1

Many companies are moving toward case interviewing

as a test of functional skills.
Overview
Behavioral Case
Marketing
General corporate
Companies that tend to
have a less-sophisticated
recruiting processes
Consulting
Marketing
I-banking
Consulting
Marketing
I-banking
Note that even in consulting, you will almost always
have at least one 'Iit or behavioral interview

Consulting tends to be different because of the

heavy emphasis on case and analytic skills.
ey Interview Skills
eys to Case Interviewing Success:
Structure driven (not any speciIic structurejust show
you can organize your thinkinglay out your approach)
Analytic nature (can you handle the numbers?)
ey business insights (do you know anything about
general businesses?)
Ability to 80/0 (don`t rambleget to the most
leveraged areasIast)

1he goal of a case interview is to have a business

COAJERSA1IOAwith the firm.
Consulting
Possible Interviewer Styles:
Question-driven
Open-ended approach
Seeking a speciIic answer
Hostile (VERY rare)
Only ONE Response:
Have an intelligent business
conversation & Iollow their
lead
Whether the Iirm specializes in strategy or operations, they are trying to
assess your ability to converse intelligently in Iront oI the client. You are the
Iirm`s only assetthey want to invest wisely.

1he first basic step in any case interview is to break

apart the problem "horizontally".
Bucket Problems
Problem: A company`s revenues have been
declining.why?
Revenues Costs
This is basically a logic tree.
The key is to make this Iirst pass ' or
'utually xclusive and ollectively xhaustive

Once you're satisfied you've listed all of the MECE

buckets, you then "drill down" to find root causes.
rill own
Problem: A company`s revenues have been
declining.why?
Revenues Costs
Price Volume Mix Fixed Variable
Price Ialling? Volume down? ShiIt to less
proIitable lines?
Rent too high?
Labor costs up?
The key is to Iigure out what is driving the problem

rameworks often overlap--say, for example, you

know that prices have been falling...
rill own
Revenues Costs
Price Volume Mix Fixed Variable
Prices ARE Ialling...
Use Porter`s to Iind out why prices are Ialling...
Industry rivalry
Buyers
Suppliers
Substitutes
Threats oI new entrants
What is driving
price decline?

In general, horizontal-then-vertical attacks work on

most problems. A random example.
An Example
Problem: I got a speeding ticket.why?
I was speeding I was NOT speeding
The oIIicer`s
radar gun is
broken
Cop does not
know how to
use radar gun
Once you hit on the key bucket, you can investigate
Iurther to get at root causes and suggested Iixes.
Game Over
My stupid
speedometer
is broken
The oIIicer is
misinIormed re:
speed limit
8
Overall, you pull a problem apart into buckets and find
MECE sub-assertions from which to further drill down.
Problem Review
Separate a problem horizontally
Then 'drill down into relevant areas

Classic frameworks provide a generic structure for

you to think about business problems.
Frameworks
Revenue-Cost model
Three C`s / Four P`s
Porter`s Five Forces
Classic ways to enter a new market
Value Chain
They should not be memorizedit will make your
thinking sound artiIicial.
10
ou need to practice-this will determine most of
your success.
Tips
Tips:
Order wetIeet press (wetIeet.com), vault reports
(vaultreports.com), and HBS industry/company reviews and do
some background reading
Get a Iew partners, rotate giving each other cases well beIore
the holiday breakbe disciplined
Get a sense Ior what type oI work a Iirm does (ops vs.
strategy)this will oIten determine your case type
now what makes Iirms diIIerent Irom one anotherthey
expect you to know
o NOT Iorget about behavioraldo Reinheimer`s matrix