV retrofitting and consider this cost along
with the cost savings of the entire project.  Labor, insurance, fuel, maintenance, retrofit
initial investment.
 Candidate can assume that the current
supplier offers the best EV opportunity in Competition/Industry
terms of price and efficiency.  New technology may create competitive
 EV technology has the potential to double advantage for the client, thereby growing its
existing fuel efficiency. business.
 Failure to properly implement fleet could
disable operations, allowing competitors to
take over.
Existing Capability
 Company has no knowledge of using EV
technology, requiring a learning curve.
 First to test the technology may also pose a
risk.
- 65 -
Costs Page
Breakdown of Current Costs
Provide the following cost data as the right questions are asked but do not give them
away freely.
# of vehicles: 2000
Fuel tank size: 50 gallons
Avg mpg: 10
Cost of fuel per gallon: $3.00
Avg miles travelled per week: 1000
Avg annual maintenance and repair: $500
Insurance: 1K / year
Labor: 20K / year
Breakdown of Future Costs

Of the costs listed below, ask the candidate which would change and why.
# of vehicles: 2000
Fuel tank size: 50 gallons
Avg mpg: 20
Cost of fuel per gallon: $3.00
Avg miles travelled per week: 1000
Avg annual maintenance and repair: $3500
Insurance: 3K / year
Labor: 20K / year
- 66 -

Solution Guide – fuel savings
Current fuel costs

 Miles driven per tank = 10 mpg * 50 gallons = 500 miles
 Miles traveled per week = 1000 miles
 # of times tank is filled per week = 2
 Total cost of fuel per week = 2 * 50 gallons * $3.00 per gallon = $300
 Average yearly fuel costs (~50 weeks) * $300 = $15K
Future fuel costs (candidate can perform calculations again or receives a bonus for realizing
that doubling fuel efficiency reduces fuel costs by half for the year)
 Miles driven per tank = 20 mpg * 50 gallons = 1000 miles
 Miles traveled per week = 1000 miles
 # of times tank is filled per week = 1
 Total cost of fuel per week = 50 gallons * $3.00 per gallon = $150
 Average yearly fuel costs (~50 weeks) * $150 = $7.5K
Annual fuel savings per vehicle: $15K – $7.5K = $7.5K
- 67 -

Solution Guide – total costs
Total current costs  Switching to EV thus saves $2.5K per

 Fuel: $15K year.
 Annual maintenance: $500  The current vehicles have a remaining

useful life of 10 years.
 Labor: $20K / year
 Thus, switching to EV saves:
 Insurance: $1K / year
$25K – $5K (retrofit cost) = $20K over
 Total: $36.5K the lifetime of each vehicle.
 At a fleet level, this would save the
Total future costs company $20K * 2K vehicles = $40M over
the lifetime of the vehicles.
 Fuel: $7.5K
 Candidate can ignore time value of
 Annual maintenance: $3.5K money/discounting, but should receive
 Labor: $20K / year bonus points for considering it.
 Insurance: $3K / year
 Total: $34K
- 68 -
Conclusion
Recommendation Risks Next Steps
 Given the existing data, our  Our client would be the first in  Work with suppliers to test
client should proceed with the industry to use EV the effectiveness of the
retrofitting its vehicle fleet to technology, therefore its new technology.
EV since it would save 40M effectiveness in commercial  Run a pilot test to
over their remaining useful transportation is untested. determine whether EV
life.  The vehicles need to technology works and does
commute 1000 miles per not negatively impact
week and current EV normal transportation
technology is limited to short operations.
range use.  Gain input from drivers on
 There are limited recharging efficacy of EV technology.
stations in the US.  Perform research to
 There may be other determine whether there
unanticipated costs to using are government incentives
the new technology. for EV adoption.
 Perform research to
determine whether EV
adoption grows customer
base/revenue.
- 69 -
Midwest Hospital – BCG Round 2

Midwest Hospital is a research-based hospital and If the candidate asks tell them that there are no
takes pride in its joint replacement surgery financial targets.
department. Recently they did a P&L analysis for all Give the exhibits in the subsequent slides only when
departments and found that the joint replacement the candidate asks for the relevant data.
surgery department is making losses. The CEO has
asked for our help. Candidate should figure out during the course of the
case that there are several levers that can increase
profitability:
1. Increase price
2. Change patient mix
3. Increase total number of surgeries
4. Decrease costs
5. Provide post surgery services such as
physiotherapy (vertical integration)
Difficulty: Hard Industry: Healthcare Type: Profitability
- 70 -
At some point near the start of the case, interviewer should take the lead and ask these questions
after exhibits has been given
1. Exhibit 1: Would it be advisable to not cater to Medicare patients (assume no backlash)?

2. Exhibit 2: What is the number of surgeries that Midwest needs to conduct in a year to
breakeven?
3. Exhibit 3: Why is Company D able to stay profitable despite having fewer patients and
unfavorable patient mix?
- 71 -
Solution Guide
1. On fully cost allocated basis Medicare patients are unprofitable but they are still paying $1K
above the variable cost (marginal cost). This helps cover the fixed costs of the department.
So, it is not recommended to stop conducting surgeries for Medicare patients.
2. Average revenue per patient is 19K. Average variable cost is 14K. Gross margin per patient is
5K. Fixed costs are 7M, so 1400 surgeries are required for breakeven. Assuming same
proportion as in Exhibit 1 the hospital requires 140 commercial, 420 insurance, and 840
Medicare patients.
3. Comp D might have a lower cost structure or are able to negotiate better pricing from payers.
- 72 -
Conclusion
 Increase total number of patients.  Analyze scope for cost reduction, starting with
 Change mix of patients to have a higher competitive benchmarking.
proportion of commercial and insurance  Analyze scope for increase in price, starting
customers. with competitive benchmarking.
 Analyze profitability of post care services
provider.
- 73 -
Exhibit 1: Patient Mix
Payer Type # Surgeries List Price Invoiced price
Commercial (Enterprises) 100 $40,000.0 $40,000.0
Insurance 300 $40,000.0 $20,000.0
Medicare (Government ) 600 $40,000.0 $15,000.0
- 74 -
Exhibit 2: Joint replacement department P&L
Revenue 19M
VC Physician 5M
Materials 5M
Others 4M
FC Facilities 3.5M
Others 3.5M
Costs 21M
Profit (2M)
- 75 -
Exhibit 3: Competitive Benchmarking
Surgeries Commercial HMO Medicare Profitable
Midwest Hospital 1000 10% 30% 60% No
Comp A 1200 20.0% 20.0% 40.0% Yes
Comp B 800 30.0% 20.0% 50.0% Yes
Comp C 900 10.0% 20.0% 70.0% Yes
Comp D 1000 5.0% 25.0% 75.0% Yes
- 76 -
Caribbean Pay Phones
Bain, Final Round

A Ross MBA student is on a “career trek” to the
exotic Caribbean island of Arborea Anna. Arborea  The only significant difference in the new model
Anna (AA) is not quite as rich or as technologically of pay phone is that it is equipped to accept
developed as the US. About 50% of the population payment via prepaid phone cards that are
has cell phones, and that percentage is increasing available for sale in local convenience stores in
quickly. As our Ross student wakes up, he looks out addition to traditional payment with coins.
his hotel room window and sees a crew of workers
from the AA Telephone Company ripping out the pay  Pay phone service in AA has been de-regulated,
phone on the street corner and replacing it with a but no competitors to the privatized former
new model. After putting his curiosity and his broken government monopoly have entered the market.
Spanish to use, he learns from the workers that they  There is no government mandate to update pay
are not just installing a new model on this street phone technology.
corner, but replacing all 500 pay phones in the
country with new models. He wonders why they are  The useful life of a pay phone (both old and new
going through the time, trouble and expense when model) is 10 years.
pay phones are obviously a dying technology.
Why are they replacing the phones?
Difficulty: Medium Industry: Telecom Type: Profitability, Cost Reduction
- 77 -
Bain, Final Round
Solution Overview
 This is a profitability case. The most direct approach to cracking the case is to compare the
profitability of one old model phone with one new model phone.
 If needed, interviewer should encourage the candidate to list drivers of revenue and costs and
consider how installation of the new model is likely to affect each driver. Potential drivers and
effects are listed on slide 2. The interviewer should dismiss effects not listed. The key driver to
identify is the reduction in maintenance costs. If needed, the interviewer should give the
candidate hints until he/she identifies this effect.
 After the candidate has listed and considered drivers, the interviewer should encourage the
candidate to develop quantitative estimates of cost effects, providing guidance as needed. As
outlined on slide 2, there will be no revenue changes.
 Competition with cell phones and deregulation are red herrings. This is a case about the
management of a stable business with slow or negative growth.
- 78 -
Bain, Final Round
Revenue & Cost Effects (Qualitative)

Revenue Drivers
Driver Potential Effects of New Model Explanation
Customers per day No change Extra payment option for customers

without coins brings new customers,
but offset by generally declining
demand
Price per minute No change Supply and demand not affected
Average length of call Slight increase, but not relevant Calls priced with flat fee for unlimited
minutes
Advertising No change No additional ad space on new model
Cost Drivers
Driver Potential Effects of New Model Explanation
Installation Significant increase One-time installation fees will be

substantial
Maintenance Significant decrease Company won’t have to empty coins
out of machine as frequently
Interchange fees (fees paid to the Slight increase, but insignificant Will increase average length of day
owners of the phone lines) increases, but not a big cost
Rent No change Value of land unchanged
- 79 -
Bain, Final Round
Cost Savings (Illustrative)
Breakdown of Costs
Installation Maintenance Costs (Useful Life)
Old Model $0 $1000/yr $1000*10=$10,000
Assumption $40/visit to unload

quarters
1 visit/2 weeks
50 weeks/yr
New Model $2200 $250/yr $2200+$250*10=$4700
Assumption Equipment cost = 1 visit/8 weeks

$2000
10 hours of labor
@$20/hr
Total Cost Savings
Cost Savings per Phone * Total Phones = Total Cost Savings
($10,000-$4,700)*500 = $2,650,000
*Assume discount rate of zero
- 80 -
Bain, Final Round
Conclusion Bonus Questions
The AA Telephone Company is replacing its 1. What is the most important assumption
phones in order to save maintenance costs. made in your analysis? (Reduction in
number of visits to empty quarters because
a significant number of consumers will
change to card payment).
2. How could you test that assumption?
(Customer survey, benchmarks from other
industries that have shifted to cashless
payment, install one new phone and run a
pilot).
3. If you were the CEO of the AA Telephone
Company, how would you spend your
profits? (Dividends, new services,
geographic expansion).
- 81 -
Hotel Co. Spinoff
Bain Style Case: Difficult

Your client is Hotel Co., an international hotel • Hotel Co. wants to weigh a few criteria, including
corporation that owns and operates 2,700 hotels the financial impact, risk, and strategic outlook.
worldwide, as well as a separate timeshare business • Hotel Co. only uses a five year timeframe for all
with 75 properties worldwide. Their hotel rooms are financial decisions.
typically sold on a per night basis, whereas their
timeshare properties are sold more like traditional • Hotel Co. would be spun off and taken public,
homes via a mortgage which in turn gives the buyer with 20% of the IPO proceeds being paid back to
the right to stay at a timeshare property for a set Hotel Co. The remainder of IPO proceeds would
period of time each year. go to Timeshare Co. and the underwriters.
The CEO of Hotel Co. has approached you and has • Hotel Co.’s bankers think they can sell 10 Million
asked for guidance on whether or not they should shares at $220 each.
spinoff their timeshare business into a separate
stand alone entity called Timeshare Co.
Difficulty: Hard Quant Heavy Industry: Hospitality Type: Divestiture
- 82 -
Hotel Co. Spinoff
Bain Style Case
Question 1: Financial Impact

What is the financial decision making process for whether or not to spin off Timeshare Co.?
 Provide Exhibit 1 (Profit Projections)
 Candidate should notice that industry home sales are a good proxy for Timeshare Co.’s
revenues, and forecast out five years of profits.
 2011 Forecast: -50M
 2012 Forecast: 0M
 Total 5 year forecast profits of Timeshare Co: 450M.
 Per the opening information, if spun off, Hotel Co can expect 20% of IPO proceeds. Bankers
expect to IPO 10 Million shares at $220 each, or $2.2 Billion total. 20% of $2.2 Billion is $440M
to be earned by Hotel Co. if they spin off.
 Based on those amounts, it does not make financial sense to spin off Timeshare Co.
($440M if spun versus five year projected revenues of $450M if kept in-house.)
 Mitigation: $450M revenues are expectations and subject to a lot of risk and variability versus
little to no risk if Hotel Co. just takes the IPO payment.
- 83 -
Hotel Co. Spinoff
Bain Style Case
Question 2: Risk
What is the risk decision making process for whether or not to spin off Timeshare Co.?
 Provide Exhibits 2 (Mortgage Default Rates) and 3 (Mortgage Portfolio’s Contribution to Profits)
 Exhibit 2: Candidate should notice that default rates spiked in 2008/2009, and seem to remain
much higher than in the past.
 Exhibit 3: Candidate should notice how important mortgages are to overall success of business.
Mortgage revenues always account for around 95% of total revenues.
 Main takeaway: Timeshare Co.’s revenues are risky given the variability of mortgage default
rates, and it seems as though default rates will never return to pre-2008 levels. A “new low”
seems to have been established around 4.5%.
 Thus, it seems risky to keep Timeshare Co.’s business in house. The economic uncertainty with
mortgage portfolios puts too much risk into Hotel Co.’s business. Spinning off Timeshare Co.
would get rid of a lot of risk to Hotel Co.
 Mitigation: While spinning off the business would be one way to achieve less risk, there are
other options available to reduce risk from Timeshare Co.
 Connect timeshare buyers with mortgage companies and collect a finder’s fee instead of
carrying mortgages in-house
 Buy mortgage default insurance to reduce volatility
- 84 -
Hotel Co. Spinoff
Bain Style Case
Conclusion
Spinoff Timeshare Co.  Must examine the impact of cross selling.

 IPO proceeds are only slightly less than How many timeshares are sold to hotel
the 5-year expected profits, but profits customers? How can we continue to cross
are extremely volatile. sell after a spin off?
 It also makes sense from a risk  Must consider other ways to reduce risks at
standpoint. While there are other ways Timeshare Co apart from simply spinning off
to reduce risk, spinning off Timeshare the business.
Co. helps achieve a reduction in risk.
- 85 -
Hotel Co. Spinoff
Bain Style Case
EXHIBIT 1: Timeshare Co. Historic and Projected Profits
$250.00 25%
$200.00 20%
$150.00 15%
$100.00 10%
$50.00 5%
Timeshare
US Home
Co. Sales $0.00 0%
Sales (%)
(Millions) 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011* 2012* 2013* 2014* 2015*
-$50.00 -5%
-$100.00 -10%
-$150.00 -15%
-$200.00 -20%
-$250.00 -25%
Profit ($M) Home Sales (%)
- 86 -
Hotel Co. Spinoff
Bain Style Case
EXHIBIT 2: Mortgage Default Expectations
Year Default Rate
2007 1.5%
2008 8.5%
2009 11.0%
2010 9.5%
2011* 8.5%
2012* 6.0%
2013* 4.5%
2014* 4.7%
2015* 4.3%
- 87 -
Hotel Co. Spinoff
Bain Style Case
EXHIBIT 3: Mortgage Portfolio’s Contribution to Profits
Year Portion of Profits
2007 95.0%
2008 94.0%
2009 92.0%
2010 94.0%
2011* 95.0%
2012* 96.0%
2013* 95.0%
2014* 97.0%
2015* 96.0%
- 88 -
Upscale Restaurant
McKinsey Final Round
Problem narrative Information provided upon request
Our Client is a upscale restaurant in TianJin, As China’s economy is booming, the upscale
serving government officials and high-level dining market is growing at 20% every year.
business customers. Its monthly revenue is 1.2 Customers for high-end dining are generally price
Million Yuan. The CEO recently hired McKinsey to insensitive.
help them increase profits.
All competitors are earning money. Competitors’
price and value proposition are similar.
Variable costs across industry is 50% of revenue.
Assume no fixed costs.
On weekdays, there is always a line for individual
rooms. As a result, the restaurant has to turn
away half of its customers due to capacity
constraint.
Difficulty: Hard Quant Heavy Industry: Hospitality Type: Profitability
- 89 -
Upscale Restaurant
Information provided upon request by Candidate
Individual Room : 20 tables Big Room : 20 tables
Week Day Weekend Week Day Weekend
Lunch Occupancy: 80% Occupancy: 30% Lunch Occupancy: 20% Occupancy: 30%
Price per person: Price per person: Price per person: Price per person:
150 100 100 100
Party size per table: Party size per table: Party size per table: Party size per table:
4 4 4 4
Dinner Occupancy: 100% Occupancy: 50% Dinner Occupancy: 30% Occupancy: 30%
Price per person: Price per person: Price per person: Price per person:
300 200 200 200
Party size per table: Party size per table: Party size per table: Party size per table:
6 6 4 4
- 90 -
Upscale Restaurant
Reason for low profits
Government officials and business customers prefer individual rooms to big rooms because of their
requirement for privacy. Currently our client is not meeting customer demand.
Question Solution
 Raising price.
What are potential solutions for this situation?
 Turning big room tables into individual rooms.
- 91 -
Upscale Restaurant
Question Solution
Through market research, we have determined that For weekday lunch, changing the price will result in
if we raise weekday individual room price by 33% , 10% customer loss.
we will lose 10% of customers. How will it change Previous Now
our profitability? Customer 4 x 20 x 80% = 64 64 x (1 - 10%) = 58
Price 150 150 x (1 + 33%) = 200
Revenue 64 x 150 = 9600 58 x 200 = 11600
Profit 9600 x 50% = 4800 11600 x 50% = 5800
Incremental Profit 5800 - 4800 = 1000
For weekday dinner, the underlying demand is

200% of current capacity, so raising price
WON’T reduce volume.
Previous Now
Customer 6 x 20 = 120 120
Price 300 300 x (1 + 33%) = 400
Revenue 120x 300 = 36K 120 x 400 = 48K
Profit 36Kx 50% = 18K 48K x 50% = 24K
Incremental Profit 24K – 18K = 6K
Daily Incremental Profit: 1K + 6K = 7K
- 92 -
Upscale Restaurant
Question Solution
A second solution is converting half of big room Cost

tables into 5 individual rooms. It will take 2 weeks Capital investment: 100K
for the restaurant to finish the decoration, during
which time the restaurant has to be completely shut Opportunity Cost: ~300K** (2 weeks of profits)
down. The decoration will cost 100K Yuan. What
is the total cost of this project?
*** Note: The observant candidate will quickly
calculate this from the initial revenue info given at
beginning of case rather than making heavy
calculations involved with calculating it from the
table of data.
Total cost = 400K Yuan
- 93 -
Marie’s Café
Marie’s Café is a small local coffee shop that serves  There are two other coffee shops in the nearby
coffee and latte. Marie’s has been around for area that sell coffees and pastries. (There is no
decades and is known for its high quality drinks and further information on these competitors.)
cozy atmosphere. The café has seen declining  Café currently serves two items (coffee and latte)
profits over the last few quarters, and the owner has in three different sizes.
hired you to increase its profits.  Note that this is an interviewer led case.
Difficulty: Medium Quant Heavy Industry: Hospitality Type: Profitability, Operations
- 94 -
Marie’s Cafe
If the candidate touches on prices or costs…

1. How much profit does Marie’s Café currently make per customer?
• Show tables below.

• Each customer only purchases one drink per visit.
% Customers who Product Cost

Product Price Purchase
Cup (8) $0.30
Coffee (8) $1.00 15%
Cup (12) $0.40
Coffee
(12) $1.50 15% Cup (16) $0.50
Coffee
(16) $2.00 15% 4 oz of
Coffee $0.10
Latte (8) $3.00 20%
4 oz of
Latte (12) $4.00 20% Latte $0.50
Latte (16) $5.00 15%
- 95 -
Marie’s Cafe
1. Solution: Average Profit = $1.50 / customer
% Customer Profit per

Product Price Purchases Cost Profit Customer
Coffee (8) $1.00 15% $0.50 $0.50 $0.08
Coffee (12) $1.50 15% $0.70 $0.80 $0.12
Coffee (16) $2.00 15% $0.90 $1.10 $0.17
Latte (8) $3.00 20% $1.30 $1.70 $0.34
Latte (12) $4.00 20% $1.90 $2.10 $0.42
Latte (16) $5.00 15% $2.50 $2.50 $0.38
Average
Profit $1.50
 Strong candidates will point out that larger sizes yield larger profit margins, and suggest new
profit increasing strategies (like promoting sales of larger sizes, introducing a 20oz size,
eliminating 8oz sizes, etc.).
- 96 -
Marie’s Cafe
2. What is the average profit that Marie’s Café earns per day?
 Each customer purchases exactly one beverage.

 Two baristas are working at any given time. Baristas are paid $15/hour.
 Hours: 7AM to 10PM, Monday through Friday. Closed on weekends.
 The number of customers per hour is listed below. Customers leave if they can’t be served
quickly.
 On average, it takes 2 minutes for a barista to complete an order. Coffee is served fairly quickly,
while lattes take significantly longer to make. (Candidate should realize that only 60 customers
can be served per hour.)
Average Demand per

Time Hour
7AM to 10AM 100
10AM to 1PM 80
1PM to 4PM 60
4PM to 7PM 40
7PM to 10PM 15
- 97 -
Marie’s Cafe
2. Solution: Assuming 2 baristas per hour, $607.50 (See below).
- Candidate should realize that the café is losing money in the evening hours. Candidate should
suggest adding or subtracting baristas based on demand.
3. If you could change the number of baristas during each time period, what would be the daily
profit for Marie’s Café?
- Solution: By adding a third barista in the morning shifts and reducing one at night, the
new profit would be $787.50 – see below.
Optimal Optimal Optimal

Time Demand per Hour Served Current Profit Baristas Served Profit
7AM to 10AM 100 60 180 3 90 270
10AM to 1PM 80 60 180 3 80 225

1PM to 4PM 60 60 180 2 60 180
4PM to 7PM 40 40 90 1 or 2 30 or 40 90
7PM to 10PM 15 15 -22.5 1 15 22.5

$607.50 $787.50
- 98 -
Marie’s Cafe
4. Marie’s Café does not offer wireless access for its customers. Should the café add this service?
 Positives
 More customers
 Potentially charge customers for service
 Customers may order larger sizes of drinks
 Negatives
 Costs of wireless setup, outlets
 Sufficient room for customers
 Customers stay longer, slowing sales during busy periods
 Image of café – may change current atmosphere
- 99 -
Marie’s Cafe
If candidate mentions that competitors sell pastries while Marie’s Café does not…
5. What factors should Marie’s Café consider before purchasing an oven to sell pastries?
Revenues
 Doughnut sales, increased synergies with coffee/volume of customers.
Costs
 Fixed costs - purchasing/maintaining oven, setting up display case, storage, advertising.
 Variable costs - ingredients, hiring/training staff.
Capacity
 Room in café for oven and ingredients.
 Baristas available to accommodate for increase in demand.
Brand image – Marie’s is known for its coffee and atmosphere; adding pastries may change image
and drive away loyal customers, especially if they are low quality.
Competition – price and quality compared to competitors.
Alternative opportunities – purchasing doughnuts from somewhere else.
- 100 -
Marie’s Cafe
6. A new espresso machine, priced at $2000, can greatly decrease the time it takes to make a latte.
The average time it takes to complete an average customer’s order decreases from 2 minutes to 90
seconds. How long would it take to pay back the machine?
 Daily profit shown below, calculated with the optimal number of baristas.
 Machine would be paid back in 14.8 days (922.50 – 787.50 from Question 3).
 4 Baristas in the 7-10AM would also yield similar profits with the advantage of turning away
fewer customers.
Demand per Optimal Optimal Optimal

Time Hour Served Profit Baristas Served Profit
7AM to 10AM 100 80 270 3 100 315
10AM to 1PM 80 80 270 2 80 270
1PM to 4PM 60 60 180 2 60 180
4PM to 7PM 40 40 90 1 40 135
7PM to 10PM 15 15 -22.5 1 15 22.5

$787.50 $922.50
- 101 -
Chinatown Bus
Info to be provided on request:
Your client is a Northeast-based bus company that  The client targets a 40% gross margin for any new
operates inter-city passenger buses along the investments.
Boston – DC corridor. The client has been in this  The overall market is growing at about 5% per
market for over 40 years and has been reasonably year.
profitable for most of that time.
 The client’s two main routes are Boston – New
York and New York – DC. There are 5-6
In recent years, the client’s market share and competitors on each route.
profitability have been declining. Looking at the  The low-cost bus lines typically operate out of
competitive landscape, the client recognizes that a Chinatown in the respective cities or pick up on the
number of low-cost, no-frills bus companies have street (not in stations). They tend to use older
entered the market. As a result of these new equipment and have poor reputations for reliability
entrants and high gas prices, overall demand for bus and safety.
services has been on the rise even as our client
loses customers.  The client is struggles most with “first-time riders”,
who tend to be younger, perhaps in college, and
are riding inter-city buses for the first time. The
The client has hired us to determine whether they client has a stable base of long-term customers
should launch their own low-cost bus line and if so, where they have not seen much erosion.
how they should compete in this market?
Difficulty: Medium Industry: Transportation Type: Profitability, Competitive Response
- 102 -
Chinatown bus
Suggested Structure
Guide to Structure
A good structure for this case would focus on profitability, but might also touch on issues of
assessing the market, differentiation of the competitors, the client’s capabilities, and customer
segmentation. Ideally, the case taker should ask if there are any metrics that the client focuses on
before structuring the case, which would demonstrate that profitability is going to be the focus. You
can allow the interviewee to pursue some other areas of investigation initially but try to guide them
towards the profitability question eventually.
While there could be a number of ways to look at profitability (and you should let the case taker
think through how to approach this), the case takes a simplified approach of looking at one bus
operating on one route and assumes that this would be scalable across additional buses. The
fictional data presented below is for the Boston-New York route. Feel free to make the math a little
harder (e.g. bus makes 900 trips per year) if the interviewee needs to practice.
Once the interviewee has completed the profitability analysis, have them brainstorm responses for
the second question of the case: How could the client effectively compete in this market?
- 103 -
Chinatown bus
Revenue and Costs Page – data provided on request
Breakdown of Revenue
 The client currently charges $40/one way on the BOS-NYC route

 Low cost competitors are currently charging an average price of $15/one way
 Each bus has capacity of 60 seats and estimated avg. utilization of 67%
 Total revenue per trip (new bus line) = $15 * 40 = $600
Breakdown of Costs*
Fixed Costs: (bus operates 330 days/year Variable Costs:
at 3 trips per day) Labor: 1 driver @ $25/hour for 5 hours =
Bus: $250k (useful life of 10 years) = $125/trip
$25/trip Fuel: $4/gallon, 200 miles, 10 miles per
O&M: $20k/year = $20/trip gallon = $80/trip
Insurance: $15k/year =$15/trip Tolls: $75/trip
Total Cost = $340 / trip Profits = $260 Profit Margin = 43.3%
* Since our focus is on gross margin the interviewee can ignore SG&A costs - 104 -
Chinatown bus
Question 2: How should the client compete?
Potential Responses
Good responses to this question should recognize that customers that take the new bus-lines are
very price conscious and thus the client will have to compete on price (i.e. match competitors’
prices). However, given that the client should look for how they can differentiate their product from
the new competitors. Potential responses include:
 Focus on safety and reliability

 Offer additional amenities (e.g., wifi, music, movies, etc.)
 Offer food and drink service (bonus points if they mention this as an additional revenue
opportunity)
 More direct routes
 More convenient pick-up locations
 Loyalty programs
 Leverage existing brand (WARNING: This would likely hasten cannibalization and is not a good
idea)
- 105 -
Chinatown bus
Conclusion
Client should launch their own low-cost bus line Potential next steps include:
 Meets gross profit target of 40%  Identify opportunities to generate additional
 Room for new competitor in growing market revenue sources in order to make up for lower
profitability of new bus line
 Will continue to lose customers if they do not
act  Conduct market study of “first time riders” to
determine what additional amenities they
would value the most
Risks:  Develop retention strategy on existing bus
 Cannibalization of existing customers (THIS IS service to minimize cannibalization
A BIG ONE)  Develop distinctive branding strategy for new
 Competitor Response: engaging in a price war bus line
with competitors that have lower costs  Launch pilot on one route to validate financial
 Rising fuel costs assumptions and test competitor response
- 106 -
CPD - Content Publisher and Distributor

 Industry: although recession had a negative
Our Client is a research content aggregator and impact on some local libraries, the industry is
distributer to academic institutions, local libraries, pretty stable.
government institutions. The 2010 revenues are 1  Competition: low – medium in research content
billion dollars. space.
However, the CEO thinks that the organization has  Products: the firm has three products – one for
not tapped into potential opportunities that are out each segment. These products are ACA_RES,
there and wants your help in understanding how to LIB_RES, GOV_RES. These products are web
go about these opportunities. solutions that can operate independently or in
How would you approach the situation? integrated fashion with other database tools
clients typically have.
 Individual revenue streams: ACA_RES,
GOV_RES revenues went up, but LIB_RES
revenues went down.
 If asked, mention that the revenues of LIB_RES
went down by 3% compared to previous year.
Difficulty: Medium Industry: Online Services Type: Profitability, Industry Analysis
- 107 -
 Ask why the LIB_RES revenues may have gone down.
- 108 -
Solution Guide
 Economy: many local libraries depend on funds from local city government and state/federal
grants. The 2008 recession had an impact on the people’s livelihoods because of which the tax
dollars went down constraining grants to local libraries.
 Also due to poor economy, libraries were not able to raise funds from private institutions as they
were able to pre-recession period.
- 109 -
Additional Questions & Guidelines

Guidelines for Interviewer
 Candidate should go back to the original question of how to tap into some of the market
opportunities.
 Candidate should pick up that it is a revenue related question and put out his/her approach on
how to increase the revenues.
 A good candidate will prioritize the issues related to revenues and would say he/she will take a
look at the LIB_RES product and its revenues and see what caused the decline besides
economic issues and if something can be done about that.
Additional Questions
 Directly ask the question “What do you think about the LIB_RES product?” if candidate does not
point it out.
- 110 -

 Candidate should ask about all the aspects of revenues and costs:
 # of clients: 2000 in the US
 Average sale price: 45,000 per annum
 Contract period: 1 year
 Sales channels: direct sales force
 Cost to sell and manage each contract: $20,000 including sales overhead and
salaries
 Candidate should identify that number of clients may have changed due to economic pressures.
 Candidate must calculate the profitability of this segment.
Candidate Hypothesis
 Candidate should identify that it is a profitable segment (profit of 25,000 per client) and price
could be the most likely reason for declining revenues.
- 111 -
 Candidate should get product and its pricing.

 Possible questions candidate may have:
Candidate Questions Answers
How is the product sold? Sold as a package whether the client uses the
features or not.
Does the client have options from Yes, but our product is best in the industry for
competitors? ease of use especially for children and elderly
that frequent the public libraries.
Refined Hypothesis
 Candidate should pick up on given information and point out that there are some features that
our clients do not want in our product. Maybe there is an opportunity to examine some of the
key feature offerings and unbundle and offer them as a configurable, customizable product for a
lower price.
 Offer the product based on number of users – license based.
 Charge clients based on usage of our information.
- 112 -

 Our client wants to go with license-based pricing.

 Ask the student to calculate the price per user license.
 Ask also for the breakeven volume of seats.
Candidate’s Questions
 A good candidate will ask one or more of these questions.

 Average number of users per public library (per month):
Segments within Public Libraries Small, Medium, Large
# of users of these libraries small – 2000, medium – 5000, large – 8000
# of libraries small – 800, medium – 750, large – 450
# of users of our product 60% on average
- 113 -
Calculations
Candidate’s Calculations
 Average number of users per public library (per month)
Small Medium Large
2000 * .6 = 1200 5000 * .6 = 3000 8000 * .6 = 4800
 Candidate should mention that to keep up with our revenues and possibly increase them, we
should price each license at a minimum price of current revenue for the product / Total users.
 Total users per month: 1200 * 800 + 3000 * 750 + 4800 * 450 = 5,370,000 per month.
 Current revenue = $45,000 * 2000 = $90,000,000.
 Price = $90,000,000 / 5,370,000 => approximately $17 dollars. (If they rounded 5,370,000 to
5,000,000 they would get $18 dollars which can also work)
 A good candidate will also look at profits for each segment within LIB_RES and calculate
breakeven licenses for all segments.
 Break Even = Costs/Margin per seat = 20,000/16 = 1250 licenses per library, assuming the
variable cost of each license is $0 because it is a software product.
- 114 -
Conclusion
Given the license price we just arrived at, our  Client should conduct a survey to see if clients
client should sell each seat at a minimum of are interested to pay per seat/license including
$17. the price point per seat.
A good candidate will say that because of our  This would also help our client understand
product quality, larger clients may pay more for other issues public libraries may face in terms
each seat, e.g. $20 a seat. In that case, the of customer visitation patterns and how that
revenues can be greater than the current can impact the per license sale of our clients
revenues. product.
 Other ways to increase revenue is to sell to

consortiums (group of libraries in a State/City).
- 115 -
Ross School of Business – On Campus Summer Employment
Assume that Ross has 500 students in each class
The Ross School of Business is looking to promote Push interviewee to understand the “value chain”
its MBA program’s reputation and ranking position, of on- campus recruiting (see next slide)
by improving its on-campus summer internship
employment stats. Currently, only 60% of Ross
MBAs secure an internship through on-campus
recruiting. The Dean has hired our firm to provide
insight and recommendations on how to improve the
on-campus offers.
Wait for interviewee to ask clarifying questions about

specific objectives:
1. Primary objective: increase on-campus internship
offers to 75%
2. Secondary objective: the school is very cost
sensitive and is only willing to spend up to $500K
Difficulty: Medium Industry: Education Type: Value Chain, Operations
- 116 -
Value chain
Ask interviewee to brainstorm the value chain for Ross to assist its students to get
internship offers.
Data for current on-campus recruiting:
#of companies that recruit on-campus = 100
avg. # of positions offered per company = 2
# of interview slots per position = 15
Interview success rate = 10%
(assumption = each student receives only one offer)
Then ask interviewee to brainstorm on possible ways to increase # of total offers made (he
should go over the “value chain” )
The school is looking into two possible strategies:
Increase the number of companies that recruit on campus
Improve the interview success rate
- 117 -
Increase # of companies
To attract more companies, OCD needs to hire additional firm relations managers.
Each manager can handle 5 companies and requires an annual salary of $75K. Additional costs
(travel, marketing expenses, etc.) per manager are estimated at $50K.
Target # of offers = 500 * 0.75 = 375

Current # of offers = 300
(375-300)/300 = 25%
Ross needs to increase the number of firms by 25% * 200 = 50

# of additional OCD firm relations managers = 50/5 = 10
Annual cost = 10 * (75K+50K) = $1.25MM
- 118 -
Value chain
Have interviewee brainstorm on possible ways to increase interview success rate

According to recent a survey the most important factor in interview success rate is the number of
mock interviews.
For every 0.5% increase in success rate Ross will need to hire 15 MBA2 counselors
Each MBA works 40hrs , with an hourly wage of 20$
Recruiting lasts 5 months
Every 2% increase in success rate attracts 5 new companies that recruit on campus.
Adding 2%:
(100+5) * 2 * 15 * 12% = 378 offers
Annual cost = 2%/0.5%* 15 * 40 * 20$ * 5= $240K
Good candidate will make sure we have sufficient MBA2 “Capacity”
- 119 -
Conclusion
Recommendation
Recommend that Ross hires 60 additional MBA2 OCD counselors. This will increase total # of
offers to 378, (meeting the goal of increasing on campus offers to 75% ).
Possible Risks (mitigation)/ Next steps)
1. Difficulty recruiting so many MBA2s (can increase hourly wage up to $40 without exceeding
target budget)
2. Economic downturn may cause companies to reduce the number of positions / slots
3. Limited # of study rooms at Ross to accommodate such an increase in the # of mock
interviews (reach out to law school / Michigan Union to get access to their rooms)
4. With so many MBA2s spending so much time on counseling, their grades may be negatively
impacted, affecting the total Ross brand image (employ grade non disclosure policy)
- 120 -
Coming to America - BollyFlix

Our client, BollyFlix, is an Indian company providing  BollyFlix provides only movies and television
DVD rentals by mail, as well as movie and TV content made in India (Bollywood) for the Indian
streaming services, to the Indian market, both under market.
a subscription model. The company serves content  Major US competitors (like Netflix, Blockbuster,
made in India for the Indian market (known as etc.) do not serve any Bollywood content.
“Bollywood” content), and currently has no BollyFlix does not serve any non-Bollywood
international operations. content.
Recently, driven by the explosive growth of Indian  There are outlets, in both traditional retail and
immigrant and Indian American citizen populations in online, that sell such content, but none offering a
the United States, as well as the increasing rental /streaming model in the US at this time.
popularity of Indian movies among non-Indians
around the world, BollyFlix began to consider  BollyFlix operates their DVD and streaming
launching operations in the United States. businesses separately.
 BollyFlix’s only goal is to establish a profitable
business.
Should the company enter the US DVD rental
market, the online streaming market, neither, or  Note that this is a longer case in terms of time.
both?
Difficulty: Hard Quant Heavy Industry: Media Type: Market Entry
- 121 -

Market Sizing
A good candidate will recognize that a proper market  The population of the US is about 300M, and
sizing is an essential first step to this problem. If about 1% (~3M) claim Indian descent.
they do not, steer them toward this exercise with a  70% of those who claim Indian descent were
question like “Who do you think might be the target born outside of the US. 30% were born in the
customers for such a business?”. US.
 Based on demographics and market research,
Let the candidate brainstorm as to what inputs they we believe that of those born outside the US,
would like. 30% would be likely customers. Of those born in
Good answers might include (but are not limited to) the US, 10% are likely customers. These
requests for data on – numbers hold for both lines of business.
 Size of the American and Indian American  0.1% of non-Indian US residents are interested in
population Bollywood content and are likely to become
customers.
 Segments within these populations
 BollyFlix plans to charge $100/year for their
 Data on non-Indian consumption of Bollywood DVD rental subscription service, and $50/year for
content a subscription to their online streaming service.
 Data on current patterns of non-Bollywood
content among target populations
Next provide them with the data in the next column
and ask them what the market for both their DVD
subscription service and video streaming
subscription service would be.
- 122 -
Market Sizing Calculations
Market sizing calculations are in the table below. Tell the candidate to assume that we capture
100% of likely customers. Suggest to round to 1M customers and $150M in revenue if they do
not ask.
- 123 -

Cost information
Having established a market size, the next step is to For DVD customers, our variable costs would be:
determine what it would cost to operate in the US  $60/year/customer to purchase DVDs and
market. cover overhead
Ask the candidate what sorts of costs a company like  $20/year/customer to cover shipping costs
this are likely to encounter.
It costs $4M/year to lease and operate a distribution
center in support of the DVD rental business.
Good answers may include – Nationwide coverage for DVD distribution would
- Content rights fees (streaming) require 6 distribution centers.
- IT infrastructure/bandwidth (streaming) Rights to stream Bollywood content in the US would
- Postage cost $20M.
- Costs to establish and operate distribution centers IT Infrastructure, bandwidth and other overhead
within the streaming business would cost $8M.
- Purchase of DVDs
- SG&A
- Marketing
- 124 -
Market Sizing Calculations
The candidate should compute roughly the numbers below. They should conclude that given
available information, the DVD rental business is not viable, whereas the online streaming business
is very high margin.
Next, tell the candidate that we have engaged in a market segmentation study, and come to realize
that concentrations of our target population vary considerably by region within the United States.
Show them Exhibit 1 and ask for their immediate takeaways.
- 125 -
Exhibit 1
Distribution Center Service Regions
Note: Assume that likely customers include 0.1% of the general population, and 25% of the overall Indian
population
- 126 -
Regional analysis
If the candidate does not suggest such an analysis on their own, ask them to determine if the
DVD business might be viable on a regional basis, if not a national one. To ease calculations,
you may remind them that 80% of revenues are immediately eaten up by variable costs, leaving
$20/customer in potential profit, and that the cost to serve a region is $4M (the distribution
center).
Given time, they should be able to produce roughly the following calculations.
Note to Interviewer: Revenue here assumes $20 per customer (what is left over after subtracting
$80 in per-customer fixed costs). General population numbers are rounded.
- 127 -
Regional analysis
 The candidate should recognize that it is profitable to serve Regions 1 and 6, and very close
to profitable to serve Region 3. Ask them what might change in region 3 that could effect this
in the future.
 Good answers could include:
- A reshaping of the region so that it better encompasses target populations
- Growth in the Indian population, either organically or via immigration
- Growth in demand for Bollywood content among either the Indian or non-Indian
population (either natural or spurred by increased marketing)
- Pricing changes that drive revenue or volume
- Consumption via DVD could increase (or decrease) overall
- 128 -
Recommendations/Risks Next Steps
The candidate should conclude that BollyFlix - Begin setting up infrastructure to open the
should enter the streaming business content streaming business.
immediately, and enter the DVD rental business
- Move to open warehouses and begin
on a regional basis.
marketing in Regions 1 and 6.
Changes in demographics or consumer
- Examine potential levers to move Region 3
preference could have a large effect on this
into profitability.
business.
This may be easily copy-able by competitors.
Slim DVD margins could disappear overnight.
High margins in the streaming business could
attract competition, driving up content prices
and pressuring consumer pricing power.
- 129 -
Retailer Business Restructuring
Business Situation Problem Statement
Our client, Unlimited Brands, is a large national For interviewer to provide upon problem
retailer with revenues of $12B. Recently they statement clarification. No other data will be
have experienced declines in revenue and profits. provided outside of the tables given.
They attribute these declines to both changes in Assumptions are ok and encouraged.
consumer tastes as well as decreased investment
in several brands due to the desire to preserve What things will the firm need to consider
capital during the recent downturn. There are two when selling one or more of their business
units they are interested in potentially divesting: units? (note to interviewer: this should be a
Fast Fashion: a young women’s brainstorming session and focused on retail
professional clothing retailer with sales of business, force the interviewee to continue
$500M last year (cater to 18-25 yr old to provide ideas until they say they have
women). explored all they think they can)
Devine Design: a fashion forward clothing Which business unit of the two initially
retailer offering both professional and decided upon should Unlimited Brands
casual clothing at competitive prices, with consider selling to strengthen its cash
sales of $750M last year (cater to 40-55 yr reserves and deliver the most value to
old women). shareholders? What price should they
target for each unit?
You have been hired to determine the most viable To sell additional work to the client what
business unit to divest and plan for the separation ideas would you recommend to Unlimited
of the unit from the firm, while maximizing Brands to strengthen their business?
shareholder value.
Difficulty: Hard Quant Heavy Industry: Retail Type: Restructuring

- 130 -
Retail Business Restructuring
Prompt Questions and Responses (For interviewer reference ONLY)

1. What things will the firm need to consider when selling one or more of their business units? (continue to probe until the
interviewee declines for exploration)
• Culture/People Impact: Selling off assets can disrupt your employees and impact the image of the company. Retaining
key talent is also very important to maintaining the strength of the company. Employees may worry about what will be
sold next, and be less effective until they know better.
• Impact to Revenue: Although these units have been viewed as underperformers, it will be important for the firm to make
sure they explain the impact to earnings to shareholders and think how decreased earnings could affect their borrowing
options in the future.
• Potential Buyers: Need to understand who the potential buyers will be and what selling to them will do to the clients’
competitive position. Will this change give a competitor strength over the client?
• Separation: Considering the separation issues that will occur is important. IT, stores, shared space in malls, distribution
of products and suppliers are all important for performing a smooth transition to a buyer.
2. Which business unit of the two initially decided upon should Unlimited Brands consider selling to strengthen its cash reserves
and deliver the most value to shareholders? What price should they target for each unit?
[Note to interviewer: Provide data sheet to the candidate]
Based on the data provided
Candidate should walk through the tables and determine:
• Revenue and profits have been decreasing at Fast Fashion while increasing at Devine Design.
• A good answer is when the candidate simply takes the average PE from each deal table they will determine that the implied
potential price for Fast Fashion is $1.2B (16 PE x $75M NI), and $2.1B (14 PE x $150M).
• A better answer will see that the PE’s used to value similar firms to Fast Fashion most recently have been higher, at 20 and
would yield $1.5B. Similarly, the PE has been declining for Devine Design to 10, and would result in $1.35B.
• The other table will show that the Fast Fashion customer segment is growing fast, while Devine Design’s is actually declining,
but the revenue is actually projected to grow faster for Devine Design than Fast Fashion. The number of competitors does not
drive much of the analysis. (these facts should supplement their choice)
The candidate should decide which business unit they would select and defend their choice:
• Fast Fashion: Higher price based on most recent multiples, fast growing segment with increase spend could yield upside to a
buyer and thus result in a higher price.
• Devine Design: Lower price based on recent PE’s but if using average higher price. Revenue and profits have been
increasing and revenue is projected to grow faster even with a slight reduction in spend.
- 131 -
Unlimited Brands Business Restructuring – Data Sheet
Fast Fashion Devine Design

2009 2010 2011 2009 2010 2011
Revenue ($M) 625 550 500 Revenue ($M) 600 625 675
Net Income ($M) 125 96 75 Net Income ($M) 90 109 135
Fast Fashion Comparable Devine Designs

Deals
Deal Date PE Multiple Deal Size ($B) Comparable
Deal Date Deals
PE Multiple Deal Size ($B)
Fast A Oct 2009 12 0.6 Fast A Dec 2011 10 0.4
Fast B Apr 2010 16 0.7 Fast B Oct 2009 18 0.6
Fast C Dec 2011 20 1.4 Fast C Mar 2011 10 1.1
Fast D Nov 2010 16 1.9 Fast D Apr 2010 14 2.2
Fast E Mar 2011 20 2.5 Fast E Jun 2009 18 3.0
Fast F Jun 2009 12 3.1 Fast F Nov 2010 14 4.0
Industry Overview
- 132 -
Prompt Questions and Responses (For interviewer reference ONLY)
3. To sell additional work to the client what ideas would you recommend to Unlimited Brands to strengthen
their business?
Several examples below:
• Improved Pricing
• Could examine their current pricing structure and ensure price realization is maximized
• Promotion strategy; when to promote, who to target, what to promote, etc
• New Market Opportunities
• They may be able to target new customer segments or sell new classes of products to existing
customers
• Acquisitions
• Could use the proceeds from the sales of an underperforming unit to buy a smaller player in a
different space to enhance the companies’ portfolio of brands
- 133 -
Conclusion
 Client should sell Fast Fashion for $XB or Devine Design for $XB (Note to interviewer: rationale should come from their
defense earlier, either answer is reasonable, key is to make them choose and stick to it)
 Assist the client by:

– Creating a clear plan and strategy to effectively separate the businesses
– Maximize value to shareholders by attaining the best price
 Risks:
– Selling to a competitor and providing them opportunity to succeed at our expense
– Not calculating the right value
– Losing talent to attrition and fear of being sold
 Next Steps:
– Identify potential buyers
– Establish Day 1 and Day 2 plans for separation after client sale
– Work with client to sell additional work highlighted earlier
- 134 -
Electric Vehicle Auto Manufacturer
Our Client is an electric car manufacturer and wants •Company background: client is a startup, started in
to know how to position a new car model in the 2003, that has developed a new patented battery
market. technology that is validated and tested for viability in
cars.
1. Ask the candidate whether the industry is •When candidate asks about the current car model,
attractive for our client. provide the information on the slide about their
current product.
2. CEO hired you to help him develop strategies to
identify the right segment they can sell the
vehicles to.
3. Secondary goal (if asked): Profitability.
Difficulty: Hard Quant Heavy Industry: Automotive Type: New Product
- 135 -
Additional Information to Provide

Current Car Model
Client has currently one product in the market and they are planning to release their second vehicle
in the next 24 months.
Sportster 110,000 Premium Sports Segment
The Sportster has the following ratings across its features.
Purchase Green
Price Styling Performance Quality Safety Features Rating
Sportster 110,000 9 10 6 6 6 10
For segment worth and Competitor’s market share, refer to Exhibit C.
- 136 -
Candidate Structure
 Candidate should come up with the below structure for the industry attractiveness.
 Using Porter’s 5 forces it’s clear that the industry is attractive for incumbents.
Buyer’s power High
Suppliers power High in EV segment as the technology

is new.
Competition Very High (entire auto industry)
Substitutes Very High (other modes of

transportation)
Barriers to Enter Med-High. This means that it is hard
for new entrants to enter.
- 137 -
Financial Status and Cost Structure
 The client has yet to make a profit. The Sportsters sold 2000 units across 30 countries in the
world.
 Client has funding from government, private equity firms and recently they went public and
raised money.
 Depending on the target segment’s needs the production cost for 100K vehicles is given below
(all costs inclusive in USD)
 AT THIS POINT, PROVIDE EXHIBITS TO INTERVIEWEE
Premium Sedan 43,000
Sedan 38,000
Coupe 33,000
- 138 -
Calculations
Price per Unit and Profitability per Unit (provide this to Interviewee):
- 139 -
Calculations (Continued)
Potential market size and profitability calculations (this also requires information from the exhibits):
- 140 -
 Ask the candidate which segment to target.
Candidate Hypothesis
 Candidate should identify that per unit profitability is high for vehicle in premium sedan segment
(7000). So this might be the profitable segment to go after. Also, because electric technology is
still new, customers in premium sedan segment might be willing to pay a premium for the eco-
friendly factor. Whereas customers in other segments may not put much emphasis on this
aspect as they are more price sensitive.
- 141 -
Conclusion
Recommendation Risks
After doing the analysis, client should enter  Getting the product right to suit the customer
premium sedan segment for the following needs is necessary as the client is already
reasons: under financial pressure.
 Client may not be able to service all the
 Competition is low as addressable market vehicles in the premium sedan segment as the
size is 25% segment is large. Relationships need to be
established with service providers.
 Segment profitability is high with 7000 per
unit profitability  As the client is still new in the market,
establishing brand value is necessary,
 Customers in premium segment are more especially in the premium segment where
likely to pay a premium for the eco-friendly brands like BMW, Mercedes, Lexus compete.
feature of our client model.
- 142 -
Appendix A: Electric Vehicle Utility By Feature
- 143 -
Appendix B: Customer Preferences and Relative Sensitivity
- 144 -
Appendix C: EV Segments and Share of Competitors
Segment Segment Competitor Share Avg Units Sold

Worth
Sports Segment 1 billion 80% 8,000
Premium Sedan Segment 1.2 billion 75% 18,000
Sedan Segment 1.8 billion 82% 36,900
Coupe/Other 1 billion 95% 32,000
- 145 -
Grocer’s Decision to Add a Pharmacy

You have a friend who owns a single supermarket This case interview is meant to be conversational
(mom & pop). This friend has called you for some with the giver of the case to ask enough probing
free advice because you are an MBA and consultant. questions to keep the interviewee on their toes and
He says that he has noticed his supermarket thinking through the problem.
competitors have added pharmacies and he is
wondering whether or not he should do that himself.
Investment criteria: because this is a small
operation, needs a payback of < 2 years (no
He has some data sources and can provide you with
discounting necessary).
what you need but first needs to know what data do
you need to make this decision.
Difficulty: Medium Quant Heavy Industry: Retail Type: New Product/Market, Bus. Dev.
- 146 -
Suggested Structure & data to be provided upon request

Customers Competitors
 He has 10,000 unique customers every month.  2 Pharmacies and 2 Grocery Stores within 4
 On average, 50% of the population have miles of his store.
prescriptions.
 They average 1 filling per month.
Revenues Costs
 Each customer spends $100/month at his store  Initial investment for pharmacy: $1.2m.
(assume 1 visit/month).  For pharmacy assume costs are equal to 90% of
 Each prescription sale brings in revenue of $50. revenue.
 Each prescription customer tends to spend 30%  Current grocery operations cost structure:
more on groceries at the store.  70% Food / COGS
 15% Labor
 10% Fixed Overhead
- 147 -
Additional questions that help to steer discussion

Not all questions need to be asked if the candidate is leading the conversation
 What is the population of the town/addressable market?

 What is the minimum market share needed to break even in 2 years? Is this reasonable?
 What are the two major costs of operation that the grocer will incur when opening a pharmacy?
 What margin do you asses for incremental grocery sales? (Only if the individual asks about
revenue synergies)
- 148 -
Suggested Solution
Solution Guide
Current population estimate:

 Estimate current market share of grocery business at 33%
 10,000 / .33 = Unique customers each month = 33,000
 33,000 customers * 3 people per household = Population = 100,000
 Pharmacy market is then 50,000 customers
 Odds of each household containing at least 1 pharmacy customer = 1 - 0.5^3 = 87.5%
 Of your 10k customers, 8,750 have prescription needs
Incremental value of a pharmacy customer per year:
 $240 = 12 months * $20; $20 = $5 margin (drug sales) + $15 incremental margin (food
sales)
To break even in 2 years
 1.2m / $480 = 2,500 pharmacy customers
 Only need ~ 30% of the households who have prescriptions and currently shop at your
store to break even in two year
- 149 -
Conclusion
 Invest / Expand to include a pharmacy Some suggestions:

because there is an extremely high likelihood  Make design plans for the pharmacy
that you will break even in less than two
years.  Get a bank loan
 Value of a pharmacy customer is very high  Interview pharmacists
because of margin on pills and increased  Market the new service to customers
sales in the store.
 Contact drug reps / determine suppliers
 Only need 30% of your current customers
who have prescriptions to switch to your  Contact drug-store competitors to see if they
store to make it profitable. want to do a JV/partnership because you will
probably put them out of business
- 150 -
Lonestar Oil

Your client, Lonestar Oil, is a large petroleum refining  Port is operating 24 hours per day.
company that owns service stations. Lonestar is  Port area is slowly growing because of
looking to expand, and is looking to run a service consolidation occurring along Northwest ports.
station in one of the main ports in Seattle. The CEO  There are three existing service stations in the
has hired you to determine how to proceed. vicinity. These stations are of equal size and
capabilities.
 Two of these are owned by major corporations
like Lonestar Oil, and the third is family owned.
 Lonestar requires a 5-year payback on initial
investment. Disregard cost of capital.
Difficulty: Medium Industry: Energy Retail Type: New Product
- 151 -
Lonestar Oil
Notes for entering port
Market
 All three stations are similar in location, operations, demand, etc.
 All stations are currently operating at full capacity. There is no concrete information on full
demand, but estimates place demand between 15,000-20,000 gallons of gasoline per day
for the port.
Building new service station
 Revenue
 Gas
 Minimart sales – Existing stations in area do not have minimarts
 Costs
 Initial investment
 Fixed: PPE, maintenance, labor, utilities, marketing
 Variable: gas, minimart items
Buying existing station – (do not mention this upfront)
 Can only buy the privately owned station; other two are not for sale.
- 152 -
Lonestar Oil
How much would a new gas station make per year?

Solution – Gasoline only
(Info on request)
 New station costs $650,000 in initial costs, and  Calculation: $0.10 per gallon x 5000 gallons +
includes a minimart. 250 = $250 / day in profit.
 New station can sell 5,000 gallons per day.  $250 x 300 = $75000 profit per year on gas
 Gas sells for $3.00 per gallon. alone.
 Station makes margin of 10 cents per gallon.
 Assume 300 days in a year.
 Costs $250 to run the station (utilities, labor, etc.)
per day.
Including the minimart: Solution
 Operating the minimart costs an additional $100 /  Calculation: $500-200-100 = $200 / day in profit
day. for minimart.
 Daily sales: $500  Total profit : $ (250+200) / day x 300 days / year
 Daily cost of merchandize for the station: $200 = $135,000 per year.
 In five years: $135,000 x 5 = $675,000 ->
Enough for payback (by $25,000)
- 153 -
Lonestar Oil

Purchasing the existing station
The owner is looking to sell his station and wants  If the student chooses to calculate breakeven with
$530,000, but the station has no minimart. Building no minimart: $75,000 profit/year (see earlier) * 5 =
a minimart would cost an additional $130,000. $375,000, not enough to cover the $530,000
investment.
The station has the same capabilities as previously
calculated (5000 gallons per day).  With the minimart, the station would earn
$675,000 (see earlier) with a $660,000 initial
investment, thus earning a $15,000 profit over 5
years.
 Based on numbers alone, student should

conclude that building is a better strategy. But
purchasing the existing station may be the better
decision (see next slide).
- 154 -
Lonestar Oil
Other factors to consider
 Demand – although demand exceeds supply now, there may not be enough demand to support
four stations. Therefore, buying a station is considerably safer in this instance.
 Timing – it would take longer to build a new station, thus favoring buying.
 Competition – another company could buy the existing station, thus favoring buying now.
Buying would also deter new entrants as there isn’t necessarily enough demand to support four
stations.
 Expansion – could add more pumps to the existing station to support demand.
 Marketing – could sell more variety of products at the minimart. Adding a minimart could also
drive traffic towards Lonestar’s station and away from competitors, although this would only be
useful if Lonestar can expand.
 Next steps – closer analysis of demand to confirm that buying is a better idea than building a
new station.
- 155 -
Case Recommendations
Top 20 Recommended Cases from Old Casebooks
1. UPS Italy, Columbia 2007 11. Sandwich Bags, Ross 2005

2. Wind Turbine, Ross 2009 12. Great Burger, Ross 2007
3. Airport Parking, Ross 2009 13. Giant Bank, Ross 2007
4. Jamaican Land, Wharton 2008 14. Fertilizer Innovation, Ross 2005
5. Office Vending Services, Ross 2008 15. Moldavian Coffins, Wharton 2005
6. Apache Helicopter, Ross 2008 16. De Beers Retail Venture, Wharton 2008
7. Airplane Deicing, Ross 2006 17. Hong Kong Port, Ross 2005
8. Regina Jet, HBS Case 18. Bottled Water Market, Wharton 2008
9. All-Mart, Wharton 2008 19. Winter Olympics Bid, Kellogg 2003
10. Cash Rich Energy Co, Wharton 2008 20. Bagging Co, McCombs 2008
Operations Examples (non-revenue related components and cost based):

UPS in Italy, Columbia 2007
Benjamin Carpet, Cornell 2004
Canadian Oil Sands, McCombs 2007
New Airline Routes, Ross 2009
- 156 -

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Ross Consulting Club

12. Marie’s Café 94

VI. Recommended Cases from other Casebooks 156

Ross Consulting Club Casebook Committee

Reed Hansen, RCC Casebook VP, Class of ’12

Contact Reed Hansen (reedhans@umich.edu) or Cara Howieson (howieson@umich.edu) with any

Important Information Regarding the Casebook

• Access to the Ross Casebook is a privilege of club membership.

How to Use the Casebook

1. The Interviewer reads the problem narrative out loud.

Understand the Develop Form

• LISTEN • Ask for a moment to • Refer back to the • State your

Porter’s Five Forces Analysis

Threat of New Entrants

Bargaining Power of Internal Bargaining Power of

Return on Equity (ROE)

Income Statement Sales

CAGR Compound Annual Growth Rate: (Ending value/beginning value)^(1/# of years)-1.

Five Cs Company, Customer, Cost, Channels, Competition

Promotion Coupons, discounts, trials, etc. designed to increase sales of a product or

Market Sizing Facts

Location Population Metric Value

1/2 .5 1/7 .142857

Difficulty: Medium Quant Heavy Industry: Financial Services Type: Profitability

Additional Questions to Steer Discussion

Additional Questions to Steer Discussion

Additional Questions to Steer Discussion

Key insights include, but are not limited to:

Revenue Margin from Transaction % of total

Working Draft - Last Modified 10/23/2011 8:45:44 PM Printed

Group 2 100 50 -60 -15 -25 20%

Group 3 20 15 -5 -15 -5 20%

Group 4 100 50 -20 -15 15 10%

Group 5 100 75 -15 -15 45 20%

SOURCE: Team Analysis McKinsey & Company | 0

Additional Questions to Steer Discussion

5. What is the average annual profitability of a customer?

Category Profit Percent of clients Weighted profitability

Group 1 -5 0.3 $ (1.50)

Group 2 -25 0.2 $ (5.00)

Group 3 -5 0.2 $ (1.00)

Group 4 15 0.1 $ 1.50

Group 5 45 0.2 $ 9.00

Total N/A 1 $ 3.00

Additional Questions to Steer Discussion

6. What is the annual bank profitability?

Additional Questions to Steer Discussion

7. What is the new annual profitability per customer?

Additional Questions to Steer Discussion

Total Profit 103,500K

Average Profit per Customer $ 15

Suggested Solution and Structure

A good answer includes, but is not limited to:

*Metal bases that are used in the revolving office

Difficulty: Easy Industry: Manufacturing Type: Profitability, Operations, Chart Based

Additional Questions to Steer Discussion

Questions for the candidate

Suggested Solution and Structure

Recommendation Next Steps

Exhibit 1 – ChairCo Sales