MDI, GURGAON

Strategy and Consulting

Domain Compendium
Pre-Summer Placement Series
August, 2014
Contents
Introduction to Strategy ............................................................................................................... 4
History of Strategy Management ................................................................................................ 5
Moving from Long Range Planning to Strategic Management .................................................. 5
Strategic Planning Process .......................................................................................................... 6
Level of Organizational Strategy ................................................................................................ 7
Corporate Level Strategy ......................................................................................................... 7
Business-Level Strategy .......................................................................................................... 8
Functional-Level Strategy ....................................................................................................... 9
Market Entry ............................................................................................................................... 10
Porter's Five Forces ................................................................................................................... 10
Value Chain Analysis ................................................................................................................ 12
Linking Value Chain Analysis to Competitive Advantage ................................................... 13
Steps in Value Chain Analysis .............................................................................................. 14
Competitive Strategy - Porter's Generic Strategies ................................................................... 15
BCG Matrix ............................................................................................................................... 16
Market Size - Size, Profitability, Costs ..................................................................................... 18
Size ........................................................................................................................................ 18
Profitability ............................................................................................................................ 18
Blue Ocean Strategy .................................................................................................................. 19
Product Launch ........................................................................................................................... 21
Marketing Mix........................................................................................................................... 21
Core Competency: The Vision and Mission ............................................................................. 22
Break Even Analysis ................................................................................................................. 23
Ansoff Matrix ............................................................................................................................ 24
Market Penetration ................................................................................................................ 25
Product Development ............................................................................................................ 25
Market Development ............................................................................................................. 25
Diversification ....................................................................................................................... 25
Innovation.................................................................................................................................. 26
Incremental Innovation .......................................................................................................... 26
Radical Innovation ................................................................................................................. 26

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 Modular Innovation ............................................................................................................... 27
Architectural Innovation ........................................................................................................ 27
Disruptive Innovation ............................................................................................................ 28
Sustaining Innovation ............................................................................................................ 29
Open Innovation .................................................................................................................... 29
Imitation................................................................................................................................. 30
Reverse Innovation ................................................................................................................ 30
Process Innovation ................................................................................................................. 30
Product Innovation ................................................................................................................ 30
Service Innovation ................................................................................................................. 31
Competitive Response................................................................................................................. 32
Core Competency ...................................................................................................................... 32
4 Cs of Marketing .................................................................................................................... 34
PESTEL Analysis ...................................................................................................................... 36
SWOT Analysis......................................................................................................................... 38
ABC Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 40
Consultancy as a Career Option................................................................................................ 42
Is Consultancy for Me? ............................................................................................................. 42
Consultant Career Path .............................................................................................................. 43
Top Consulting Companies ....................................................................................................... 44
Interview Preparation ................................................................................................................ 46
Behavioral Round Details/Samples........................................................................................... 46
Sample Questions .................................................................................................................. 46
Guesstimate Round Details/Samples ........................................................................................ 47
Details .................................................................................................................................... 47
The Importance of Reasonable Assumptions ........................................................................ 47
Samples and Possible Approaches ........................................................................................ 47
Case Interview Round Details/Samples .................................................................................... 51
Details .................................................................................................................................... 51
4 Categories of Interview Cases ............................................................................................ 51
7 Quick Tips .......................................................................................................................... 51
Samples and Possible Approaches ........................................................................................ 52

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Analytics as a Career Option ..................................................................................................... 55
Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 55
Is Analytics for me? .................................................................................................................. 55
Career Path ................................................................................................................................ 56
Top Companies ......................................................................................................................... 56
Nature of Work.......................................................................................................................... 57
Recent Experiences ................................................................................................................... 57
General Management as a Career Option ................................................................................ 59
Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 59
Is General Management for me? ............................................................................................... 59
Career Path ................................................................................................................................ 59
Top Companies ......................................................................................................................... 59
Interview Preparation ................................................................................................................ 60

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Introduction to Strategy

Strategy is a high level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty.

Strategy is important because the resources available to achieve these goals are usually limited.

Strategy is also about attaining and maintaining a position of advantage over adversaries through
the successive exploitation of known or emergent possibilities rather than committing to any
specific fixed plan designed at the outset.

Alfred Chandler defined strategy as the determinants of basic long term goals & objects of
an enterprise, and the adoption of course of action and allocation of resources necessary for
carrying out these goals. The main focus is on allocating resources and a course of action.

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History of Strategy Management

To understand what strategic management is about, it is helpful to look at its history and review
its core ideas. Strategic management grew out of both teaching and research in business
administration.

On the teaching side, the roots were the business policy or general management courses of B
schools in the 1960s. The focus of these courses was on decision making by top executives in
Fortune 500 companies. Top executives of these companies naturally spend much of their
time strategizingthat is they concern themselves with the general direction and long term
policy of their enterprises. Business policy professors thus were forced to try to think
systematically about companies strategies, which eventually led to them into the self styled
study of strategic management.

On the research side, the area had its genesis in the finding of business case studies in the
1950s and 1960s that companies in the same industry could succeed following different
approaches, while other companies that followed approaches similar to each other were not
equally successful. Orthodox economic theory could not explain these anomalies; corporate
strategy could. For example, several companies might do well in one line of trade by
strategies of pursuing different market niches. Other companies might fail with similar
strategies because the strategies did not match the unique assets and talents these other firms
brought to bear.

Moving from Long Range Planning to Strategic Management

In the 1960s, most of the time strategy was based on intuition or what worked in the past.
Surely, the chances of success could be improved by embracing game plans that were based
on accurate and realistic assessments of the firms position and the opportunities open to it.
Thus the search was on to find robust procedures for designing schemes to beat the
competition.

Managers had earlier started to do sophisticated long term planning; this activity was
rechristened strategic planning in the 1970s to evoke the new concern with figuring out how
to gain an edge in the marketplaceand more important how to keep it. Strategic planning
involves more than just forecasting. In the new approach, planners began to ask what kinds

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 of businesses the firm should seek to enter, and not just what the current business will be like
down the road.

From strategic planning it was a small step to todays area of strategic management with
the stress on management. Managing strategy is not just a matter of plotting actions in
advance, as the strategic planners soon learned. Rather than being preoccupied with analysis
of the firm and its environment and the formulation of strategies, the emerging subfield
began to feature implementation and evaluation as critical components of organization
success.

To sum up, Strategic management is a broad activity that encompasses mapping out strategy,
putting strategy into action, and modifying strategy or its implementation to ensure that the
desired outcomes are reached.

Strategic Planning Process

It majorly comprises of 3 major steps and they are as follows:

Strategy Formulation
o Strategy formulation is the process by which an organization chooses the most
appropriate courses of action to achieve its defined goals. This process is essential to
an organizations success, because it provides a framework for the actions that will
lead to the anticipated results.
Strategy Development
o Strategy development, also known as strategic planning, is fundamental to creating
and running a business. Simply put, its a game plan that sets specific goals and
objectives but like a game plan, it is capable of being changed in response to shifting
market dynamics. Here are the basic steps to strategic planning.
Strategy Implementation
o Strategy implementation is the translation of chosen strategy into organizational
action so as to achieve strategic goals and objectives. Strategy implementation is also
defined as the manner in which an organization should develop, utilize, and
amalgamate organizational structure, control systems, and culture to follow strategies
that lead to competitive advantage and a better performance.

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The figure below shows the different activities that are covered under the different sub-
processes:

Level of Organizational Strategy

Strategy may operate at different levels of an organization -corporate level, business level, and
functional level.

Corporate Level Strategy

Corporate level strategy occupies the highest level of strategic decision-making and covers
actions dealing with the objective of the firm, acquisition and allocation of resources and
coordination of strategies of various SBUs for optimal performance. Top management of the
organization makes such decisions. The nature of strategic decisions tends to be value-oriented,
conceptual and less concrete than decisions at the business or functional level.

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Business-Level Strategy

Business-level strategy is applicable in those organizations, which have different businesses-

and each business is treated as strategic business unit (SBU). The fundamental concept in SBU is
to identify the discrete independent product/market segments served by an organization. Since
each product/market segment has a distinct environment, a SBU is created for each such
segment. For example, Reliance Industries Limited operates in textile fabrics, yarns, fibers, and a
variety of petrochemical products. For each product group, the nature of market in terms of
customers, competition, and marketing channel differs.
There-fore, it requires different strategies for its different product groups. Thus, where SBU
concept is applied, each SBU sets its own strategies to make the best use of its resources (its
strategic advantages) given the environment it faces. At such a level, strategy is a comprehensive
plan providing objectives for SBUs, allocation of re-sources among functional areas and
coordination between them for making optimal contribution to the achievement of corporate-
level objectives. Such strategies operate within the overall strategies of the organization. The
corporate strategy sets the long-term objectives of the firm and the broad constraints and policies

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within which a SBU operates. The corporate level will help the SBU define its scope of
operations and also limit or enhance the SBUs operations by the resources the corporate level
assigns to it. There is a difference between corporate-level and business-level strategies.
For example, Andrews says that in an organization of any size or diversity, corporate strategy
usually applies to the whole enterprise, while business strategy, less comprehensive, defines the
choice of product or service and market of individual business within the firm. In other words,
business strategy relates to the how and corporate strategy to the what. Corporate strategy
defines the business in which a company will compete preferably in a way that focuses resources
to convert distinctive competence into competitive advantage.
Corporate strategy is not the sum total of business strategies of the corporation but it deals with
different subject matter. While the corporation is concerned with and has impact on business
strategy, the former is concerned with the shape and balancing of growth and renewal rather than
in market execution.

Functional-Level Strategy

Functional strategy, as is suggested by the title, relates to a single functional operation and the
activities involved therein. Decisions at this level within the organization are often described as
tactical. Such decisions are guided and constrained by some overall strategic considerations.
Functional strategy deals with relatively restricted plan providing objectives for specific
function, allocation of resources among different operations within that functional area and
coordination between them for optimal contribution to the achievement of the SBU and
corporate-level objectives. Below the functional-level strategy, there may be operations level
strategies as each function may be divided into several sub functions. For example, marketing
strategy, a functional strategy, can be subdivided into promotion, sales, distribution, pricing
strategies with each sub function strategy contributing to functional strategy.

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Market Entry

Porter's Five Forces

In an existing industry, market entry and survival is determined by various forces that prevail in
the industry. The main five factors or forces that drive competition:

1. Competitors: Existing rivalry between firms can take a firms profits to zero and may lead to
shut down. In a competitive environment, firms decision is highly influenced by what the
competitors do.

2. Barriers to Entry: The threat of new entrants to the market determines the sustainability of
estimated market share. It is evaluated in terms of market entry barriers which may be in the
form of high fixed cost, product differentiation etc.

3. Substitutes: There is always a threat of substitute products replacing the existing product(s) of
a firm.

4. Suppliers: A competitive market with limited suppliers brings with it high level of bargaining
power of suppliers.

5. Buyers: Multiple products of same category gives the buyers an advantage in bargaining, thus
high bargaining power of buyers exists in multi-brand products.

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Value Chain Analysis

Value Chain Analysis describes the activities that take place in a business and relates them to an
analysis of the competitive strength of the business. The activities of a business could be grouped
under two headings:

(1) Primary Activities activities that are directly concerned with creating and delivering a
product or service (e.g. component assembly). Primary activities are broken down further
into inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and after-sales
service

(2) Support Activities activities that make primary activities possible or easier i.e. these
activities are not directly involved in production, but may increase effectiveness or
efficiency. Support activities include procurement of inputs, development of technology
and human resources management, and general firm infrastructure. It is rare for a
business to undertake all primary and support activities.

The following diagram shows the value chain for an internet start-up company

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Value Chain Analysis is one way of identifying which activities are best undertaken by a
business and which are best provided by others ("out sourced").

Linking Value Chain Analysis to Competitive Advantage

The catalogued activities must be analyzed in terms of cost to the firm and effectiveness in
generating willingness to pay for firms product or service relative to the competition. What
activities a business undertakes is directly linked to achieving competitive advantage. For
example, a business which wishes to outperform its competitors through differentiating itself
through higher quality will have to perform its value chain activities better than the opposition.
By contrast, a strategy based on seeking cost leadership will require a reduction in the costs
associated with the value chain activities, or a reduction in the total amount of resources used.

To understand if all cost factors contribute to competitive advantage, following frame work can
be used

Cost Factors: Identify factors that determine costs of different activities

Why costs differ?: Identify factors that determine costs of different activities

Why swings in profitability?: Understand why large differences in profitability exist within
the same industry

Efficiencies and inefficiencies: Understand why a firms costs or a sectors costs differs from
its competitors

Influence: Identify which activities are performed efficiently or inefficiently

Competitors costs: Identify competitors cost positions

Nature and source of advantage: Understand the nature and source of competitive advantage

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Steps in Value Chain Analysis

Value chain analysis can be broken down into the following sequential steps:

(1) Internal Cost Analysis First Catalogue activities - Break down a market/organization into
its key activities under each of the major headings Primary or Secondary. A firm or an
industry needs to understand its own value chain in order to compare to its competitors

Identify the processes to create the product

Determine the portion of the total cost of the product to each process

Identify the cost drivers for each process

Identify the links between the processes

Evaluate opportunities for achieving relative cost advantage

(2) Internal Differentiation Analysis: Identify the processes that distinguish its products or
services from that of its competitors. Use activities to analyze relative costs and relative
willingness to pay, i.e. assess the potential of activities for adding value via cost advantage or
differentiation. The competitive advantage can be

Superior product features

Improved marketing channels

Enhanced support/service

Brand or image positioning

Price

(3) Explore Options and make Choices: Identify current activities where a business appears to
be at a competitive disadvantage. Determine strategies built around focusing on activities
where competitive advantage can be sustained.

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Competitive Strategy - Porter's Generic Strategies

Competitive strategy of a company is given by the firms source of competitive advantage and
the scope of the business. A firm can choose to come up with a low-cost product or a
differentiating product in the market. On the other hand, the scope of business can be narrow and
focused on one market or can be wide and encompass diverse product lines and geographies.

Cost Leadership: Strategy used by businesses to create a low cost of operation within their niche.
The use of this strategy is primarily to gain an advantage over competitors by reducing
operation costs below that of others in the same industry.

Differentiation: Approach under which a firm aims to develop and market unique products for
different customer segments. Usually employed where a firm has clear competitive advantages,
and can sustain an expensive advertising campaign.

Focus strategy: The scope over which the company should compete in the market- either on cost
leadership or differentiation

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BCG Matrix

The matrix, developed by Boston Consulting Group in the early 1960s is used to plan market
strategies. Growth rate is determined by reference to market research, or it can be estimated.
Competitive position includes an assessment of the firms overall market penetration and
profitability compared to the other players in that market. Products are then positioned in the four
cells as shown in the figure.

Cash cows are units with high market share in a slowgrowing industry. These units typically
generate cash in excess of the amount of cash needed to maintain the business. They are regarded
as staid and boring, in a "mature" market, and every corporation would be thrilled to own as
many as possible. They are to be "milked" continuously with as little investment as possible,
since such investment would be wasted in an industry with low growth.

Dogs, or more charitably called pets, are units with low market share in a mature, slowgrowing
industry. These units typically "break even", generating barely enough cash to maintain the

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business's market share. Though owning a breakeven unit provides the social benefit of
providing jobs and possible synergies that assist other business units, from an accounting point
of view such a unit is worthless, not generating cash for the company. They depress a profitable
company's return on assets ratio, used by many investors to judge how well a company is being
managed. Dogs, it is thought, should be sold off.

Question marks (also known as problem child) are growing rapidly and thus consume large
amounts of cash, but because they have low market shares they do not generate much cash. The
result is large net cash consumption. A question mark has the potential to gain market share and
become a star, and eventually a cash cow when the market growth slows. If the question mark
does not succeed in becoming the market leader, then after perhaps years of cash consumption it
will degenerate into a dog when the market growth declines. Question marks must be analyzed
carefully in order to determine whether they are worth the investment required to grow market
share.

Stars are units with a high market share in a fastgrowing industry. The hope is that stars become
the next cash cows. Sustaining the business unit's market leadership may require extra cash, but
this is worthwhile if that's what it takes for the unit to remain a leader. When growth slows, stars
become cash cows if they have been able to maintain their category leadership, or they move
from brief stardom to dogdom.

As a particular industry matures and its growth slows, all business units become either cash cows
or dogs. The natural cycle for most business units is that they start as question marks, and then
turn into stars. Eventually the market stops growing thus the business unit becomes a cash cow.
At the end of the cycle the cash cow turns into a dog.

As the BCG stated in 1970, Only a diversified company with a balanced portfolio can use its
strengths to truly capitalize on its growth opportunities. The balanced portfolio has:

Stars whose high share and high growth assure the future;

Cash cows that supply funds for that future growth; and

Question marks to be converted into stars with the added funds

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Market Size - Size, Profitability, Costs

Size

Determine The Key Drivers

Bottom Up or Top Down?

Make Assumptions

Calculate
Use Round Numbers!
Common sense check!

Analyze Results
Implications?

Increasing Factors Decreasing Factors

Adjust Answer Adjust Answer

Profitability

Revenues COGS SG&A

Price Unit Volume Direct Material Direct Labor Variable O/H

Price Sensitivity Existing Market Scale Economies

Replace Cost Acctg.
- Elasticity - Promotion /Diseconomies
w/machines - Allocation
- Place - Supply - Union? Drivers
Constraints - Does pricing
reflect Cost

Competitive New Markets Inventory

Environ. - Geographic Mgmt.
- Substitutes - Economies of - Carrying Costs
Scope - Shrinkage

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Blue Ocean Strategy

Consider the metaphor of red and blue oceans describes the market universe. Red oceans are all
the industries in existence todaythe known market space. In the red oceans, industry
boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here
companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of product or service demand. As
the market space gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced. Products become
commodities or niche, and cutthroat competition turns the red ocean bloody. Hence, the term
Red Oceans.

Blue oceans, in contrast, denote all the industries not in existence todaythe unknown market
space, untainted by competition. In blue oceans, demand is created rather than fought over. There
is ample opportunity for growth that is both profitable and rapid. In blue oceans, competition is
irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set. Blue Ocean is an analogy to
describe the wider, deeper potential of market space that is not yet explored.

Reconstructionists' View

While competition-based red ocean strategy assumes that an industrys structural conditions are
given and that firms are forced to compete within them, blue ocean strategy is based on the view
that market boundaries and industry structure are not given and can be reconstructed by the
actions and beliefs of industry players. This is often termed as a Reconstructionists view.

In the Reconstructionists view, there is scarcely any attractive or unattractive industry per se
because the level of industry attractiveness can be altered through companies conscientious
efforts of reconstruction. Few of Reconstructionists view holders proposed a four action model
to generate Blue Ocean from within an existing company by asking four key questions to
challenge an industrys strategic logic and business model

1. The first question forces a company to consider eliminating factors competitors in an

industry have long competed on. There is often a fundamental change in what buyers value,
but companies that are focused on benchmarking one another do not act on, or even perceive,
the change.

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2. The second question forces a company to determine whether products or services have been
over-designed in the race to match and beat the competition. Here, companies over-serve
customers, increasing their cost structure for no gain.

3. The third question pushes a company to uncover and eliminate the compromises the industry
forces customers to make.

4. The fourth question helps a company to discover entirely new sources of value for buyers
and to create new demand and shift the strategic pricing of the industry.

The cornerstone of Blue Ocean Strategy is 'Value Innovation' - Innovation that creates value
simultaneously for both the buyer and the company. The innovation (in product, service, or
delivery) must raise and create value for the market, while simultaneously reducing or
eliminating features or services that are less valued by the current or future market. Many
criticize Michael Porter's idea that successful businesses are either lowcost providers or
nicheplayers. Instead, they propose that new businesses are the ones which find value that
crosses conventional market segmentation and offer value at lower cost.

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Product Launch

Marketing Mix

The marketing mix is a business tool crucial when determining a product or brand's offering, and
is often synonymous with the four Ps: price, product, promotion, and place; in service marketing,
however, the four Ps have been expanded to the Seven Ps or eight Ps to address the different
nature of services.
For using the tool, first identify the product or service you want to analyze, then go through and
answer the 4Ps questions. Once a well-defined marketing mix is prepared, try "testing" the
overall offer from the customer's perspective, by asking customer focused questions. Keep on
asking the questions and altering the mix until you are satisfied with the optimized marketing
mix. Review it regularly.
Link: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_94.htm

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Core Competency: The Vision and Missionision

A Vision statement outlines where the organization wants to be. It communicates both the
purpose and values of the business.

Vision should remain intact, even if the market changes dramatically. Vision statement does not
change with time.

A Mission statement talks about

how the organization will get to
where it wants to be. Defines the
purpose and primary objectives
related to the customer needs and
team values.

Mission statement may change with time, but it should still tie back to your core values,
customer needs and vision

A well conceived vision consists of two major components: core ideology and envisioned future.of

Core ideology defines enduring character of the organization and tells what the company stands
for and why it exists. Core ideology further consists of two parts; core values i.e. essential and
enduring tenets of the organization. Core values do not change in response changing marketnduring
dynamics. Core purpose is the organizations reason for existence. Organization can pursue its
Core purpose but it cannot be fulfilled.

Envisioned future can have two parts, a vision level audacious goal that would take 1030 years10
of effort for fulfillment. And a specific description of what it would be to achieve those goals.

It should be noted that an organization may be able to achieve its goals in long term, but i cannotit
achieve its core purpose.

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Break Even Analysis

An analysis to determine the point at which revenue received equals the costs associated with
receiving the revenue. It calculates what is known as a margin of safety, the amount that
revenues exceed the break-even point. This is the amount that revenues can fall while still
staying above the break-even point.

Break-even analysis is a supply-side analysis; that is, it only analyzes the costs of the sales. It
does not analyze how demand may be affected at different price levels.

For example, if a business sells fewer than 200 tables each month, it will make a loss, if it sells
more, it will be a profit. With this information, the business managers will then need to see if
they expect to be able to make and sell 200 tables per month.

If they think they cannot sell that many, to ensure viability they could:

1. Try to reduce the fixed costs (by renegotiating rent for example, or keeping better control
of telephone bills or other costs)

2. Try to reduce variable costs (the price it pays for the tables by finding a new supplier)

3. Increase the selling price of their tables.

Link: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/breakevenanalysis.asp

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Ansoff Matrix
(ProductMarket Expansion grid)

Ansoff matrix is a strategic marketing planning tool developed by Igor Ansoff and published first
time in Harvard Business review (1951). It represents the different options open to a marketing
manager when considering new opportunities for sales growth.

The matrix is based on two variables crucial in strategic marketing decisions:

1. Products that company intends to sell.

Decision:
Pushing existing products in their current market segments
Develop new products
2. Markets in which it plans to operate.
Decisions:
Continue to operate in the existing markets
Move into new markets

Existing PRODUCTS New

Existing Market Penetration Product Development

Sell more in existing New products in

markets exiting market
MARKET

Market Extension Diversification

Extend product Offer new products

New offerings to new in new markets
markets

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Market Penetration
In this strategy company tries to sell more of the same products to the same people. This strategy

is the lowest risk strategy. Company may choose to:

Advertise, to encourage more people within your existing market to choose your product, or
to use more of it
Launch new promotions & schemes
Increase sales force activities
E.g. many luxury automobile companies introduced loans at 0% interest for some of their models

Product Development
In this strategy company introduces new products in the existing market to increase sales.

Company may choose to:

Extend product portfolio by introducing different variants for the product

Develop related products or services
E.g. Dominos has recently introduced Lebanese Rolls for its customers

Market Development
In this strategy company tries to target new markets, or new areas of the market with its existing

product lineup. Company may choose to:

Target different geographical markets at home or abroad

Use different sales channels, such as online or direct sales
Target different groups of people, with demographic profiles from existing customers
E.g. Cadbury promoting silk amongst adult segment

Diversification
In this strategy, company tries to introduce/develop new product offerings for new markets.

Although this diversifies the companys offering, but still it is the most risky strategy amongst
the four. There is little scope of using its existing competencies to achieve economies of scale.

E.g. Apple introduced iPods and entered music entertainment business

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Innovation

Incremental Innovation

A series of small improvements to an existing product or product line that usually

helps maintain or improve its competitive position over time. Incremental innovation is regularly
used within the high technology business by companies that need to continue to improve
their products to include new features increasingly desired by consumers.

Radical Innovation

Unlike Incremental it is something new to the world and a departure from existing technology
or methods. The terms breakthrough and discontinuous are often used as synonyms for
radical innovation. Project dedicated to radical innovation are risky, expensive and usually take
many years to produce tangible results.le

http://www.incrementalinnovation.com/incremental-innovation/incrementalRead more:
http://www.incrementalinnovation.com/incremental innovation/incremental-
innovation-vs-radical-innovationinnovation

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Modular Innovation
Modular Innovation can be briefly described as the products and platforms consisting of or
facilitating

1. Relationships (people-people, products-products, people-products)

2. Control of Experience (from creation to storage to interaction)
3. Ownership of Content (personal content from comments to friend lists and more)

Architectural Innovation

Architectural innovation changes the links. Changing the relationships between nodes is a
sweeping change that usually transforms the way that the entire system works. Apple's
iTunes/iPhone ecosystem was an architectural innovation that changed the music industry
forever.

Link:http://www.brainmates.com.au/brainrants/what-is-modular-innovation
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davegray/5640862096/

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Example of Modular Example of Architectural

Disruptive Innovation

An innovation that helps create a new market and value network, and eventually goes on to
disrupt an existing market and value network (over a few years or decades), displacing an earlier
technology. The term is used in business and technology literature to describe innovations that
improve a product or service in ways that the market does not expect.

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Sustaining Innovation

An innovation that does not affect existing markets is a sustaining innovation. Sustaining
Innovation does not create new markets or value networks. Rather it only evolves existing ones
with better value, allowing the firms within industry to compete against each other's sustaining
improvements.

Sustaining are mostly in terms of technology whereas disruptive always change entire market.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_innovation

Open Innovation

Looking for ideas outside your company is open innovation. It is a paradigm that assumes that
firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths
to market, as the firms look to advance their technology. It also involves innovating with partners
by sharing risk and sharing reward.

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Imitation

Adoption of innovation by similar firms is called as imitation. It leads to

Product and Process standardization

Products and Process with fewer features
Products and Process offered at lower price

Reverse Innovation

Innovation seen/used first, in the developing world before spreading to the industrialized world is
reverse innovation. A process whereby goods developed as inexpensive models to meet the
needs of developing nations are then repackaged as low-cost innovative goods for Western
buyers.

Link: http://www.innovationreverse.com/innovationreverse
http://www.northeastern.edu/news/2013/03/vgreverse/

Process Innovation

A change in the way a product or service is manufactured, created, or distributed. Process

innovations lowers unit production costs, often by reducing the number of disconnected process
steps.

Product Innovation

The development of new products, changes in design of established products, or use of new
materials or components in the manufacture of established products.

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Service Innovation

A service innovation is a service product or service process that is based on some technology or
systematic method. It often lies in the non-technological areas for e.g. New solutions in the
customer interface, new distribution methods, novel application of technology in the service
process, a service innovation benefits both the service producer and customers and it improves
its developers competitive edge.

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Competitive Response

Core Competency

Core competencies are particular strengths of a firm relative to other organizations in the
industry which provide the fundamental basis for the added value. Core competencies are critical
to the business for achieving competitive advantage. Core competencies of firms should fulfill
three key criteria:

It is not easy for competitors to imitate

It can be reused widely for many products and markets

It must contribute to the end consumer's experienced benefits and the value of the
product/service to its customers

Core competency can take various forms like: Technical Superiority, Propriety Knowledge,
Work Force advantage, Organizational and operational processes which cannot be imitated,
Organizational culture, Product development skills, Innovation, Good market coverage etc.

In a global competitive environment it is very important for firms to identify their core
competencies and concentrate on it in order to have competitive advantage. A competence which
is central to the business's operations but which is not exceptional in some way should not be
considered as a core competence, as it will not differentiate the business from any other
similar businesses. For example, a process which uses common computer components and is
staffed by people with only basic training cannot be regarded as a core competence. Such a
process is highly unlikely to generate a differentiated advantage over rival businesses. However
it is possible to develop such a process into a core competence with suitable investment in
equipment and training. It follows from the concept of Core Competencies that resources that are
standardized or easily available will not enable a business to achieve a competitive advantage
over rivals. For an organization to be competitive, it needs not only tangible resources but
intangible resources like core competences that are difficult and challenging to achieve. It is
critical to manage and enhance the competences in response to industry changes in the future.
For example, Microsoft has expertise in many IT based innovations where, for a variety of
reasons, it is difficult for competitors to replicate or compete with Microsoft's core competences.

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Core Competencies of some companies are given below:

Wal-Marts core competencies include a supply chain with integrated technology, an ability
to generate large sales volume, superior logistics systems, operations that are decentralized, a
strong and unique culture, a close knit management style between the headquarter and
individual stores, a management team that makes things happen with great autonomy, and
effective management routines and practices.
Apple's core competency is innovative design and technology.
McDonalds core competency is the production and delivery speed of affordable food to a
large number of customers to support a low cost, high speed, and consistent quality strategy.
Core competencies of Maruti Suzuki are capability in small and fuel efficient cars, price
efficiency and customer trust

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4 Cs of Marketing

The traditional Marketing mix is a 4 Ps model and is business oriented. The 4 Cs model of
marketing on the other hand is more consumers oriented. Because of its focus on consumers, the
4 Cs model is mainly used for Niche Marketing. However, just like the traditional marketing
mix, it can also be used for mass markets. The Relation between traditional 4 Ps and consumer
focus 4 Cs can be seen from the diagram below

Consumer: The principle of four Cs of marketing states that your customer should be your
prime focus. Unlike the traditional marketing mix where the primary focus is on Products, in
the 4 Cs model, the primary focus is on the customer. Thus the companies which follow this
model believe in making products which satisfy their customers. They are generally ready to
offer customizable products and because they have a general set of target customers, this
principle is only applicable for smaller market segments and not for mass markets. For mass
markets, the traditional marketing mix can be used.

Cost: Cost is equivalent to Pricing in the traditional marketing mix. Cost is a very important
consideration during consumer decision making and hence in the 4 Cs principle, the cost
variable is given special attention. The 4 Cs model generally plans on the basis of Customers
and not products. And hence they have to plan the cost of the product on the basis of their
customer. If you are targeting a SEC A segment, then the costing of the product needs to be
premium to have proper psychological positioning. On the other hand, if your product is for
the SEC B and SEC C classes, then it needs to have a lower costing. Thus over here, costing
of the product depends on the customer.

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Communication: The concept of communication remains same for both, the traditional
marketing mix as well as for the 4 Cs of marketing. Off course, the marketing
communications for a company following the 4 Cs of marketing is completely different as it
needs a completely different Segmentation, targeting and positioning. As said before, the 4
Cs of marketing are generally used for Niche products. The media vehicles used for
marketing communications for a mass product and that for a niche product are different. A
niche marketing company might use more of Below the Line rather than Above the Line
whereas in a mass marketing company, above the line communications are very important.

Convenience: Convenience is equivalent of distribution or placement of the traditional

marketing mix. When you have a niche customer base, the convenience of the customer in
acquiring your product plays a critical role. Take a niche product like Heavy machinery as an
example or even products like television and air conditioners. What if the companies who
sell these products do not give you delivery and installation? You will not buy the product as
you wont be ready to pick up the machine and install it yourself. You will be looking out for
your own convenience. Thus convenience, like distribution, plays a critical role. The
customer will not buy your product if it is not convenient to him.

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 PESTEL Analysis

PESTEL analysis is a tool used by companies to analyze the environment in which they operate
while starting a major project or launching a new product in the market. The components of
PESTEL are

1. Political
These factors determine the extent to which a government may influence the economy or a
certain industry.
Government introducing extra tax on diesel cars affects the entire auto industry.

2. Economic
These factors are determinants of an economys performance that directly impacts a company
and have resonating long term effects.
Rise in the inflation rate would cause companies to increase prices

3. Social
These factors scrutinize the social environment of the market, and gauge determinants like
cultural trends, demographics, population analytics etc.
Buying of items such as cars, sweets etc increase during the festival season

4. Technological
These factors pertain to innovations in technology that may affect the operations of the
industry and the market favourably or unfavourably
Introduction of touch screen caused Nokia to lose market share to the likes of Apple and
Samsung

5. Environmental
These factors include all those that influence or are determined by the surrounding
environment.
Particularly significant for industries such as tourism
The need for a cleaner environment might force automobile companies to adopt stricter
norms.

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6. Legal:
These factors have both external and internal sides. There are certain laws that affect the
business environment in a certain country while there are certain policies that companies
maintain for themselves.
The GAAR provisions brought about by Central government force foreign companies to
reshape their policies and strategies

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SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis (alternatively SWOT Matrix is a structured planning method used to evaluateMatrix)
the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities,pportunities,
and Threatshreatsinvolved in a project or in
a business venture. It helps organization to understand the competitive advantages it possesses
and also the areas where it needs to improve. SWOT analysis is usually developed during a
retreat session where there are several hours available to braibrainstorm.

The components of SWOT analysis are

1. Strength : This details the strengths that an organisation possess that gives it an advantage
over others
2. Weakness : The shortcomings that an organisation possess that the other players in the
industry might exploit
3. Opportunities: Events or changes in the external environment that an organisation could
use to its advantage.
4. Threat : Events or changes in the external environment that can cause the organisation to
lose its competitive advantage

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 STRENGTH WEAKNESS
Best on time Presence only in
perfomance low cost
Uniform aircraft segment
fleet

Opportunities Threats
Development of Emergence of
low cost airports low cost players
Direct import of such as Air Asia
ATF

SWOT Analysis of Indigo Airlines

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ABC Analysis

It is an analysis used for inventory control and material resource planning

According to this classification, the input materials required for production of a product are
placed in the decreasing order of annual dollar volume (price multiplied by projected
volume) or some other criteria
This array is then split into three classes, called A, B, and C
The A group usually represents 10% to 20% by number of items and 50% to 70% by
projected dollar volume
A-items should have tight inventory control, more secured storage areas and better
o sales forecasts
The next grouping, B, usually represents about 20% of the items and about 20% of the dollar
volume
The B group is monitored for potential evolution to A or C.
The C class contains 60% to 70% of the items and represents about 10% to 30% of the dollar
volume
C items are ordered whenever a order comes in and is least controlled
The ABC principle states that effort and money can be saved through applying looser
controls to the low-dollar-volume class items than will be applied to high-dollar-volume class
items
ABC analysis helps optimize holding costs and helps companies to monitor stocking level of
items efficiently

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Pictorial description of class A, class B and class C items

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Consultancy as a Career Option

Is Consultancy for Me?

Team Work
Consultants rarely if ever work alone. You work with consultants from your firm, you work
with employees in the client company, and you work with consultants from the other firm
that the client may have hired.
In short, if you prefer working in your own comfort zone, in your own nook and corner,
consulting is not for you

Great Academics
It has been observed that there exists a high co-relation between academic curiosity and
performance in consulting industry. People who have done well academically tend to do well
in this industry as well

Multitask
Consulting assignments vary greatly in duration, location and function. It may require
context switching from one deliverable to another.
If you are one who prefers working with the horses blinkers on, consulting is not for you

Willing to work long hours

Consultants must strive to meet and beat client expectations. That takes time and loads of it.
Top consultants are known to put 70+ hours per week to prepare that deliverable that will
crack the problem at hand and satisfy the client.
If you have multiple engagements outside work and cannot dedicate such volume of time,
consultancy is not for you.

Travel Enthusiast
Consultants are on the road most of the time. Consultants from established names are known
to spend at-least four days out of 7 in a week on client site.
Client sites are themselves located in obscure corners of the world and you may end up lot of
time in travelling.

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 If you obligations back home and cannot stay away from long durations or cannot adjust with
the erratic travel schedule, consultancy is not for you.

Consultant Career Path

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 Top Consulting Companies

McKinsey & Co. Largest of the three MBB & oldest $7.5Billion(2012)
Revenues
Areas of expertise: Management,
Organization, Operations, IT
- Industries: Financial Services,
Government, Healthcare

Reputation/culture: Gold standard,

It specializes in offering strategic

solutions to c-suite clients.
The Boston Medium size of the three MBB (~5 or $3.7Billion(2012)
Consultancy Group 6K employees), second oldest Revenues

Areas of expertise: Corporate

Development, Growth, Innovation

Industries: Consumer, Financial

Services, Government
Reputation/culture:

Reputation/culture : Known to be very

academic, innovative; relatively more
family oriented
Bain & Co. Smallest of the three( MBB ), though --
almost the same size as BCG), youngest

Areas of expertise: PE/LBO, M&A,

Organizational turnaround
- Industries: Financial services, IT,

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 Media/Entertainment, Healthcare

Reputation/culture: Results oriented,

innovative, aligns own incentives to
clients' performance; social
Booz & Co. Founded in 1914, it is the oldest ~ $1 to $2 billion
consultancy firm still in business and (USD) Revenues
the first to use management consultant
term.

Areas of expertise: Corporate finance,

information technology, mergers and
acquisitions, and organizational change.
Deloitte Consulting Deloitte Consulting LLP is the member ~ $5.85 billion
LLP firm of the 170,000 person-strong (USD) Revenues
Deloitte Touch Tohmatsu Limited
(DTTL) organizations, which includes a
worldwide network of audit, consulting,
financial advisory, risk management
and tax professionals.

Areas of expertise: Human Capital,

Strategy and Operations, and
Technology

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Interview Preparation

Consulting interviews generally consist of multiple rounds in two formats -

One is a Behavioural Round where the interviewee is tested for his fit for consultant role in
general and fit in the firm culture in specific
Second is a Guesstimate/Case Interview round, which tests problem solving skills and reveals
candidates thinking patterns to the interviewer. The interviewer is generally looking for a logical
and structural approach to problem solving with clarity of thought.

Behavioral Round Details/Samples

Sample Questions
Why Consulting?
Why our firm? What makes it different from other firms?
Give me one reason why you would not like to join our firm
Why would 30+ year work ex CEO listen to fresh college grad consultant like you?
Give me a situation where you failed
What is the toughest decision you have had to make in your life?
Would you work with a team which you believe is underperforming or would you prefer to
work alone efficiently?
How comfortable are you being on-site/travelling 4 days a week?

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Guesstimate Round Details/Samples

Details

In many real-world problems, an order-of-magnitude estimate is sufficient and a precise answer

may be impossible or unnecessary. Approximate values for dimensions and conditions may be
used for the calculation. An estimate is based on approximations that are known to be reasonable
through experience or available information. A guesstimate is made when such information is

unavailable.

Guesstimate questions are among the most unnerving questions you may ever have to answer in
an interview situation. They can be so "off the wall" as to shake up an otherwise calm, collected
candidate. The approach to guesstimates is to showcase your ability to analyse a situation and
form conclusions about this situation by thinking out loud.

You are expected to drive toward a conclusion through a series of increasingly specific
statements.
Invariably guesstimates are used for market sizing problems, for a product or a service. Focus is
mostly on how the candidate thinks inducts from logic and is comfortable with numbers.

The Importance of Reasonable Assumptions

When solving a guesstimate problem in interviews or tests, the key thing to remember is that the
evaluator is looking not for the answer but how do you get to the answer. The Following are the
tips to follow while solving a guesstimate problem

Take Reasonable assumptions

Clearly state all your assumptions
Clearly show how you are working with your assumptions
Get to an Answer

Samples and Possible Approaches

One of the most popular approaches to solve a guesstimate is the START BIG approach.
Certain problems can be solved by a START SMALL approach as well. Without getting into
tooo much into detail, let us look into a particular example and see how both can be used.

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Example 1: How many litres of white house paint are sold in US every year?

Start BIG Approach:

Start with the basic assumption that there are 270 million people in the U.S.
If there are 270 million people in the United States, perhaps half of them live in houses (or 135
million people). The average family size is about three people, so there would be 45 million
houses in the United States.
Let's add another 10 percent to that for second houses and houses used for other purposes besides
residential. So there are about 50 million houses.
If houses are painted every 10 years, on average (notice how we deftly make that number easy to
work with), then there are 5 million houses painted every year. Assuming that one gallon of paint
covers 100 square feet of wall, and that the average house has 2,000 square feet of wall to cover,
and then each house needs 20 gallons of paint. So 100 million gallons of paint are sold per year
(5 million houses x 20 gallons).
If 80 percent of all houses are white, then 80 million gallons of white house paint are sold each
year.

Start SMALL Approach:

You could also start small, and take a town of 27,000 (about 1/10,000 of the population). If you
use the same assumption that half the town lives in houses in groups of three, then there are
4,500 houses, plus another 10 percent, then there are really 5,000 houses to worry about. Painted
every 10 years, 500 houses are being painted in any given year. If each house has 2,000 square
feet of wall, and each gallon of paint covers 100 square feet, then each house needs 20 gallons -
and so 10,000 gallons of house paint are sold each year in your typical town. Perhaps 8,000 of
those are white. Multiply by 10,000 - you have 80 million gallons.

Example 2: What is the size of the market for disposable diapers in China?

How many people live in China? Let us say approximately a billion.

Because the population of China is young, a full 600 million of those inhabitants might be of
child-bearing age. Half are women, so there are about 300 million Chinese women of
childbearing age. Now, the average family size in China is restricted, so it might be 1.5 children,

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on average, per family. Let's say two-thirds of Chinese women have children. That means that
there are about 200 million children in China. How many of those kids are under
the age of two? About a tenth, or 20 million. So there are at least 20 million possible consumers
of disposable diapers.
To summarize:
1 billion people x 60% childbearing age = 600,000,000 people
600,000,000 people x 1/2 are women = 300,000,000 women of childbearing age
300,000,000 women x 2/3 have children = 200,000,000 women with children
200,000,000 women x 1.5 children each = 300,000,000 children
300,000,000 children x 1/10 under age 2 = 30 million

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Example 3: How many square feet of pizza are eaten in the United States each month?

Take your figure of 300 million people in America. How many people eat pizza? Let's say 200
million. Now let's say the average pizza-eating person eats pizza twice a month, and eats two
slices at a time. That's four slices a month. If the average slice of pizza is perhaps six inches at
the base and 10 inches long, then the slice is 30 square inches of pizza. So four pizza slices
would be 120 square inches. Therefore, there are a billion square feet of pizza
eaten every month.

To summarize:
300 million people in America
200 million eat pizza
Average slice of pizza is six inches at the base and 10 inches long = 30 square inches (height x
half the base)
Average American eats four slices of pizza a month
Four pieces x 30 square inches = 120 square inches (one square foot is 144 inches), so let's
assume one square foot per person 200 million square feet a month.

Example 4: How many people fly out of Delhi Airport every day?

It can be categorized as a capacity problem.

No two planes could be on a runway at a given time and most likely had to be spaced by a few
minutes for safety reasons. Hence the day could be broken into peak (7am-10am, 3pm-8pm),
mid-peak (10am-3pm) and off peak times (8pm-11pm). Assuming no flights in the middle of the
night. planes can be assumed to be spaced 5 minutes apart at peak hours, 10 minutes at mid-peak
and 15 minutes apart during off peak times.
Capacity assumptions assumed 100% at peak, 75% at mid peak, and 50% at off peak.
With an average plane holding 200 people, it would be (200 people/plane x 12 planes/hr x 8hrs)
+ (150 x 6 x 5) + (100 x 4 x 3) = 24,900 people.
With 3 runways, Delhi Airport has roughly 75,000 people flying in and out every day.

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Case Interview Round Details/Samples

Details

The case interview is essentially a word problem based on a real-life (or simulated) consulting
situation. Thus, the interviewer might say, Okay, suppose a client comes to you and says, we
are thinking about going into the light bulb business, and we want you to tell us what to do. What
should you tell her?

Cases come in all shapes and sizes, from the simple, straightforward question designed to see
how you think about a problem, to the highly complex business strategy issue that takes 20
minutes to explain and involves charts, graphs, and buzzwords. However, they all have one thing
in common: They test a candidates analytical abilities. They show his or her resourcefulness,
how he or she thinks about problems, and ultimately, his or her aptitude for consulting.

4 Categories of Interview Cases

1. Market Sizing: determine how big a particular problem is, or how many of x products are
used
2. Business Operations: problems relating to running the day-to-day operations of a business
3. Business Strategy: questions focusing on future business strategy, usually at a top level
4. Brainteasers: puzzles or questions that challenge a candidates ability to think creatively

7 Quick Tips

1. When the interviewer asks the question, listen carefully always take notes.
2. Everything there? Do you have all info to start thinking? Intentionally some info is left out
for you to ask and explore. Ask questions always!
3. Think hard before you speak they are listening to each word that comes out
4. Frameworks Make subtle not so obvious use of frameworks to make your approach as
structured and logical as possible.
5. Try to think aloud and explain your thinking methodically
6. Every hint helps Your insightful questions may lead you to a subtle insight that may crack
open the case
7. Always Talk Action Summarize your case with good, solid data driven recommendations.

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Samples and Possible Approaches

Example 1: A publisher of books (reference books that contain state and federal laws, and
come out every year or so in order to remain up-to-date) have been receiving requests from
customers that they publish the books on CD- ROM. The demand seems pretty strong for
such a product. Should they do it?

This is a new business opportunity, so the three Cs is a good approach here. If you start with
Customers, you might ask about the demand for this product. It turns out that over 50% of your
customers would want to buy the books on CD. As for Competitors, no one else has done this
yet, so there are no competitors to worry about. Finally, if you look at the Company, you would
learn that they are solely a publishing company with no experience in making CDs. However,
they could outsource the production to a company that specializes in CD production.

The 3Cs lead to asking the right questions and gathering the right data. Now its time to insert
some business thinking. One thing to worry about is product cannibalism, i.e., if they make the
CD, will it create new customers, or merely cause their existing customers to switch over to the
new product? It turns out that since the CD would be cheaper than the books, people who
wouldnt ordinarily buy the book would buy the CD, so there would be new customers.
However, 50% of the current book customers would switch to the CD.

It also turns out that they would make the same profit per CD as they made per book this past
year. The numbers would therefore seem to suggest a YES to the CDs. The problem,
however, is that theyve already sunk all of these fixed costs into their book operations, and
need to sell a high volume of books to recover their costs. If they lose 50% of their book
customers, their book operations will collapse. The answer is NO!

Example 2: Your university food service is losing money. What may be the problem?

This is a classic profit question, so go with Profit = Revenue Cost. This question doesnt make
clear whether theyve always lost money, or whether it just recently became unprofitable, so
first try to clarify this. If they only recently started losing money, then find out what happened
during the time when profits started declining. Did a new competitor pop up? If theyve always

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been losing money, go into the standard revenue and cost analysis. For revenues, is there
enough demand for their products (it turns out the answer is no, since the dining hall is a good
substitute and provides meals in a bag). Are there certain products that are losing money, or is it
a general loss? Are their prices competitive? (Yes, pretty much the same as any other such
establishment). On the cost side, are they producing efficiently? (I.e. they have no wastefulness
in production).

Example 3: A cable TV station devoted to country music wants to put out a magazine.
What should they think about?

A new business opportunity warrants the 3Cs approach. A standard 3Cs analysis would tell you
that there are some competitors; that there is some demand, but that our client probably
wouldnt capture much of the market; and that while they know a lot about country music, they
dont know much about magazines. All in all, this would probably generate a net loss. The
answer might seem to be No. However, answering the question correctly actually requires us
to know what the motive of the company is in undertaking this venture. Ordinarily, we assume
that the goal is for the venture to be profitable, and we recommend against doing it if it doesnt
look profitable. If we had asked up front what the motives were, we would have learned that
they werent sure about the profit potential of the venture, but that their motive was actually
simply to use the magazine as a way to build the brand of their Cable TV network, much like
ESPN has done with its ESPN magazine and ESPN online. Knowing this, the focus of the
analysis should fit to whether building the brand in such a way would translate into more profits
for the company as a whole (has it worked for other companies such as ESPN, etc.

Example 4: A huge retailer is thinking about setting up a large store in a mid-sized town.
Should they do it?

A classic case of a huge discounter moving into a small townuse 3Cs to discover that this
Company has a great cost structure because it buys in huge volumes and gets great discounts
from its suppliers. As for the Customers, there is also a large local demand. The key to this
problem is the Competitors. The competitors are several mom & pop-type stores that have a
very loyal local following and that can provide better, more personalized service. One
recommendation might be to pay extra attention to customer service and build some sort of
reputation as a service-first company. This would be a good place to come up with other

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creative ways to beat down the mom & pops (the corporate world is a nasty place!). If you dig
deeper, though, it turns out that the customer base is quite price-sensitive and that with your
significantly lower prices, you will wind up driving mom & pop out of town.

Example 5: You are called in by Pizza Hut to help them develop a strategy for entering the
home delivery market in which Domino's has the dominant position. As lead consultant on
this project, what would you do? The above case is primarily a marketing case.

The issues to raise include:

The success factors in the business and Pizza Hut's vs. Domino's relative strengths or
weaknesses; based on that analysis should Pizza Hut enter the business?
The customers Pizza Hut should target and the needs of those customers
The product(s) Pizza Hut should sell and the prices they should charge
How Domino's or other relevant competitors (are there any?) might respond
o What effects a new delivery business will have on Pizza Hut's existing business
o How the business should be structured to minimize costs?

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Analytics as a Career Option

Introduction
Analytics is not only about gathering data through software tools for creating dashboards and
reports. Analytics goes beyond data. Its primary goal is to enable business decision based on
data. This involves working with stake holders to understand the business gaps and using this
knowledge as a guide to manipulate data, derive useful insights and finally make
recommendations all key actions to increase revenue and reduce cost.

As a website quotes - The financial rewards are great and growth opportunities aplenty.

As Deloitte employee for analytics says, Our analytics team is passionate about exploring and
unearthing data to uncover the nuggets that truly deliver insight and value to our clients. As part
of our global team, you can help organizations understand and harness the power of information
to learn from their past, gain insight into their present, and strategically plan for a successful
future.

Who is in demand for analytics?

It was a notion earlier that for analytics profession it is good to have people with Master degree
in statistics, maths, Economics, and computer science, being a doctorate was just icing on the
cake. But with the advent of GUI based tools, what matters more today is the business
knowledge. One who knows the business well is the person who would understand the business
data in a better manner.

Is Analytics for me?

Ask yourself 5 questions

a. In todays business environment, should data be the basis for all decision making?
b. How about learning new stuff almost every day in work?
c. Do you give certain recommendations on certain business / non business stuff and pursue
it further to see what the outcome is?
d. Are you simply in love with numbers and statistics?
e. Is logical thinking your forte?
If answer to the entire questions pushes you to the positive side of mind spectrum, then Analytics
is one career aspect you should look forward to.

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Career Path

With an understanding that we all know career path varies according to industry and also
company, the career path for a typical analytics person can be as follows:
a. Analytics professional normally move ahead of being the analyst or senior analyst
followed by Project Manager or Senior Project Manager
b. Project Manager is normally responsible for checking out a project throughout its life
cycle
c. The path would then lead to Program management / Customer relationship manager
d. Then comes the next phase or directorship and other higher positions in your company

Top Companies

Today analytics is everywhere. There are companies who strictly deal with analytics only, like
Mu Sigma. And there are companies who are into core business but take their business decisions
based on analytics, be it in marketing domain, finance or supply chain management. In both
sections, there are pretty big names and smaller start ups as well. It is your call on which side
you want to end up with.

Some of the worlds best companies to work for in Analytics field:

a. Google
b. SAS
c. BCG
d. Salesforce.com
e. Intuit
f. Deloitte
g. Microsoft
h. Mu Sigma

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Nature of Work

Analyst is there anywhere a business decision is taking place. Business Analysts are required to
investigate and analyze business activities to make them more efficient by using IT resources.
They can create an integrated IT system to deal with dispatch, payments, orders, and stock
control. Normally following are the items analysts take lead role in:
Assisting with the business case
Planning and monitoring
Eliciting requirements
Requirements organization
Translating and simplifying requirements
Requirements management and communication
Requirements analysis

Recent Experiences

Below is a set of uncut answers which was given by our alum Vignesh Krishnakumar
(PG11). Vignesh is currently working as a Senior Associate with CTS EAP and prior to
joining MDI, he worked with Mu Sigma

Is Analytics for me?

If you have a flair for numbers with a consulting bent of mind, analytics is for you. You are able
to marry business and mathematics/statistics, analytics is for you.

Career Path

Career path differs with companies. Generally you can be a subject matter expert (Domain
specific or statistics/modeling expert) or take a managerial route. Generally many analytics
companies are divided into verticals and horizontals. Verticals are the different industries such as
Technology, Travel, Media, Telecom, BFSI, Pharma, Retail, and Manufacturing are the typical
verticals that one can find in the various non-captive analytics firms. Horizontals are typically
like specializations you have in an MBA. Examples are marketing management analytics, Sales
management analytics, operations analytics, strategic analytics, financial analytics, etc. These cut
across all verticals and people can gain experience of working for various verticals over the

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years. Looking for opportunities outside analytics, consulting is a big area where people look to
shift to. You can also look at profiles based on experience (Marketing, Operations, etc.). Almost
all industries are shifting towards data driven decision making. So opportunities will come your
way with time.

Top Companies

(In terms of kind of work) Google analytics, Mu Sigma, Tesco analytics, E-bay, Dunhumby
associates, Dell analytics, HP analytics, Zeyes associates, CognizantAnalytics (EAP), Fractal
analytics, Axtria, Accenture, E-value serv, Genpact, Infosys analytics in that order (This list is
based on my personal experience, direct/indirect interaction with people in these companies).
(In terms of money) E-bay, Google analytics, Dell analytics, Cognizant Analytics(EAP),
Dunhumby associates, Fractal analytics, HP analytics, Accenture, Infosys analytics, Zeyes
associates, Axtria, Mu Sigma, Genpact, E-Value serv (This list is based on my personal
experience, direct/indirect interaction with people in these companies).

Interview Preparation

Generally some experience required at MBA level, though the process and way of approaching a
problem is the first and foremost. Communication is of utmost importance as many companies
have direct client interaction. If you have earlier analytics experience, be clear about the different
modeling/statistical analysis that you have done (if you have done any). Any statistical package
such as SAS, SPSS, R etc. and DBMS software such as SQL server is an added advantage. Be
clear about your basic stats and RMB concepts. They don't expect you to know stats formulae by
heart, but you should know which analysis should be done where. Your RMB (Semester III)
chapters 18 to 20 will help you in this regard. Basics of research and data, which are hygiene
factors are also available in your prescribed text.

Realistic Expectations

Initial 1 year to a year and a half will be more technical working on Excel, SQL/SAS/SPSS/VBA
codes before you move on to understanding and delivering on the business. Moving into the
actual business side of delivery depends on how fast a person can understand the nitty-gritty of
the domain/client. But formally getting into the business side of things can take anywhere
between 1 to 2 years depending on the company.

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General Management as a Career Option

Introduction

The role of General Managers is to organize workers, other managers, projects, customers, and
the direction of an organization. Their job encompasses various business functions and is
designed to supervise and monitor the overall running of the business.

Is General Management for me?

The General Management profile is apt for those who

Are still unsure of the specialization or dont want to pursue a career in a single
specialization only
Want to pursue opportunities in different industries and aim to shift between markets/ sectors
regularly
Want to keep shifting between various business functions without having to stick to or focus
on one business function alone
Are attracted towards administrative jobs over the more technical ones

Career Path

The career path varies from organization to organization. However, general management
programmes for MBA graduates are usually carried out as fast track programs towards
Leadership roles and responsibilities.

An MBA graduate usually starts off as a management trainee, progressing towards and assistant
manager or a managerial role in a specific function such as Sales manager for Sales and
Marketing division. They may also work their way up as executive assistants to members of the
top management. The elevation is towards a General Managers role and the career path
gradually moves up towards the top executive roles such as CEO and executive director.

Top Companies

The top companies that offer general management roles are large conglomerates or group of
companies that have programmes specifically designed to fill the leadership roles in the future.

The Tata Administrative Services (TAS) programme is a very famous example. Here, recruits
are hired and provided with cross functional opportunities across industries, companies and

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geographies, international exposure, opportunities for professional growth, and lifelong career
mobility.

The Group Management Cadre (GMC) program of the Mahindra group is another such program
for general management. The GMC program is a fast-paced, challenging program that grooms
high potential Managers for leadership positions in 12-15 years. Recruits join Mahindra as a
Management Trainee in one of their businesses and rotate through three or four sectors to gain
broad and deep experience across industries, regions, and countries.

Other Big companies offering general management profiles include the Aditya Birla Group
through their Leadership Associate Program (LEAP), Reliance Industries Limited, RPG, General
Electric (GE) and Siemens.

Useful Links: http://www.tas-tata.com/

http://www.mahindra.com/Careers/MBA-Graduates

http://www.abglp.com/section_level1.aspx?cont_id=torXTeKrpXc=#.Ufl6e9LLrE9

Interview Preparation

Recruitment is carried out through a multi-level screening process. This may include a written
form to begin with. Along with the CV, a form is also required to be filled up and contains a set
of questions inquiring about previous leadership and team work skills displayed by the candidate.
These forms are also a mode of learning the functional and sector preferences of the candidate.

The candidate is not only expected to bring to light several prominent instances of displaying
responsibility and maturity but also has to be in conformance with the vision and goals of the
organization. For this, going through the website, especially the Values and Culture section of
the website helps.

The shortlisted candidates then go through at least a round of group discussion, where their
ability to generate ideas and working within a group of peers is tested. Here, having in-depth
knowledge of current affairs along with opinion on the same, backed by logic, helps.

The interview round is generally centered on the functional preference of the candidate and the
preferred sector. One must not only have good hold of the basics of the preferred function but

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also be able to apply it to the preferred sector. Having knowledge of the various businesses of the
organization is an added advantage.

The screening process for general management profiles may look like the same as those for
function specific profiles but the focus is on the general person-organization fit and leadership
potential within the candidates.

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