Case Book IIFT Delhi(2024)

IIFT DELHI
CASE BOOK
2023-2024
SOCRATES
The Strategy & Consulting Club
Copyright
Unauthorized reproduction, storage, or transmission of this book, or any parts thereof, by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, is strictly prohibited without prior written permission from Socrates Club, IIFT Delhi.
To request permission, contact Socrates at socrates@iift.edu.
©2023 Socrates, IIFT Delhi

All rights reserved
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Socrates, IIFT Delhi
Preface
IIFT Delhi takes great pride in introducing the inaugural edition of the Consulting Prep Book, a comprehensive guide essential for excelling in consulting
interviews. This document is meticulously crafted by curating genuine interview experiences shared by candidates who have interacted with esteemed
consulting firms. These valuable insights are collected, analyzed, and refined using relevant frameworks.
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all the contributors who generously shared their cases and interview encounters. Their invaluable input has enabled
us to create a comprehensive preparation resource for future batches.
IIFT DELHI
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Index
• Do’s and Don’ts .....……………………………………………………………………………………………... 5
• Case Frameworks .....……………………………………………………………………………………………… 6
• Case Interview Transcripts ……...………………………………………………………………………………….......... 13
• Guesstimates …….………………………………………………………………………………............... 58
• Industry Reports ……..…………………………………………………………………………………………... 67
• Datasheet for Guesstimates …..……………………………………………………………………………………………… 84
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Do’s and Don’ts
Do’s:
∙ Summarize and clarify. Once the interviewer provides the case details, summarize the case in your words to make sure you understood the details
clearly. Ask clarifying questions (if any) before solving the case
∙ Help the interviewer. Make sure that you guide the interviewer throughout the case solving process and communicate your logic, approach and
assumptions. Allow the interviewer to intervene (if necessary)
∙ Positive body language. Try to be cheerful and maintain a positive body language throughout the process, as it might help cover minute mistakes
committed (if any) while solving the case. Further, you would be evaluated on the overall performance including body language and
communication skills apart from problem-solving skills
∙ Be confident. Remain calm and confident throughout the case even if the process is not going as expected. This exhibits a crucial trait of being
able to handle pressure situations which are a part and parcel of a consultant’s life. Also, watch out for any hints that interviewers drop (if
required) to help candidates get back on track
∙ End the interview positively. Make sure that you end the interview with a smile, even if it wasn’t the best of your performance. This creates a
positive impression in interviewer’s mind and the positive attitude may work in the favor and overshadow a mediocre interview
Don'ts:
∙ Do not assume information. You should refrain from assuming information and drawing hasty conclusions without intimating the interviewer.
Always confirm your approach/assumptions before proceeding further
∙ Do not panic. Mistakes do happen, either in calculations or in speaking about the topic. Sometimes, even the interviewer tries to challenge your
confidence level. It is important not to freak out in such situations
∙ Do not interrupt the interviewer. There is always a risk of missing out on some information which interviewer is trying to divulge. Moreover, it
gives an impression that you are impatient and not a good team player
∙ Do not get rigid. It is important to back your solution/suggestions. But if the interviewer challenges your views, be flexible enough to re-think your
solution. This is a testament of your agile personality
∙ Do not depend on frameworks. Existing frameworks should only guide your thought process and not become an impediment to “out of box”
thinking. You should establish a framework that best suits the client’s business 5
Case Frameworks
Socrates, IIFT Delhi 6

Profitability Framework (1/4)
Introduction
• Profitability cases are the most common type of cases that you will see. The importance of the case stems from the fact that profit-making is the final
goal of every business problem.
• Breaking profitability down to its simplest components is the key in consulting cases. Dividing profitability into components such as revenue and cost
can be helpful in discovering the causes of a less than favorable bottom line.
• It is to be noted that many a time, the interviewer will not specifically mention the type of the case.
Case Structure Questions Framework
Profit
• What is the magnitude of loss/profit? What is
the time period of the trend?
Revenue Cost • Is the profitability problem across the industry
and trends for the product? If problem is
across the industry, ask for context.
Price Units Sold R&D • Competitive landscape – No of competitors,
market share and its trend.
Need Raw Material • Just to get a background of the company, I
would want to know the product mix and
Awareness & revenue streams for the company.
Processing
Accessibility • Ask for data on trends of each product and
Storage & ascertain the product(s) which is leading to
Affordability the problem.
Transportation
• Is there a timeline that the company wants to
Customer Sales &
Experience Marketing
solve the problem in?
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Profitability Framework (Cost Approach)
R&D Cost of Goods Sold Processing Storage & Distribution Marketing Customer Service
Transport to Marketing
Equipment Direct Material Machinery Repairs
Warehouse Channels
Human Capital Direct Labour Factory Rent Storage Strategy Spare Parts
Operational Transport to
Cost of Finance Labour Hours Returns
Overheads Customers
Technology Sales Channel
Capacity
Sales Force
Utilization
Packaging Training
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Pricing Case Approach (2/4)
Introduction
• In a pricing case the, objective is to determine a methodology for pricing of any product. The product could be an invention, it could have other
competitor products in the market etc.
• It is important to consider the objective of the company, since it directly affects the pricing strategy to be followed. Then the student should
understand the product characteristics and the market environment to apply a prudent pricing methodology
• In case the pricing needs to be done for an old product (rare scenario), the utility of the product w.r.t a new product and the depreciation/salvage
value need to be taken into consideration
Radical Invention
• Which industry are we talking about?
• What is the objective of the company?
Competition • What are the product features?
Exists
Product • How big is the market? What is the target
Pricing a Product Modification segment?
Competition • Who is the customer in the supply chain
doesn't Exist (margin to stakeholders)
Value-Based Cost- Plus
Parity Pricing
Pricing Pricing
Similar to Current
Willingness to Similar Features Product
R & D Cost
Pay Existing Product
Manufacturing NPV of
Opportunity Cost
Cost Substitute
Pricing w.r.t. to
Supply-Demand Breakeven Cost, Supply-Demand Other Product
Tradeoff WACC Tradeoff
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Growth Strategy Framework (3/4)
Introduction
• In a Growth scenario, a company is likely to aim for X% YoY growth. An interviewee is expected to first align the growth targets, followed by validating
them, identify pillars that can support the growth targets, and finally recommend how the company can leverage/show go about these pillars
• Case interviews with revenue growth cases can be tackled by influencing two major parameters that determine growth figures. These are volume and
unit price. In order to make suggestions, once again, you need to understand the client’s business and the industry
Growth • What is the expected growth rate of the

industry? Are we targeting growth
more/less/on par with that?
• Do we have existing capacity in the
Organic Growth Inorganic Growth plants/services to meet the increased volume
or would investments need to be made?
• What is the price elasticity in the market?
Existing Revenue Sources New Revenue Sources • Are there any barriers to entry into new
areas?
• What is the competitive landscape?
Increase Diversify in
• What is the effect of substitutes and
Increase Volume Increase Price New Mergers & complements?
Product New
Market Acquisitions
Line Products • What are the client’s available funds for
growth?
Increase Customers Increase Basket Size • How are the client’s prices compared to that
of competitors?
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Market Entry Framework (4/4)
Introduction
• There are two basic considerations for market entry - Is it a good idea? & How to enter?
I. Evaluating whether to enter the industry or not is a function of three parameters
a) Industry Attractiveness: Good to get the context of industry as a whole (Porter’s 5 Forces)
b) Deciding on the Goals/Objectives : (a) Strategic Intentions, (b) Economic Intentions
c) Value Chain: for various industries to understand nuances of market entry and objective metrics (Value Chain Analysis)
II. How to Enter can be divided into 2 parts: (a) Organic (b) Inorganic (JV, Acquisition)

Internal External Mode of
Why? Feasibility Financial Capability How?
motivation motivation Entry • Motivation behind entry?
a) Why is the client entering into a new industry?
Goals
Company Market
Can I enter?
Investment
Production Timelines Organic
b) Why specifically this industry?
Assessment Assessment Required c) Any motivation other than profitability? For
example- increasing market share etc..
Objectives
Current Size & Financial Raw Material
Execution JV/Licensing • What is the timeline to achieve the target
Portfolio Demand Situation Availability
profitability?
a) What is the cost of capital and target rate of
Raise Capital Patent/
Customer Growth Rate
– Yes/No? Technology
Method M&A return?
b) What is the target market share?
Strengths/ Stage of c) What are the target revenues and target profits?
Cost of capital Logistics
Weaknesses Lifecyle • Any constraints on investment and scope of thinking?
a) Levels of investment
Distribution Competitive
Resources b) Geographies of investment
Channel Landscape
• Understand the company - Line of businesses, existing
business model and product mix.
Suppliers/ Product
Partners Substitutes
a) What are the expected synergies from entering the
market
Locational b) What is the corporate structure/organization
Market Share
Advantage structure
Market Entry Approach
Parameters Affecting Factors
• Market Size
• Life Cycle
• Value Cycle: Competitors, Substitutes, Suppliers
Industry Attractiveness
• Customers: Brand Loyalty, Price Elasticity, Switching Cost, Demand-Supply
• Barriers: Regulatory, Economies of Scale
• Risks: PESTEL Analysis, External v/s Internal
• Financial Metrics to evaluate the investment in the new market such as:
• NPV/IRR/Payback Period
• Upfront investment and change in working capital
Financial Goals
• Economic Value Added
• Projected Cashflows
• Risk
• Organization Design / Structure

Strategic Goals • Sustained Competitive Advantage: VRIO Framework, Brand Equity and Patent Technology
• Cost Benefit of Entry: Economies of Scale, Supply Chain Synergies, Competitive Advantage
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Case Interview
Transcripts
Profitability

Profitability (Framework) | Cost reduction (Method) | Easy (Level)
Restaurant
Case Statement: Our client is the owner of a restaurant and it’s not performing well Revenues are affected by the number of customers, number of dishes ordered, and
since past few years so what suggestions would you provide? Price of the ordered dishes so have the number of customers visiting us reduced, or are
May I get clarity over what it implies by “not performing well”, does it mean in terms of their orders limited to a few dishes or did we reduce the prices of the dishes? Also, I
top & bottom-line growth. Also can I know the magnitude of the decline? hope I have covered all relevant factors, please let me know if anything’s left.
Yes, we are not performing well financially, and we have seen a sharp decline in profits You have covered the relevant aspects so you may proceed with decreasing customers
in the past 2 years. since the average number of dishes ordered are almost the same and prices haven’t
been changed.
How many current competitors do we have and are they facing the same problem as
well? So decreasing customers could be because of the restaurant’s declining food quality,
There’s only one competitor and it’s profits are increasing. and degrading staff service, also I am negating the factor of increasing prices based on
previous answers. Is there any major reason to focus on the mentioned factors or is
What all channels does the restaurant serve by, is it dine-in or online deliveries or take- there any factor to focus on?
aways and also what kind of locality is the restaurant located?
I believe these are fine factors, Food quality and staff service have remained at par
Client’s restaurant is in a semi-urban area and presently it only generates revenue with competitors. Can you look at the kind of food offered?
through dine-in.
Is there a specific reason for only preferring dine-in or is it an unexplored avenue for So, as customer taste changes with time like presently it can be seen how the Korean
the restaurant? food market in India is growing at more than 150% yearly. Therefore, constantly
keeping up to date menu as per current trends is important and, in that aspect, I would
No as of now it is unexplored. want to know if there are any recent changes made in the menu?
Fine, so decreasing profits can be because of either decreasing revenue, increasing Although some minor changes have been made to the menu but not any significant
cost, or both. Do we have any particular side upon which more emphasis is to be put? cuisine additions have taken place so far.
Majorly it’s decreasing revenues and marginally decreasing costs.
All right got it, so now coming onto cost I have a few queries to clarify, shall I proceed
Sure, Firstly I will identify problems on the revenue side, then explore the cost side and with them?
finally proceed toward possible solutions.
Yes, you may put forward your queries.
Alright, your structure seems exhaustive, proceed.
Interviewer
Interviewee 15
Restaurant
How is the raw material which in our client’s case are vegetables, spices etc.. Sure, so firstly I will present solutions to increase revenue. Since decline in the number
procured? Is there any specific vendor or it’s purchased directly from the market based of customers was the major reason which was because the customer’s taste evolves
on optimal pricing? whereas the restaurant was not catering to changes by updating and adding new
dishes to the menu. So updating the menu would help attract customers.
We have our vendors for various ingredients, fruits & vegetables who deliver based on Secondly, home deliveries using various available platforms would open up different
our requirements. customer segments and also help increase reach, Moreover as mentioned earlier that
Does our competitor also have the same vendors as ours or different, if different than taste has been consistent so there are high chances of experiencing increasing
which vendor offers comparatively low price? customer loyalty.
Thirdly, marketing and promotional offers can be released to attract customers.
We have different vendors and cost information is not available. Now coming onto the cost side, Manpower can be optimized for cost-saving
Also there is an opportunity for collaborating with farmers for crops and vegetables
So since the restaurant is in a semi-urban area, are their farms growing certain crops of required by the restaurant, also this would give access to relatively fresh vegetables
our use in the region? Also, does the restaurant have some tie-up with the farmers? with longer shelf life.
Presently, the restaurant has not been into a tie-up with farmers, although there are Your solutions were good. Let’s end this case. Thank you!
certain farmers who grow vegetables that could be of use.
Since having cordial relations and tie-ups with the local farmers have great benefits for
both the farmers and the restaurant so are there any specific inhibitors that prevents
the tie-up or is it yet to be explored?
It is something that the restaurant has not been explored.
Fine, so now delving into the cost side. Cost consists of fixed and variable costs which
further can be classified as salaries, cost of raw materials, rent paid, marketing
expenses, and daily administrative expenses. Out of the mentioned components, is
there any particular cost component that is majorly contributing to the case or any
component that I missed?
Nothing specific regarding costs, mostly all points are covered. You can proceed and
provide solutions.
Interviewer
Interviewee 16
Restaurant
Case Structure Case Summary
• Client is the owner of a restaurant and wants
Profitability to improve its revenue and decrease costs.
Revenue Costs
Case Facts
No. of
Price of Order Order Quantity
• Restaurant is in a semi-urban area and only
Fixed Costs Variable Costs
Customers offers a dine-in option.
• Korean food market is growing at a rate
greater than 150% Y-O-Y.
Labour Utilities COGS
Conclusion of the interviewee Recommendations/Tips by interviewer

• Diversifying channels for serving customers by home deliveries. • Include elements such as the avenue of online food delivery and listings
• Inculcating trending dishes in the menu and updating the menu based on on online food delivery apps such as Swiggy and Zomato that are
changing customer needs. relevant to the present-day context.
• Partnering/Tie-ups with local farmers to get access to crops that are relatively • Dimensions such as customer feedback and staff training could also be
cost-efficient, longer shelf life, comparatively easy to handle fluctuations in considered.
demand.
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Profitability (Framework) | Revenue Growth (Method) | Easy (Level)
Seafood Company
Case Statement: Our client is in the seafood industry and profits declined by 8% for the We do sell both, common fishes and premium fishes. The price of premium fish is
first time. CEO of the company has appointed you to find out the reason for it. roughly twice that of common fish and associated costs can be ignored for now.
Sure, (confirmed the case statement). Could you give me more information about the Revenue depends on the average selling price of fish, their volume, and the product
kind of sea-food the company deals with? Also I would like know whether the company mix. If any information regarding the trend in the above parameters?
is into catching and selling of sea-food or we source sea-food from fishermen and then
sell it to nearby hotel & restaurant chains? We haven’t changed the selling prices although the sales volumes have declined, and
no data is available regarding product mix but do provide suggestions regarding its
Sure, so the company deals in all kinds of seafood ranging from fish to prawns to squids optimization if you have any.
and anything else that you can think of. It owns small and large fishing boats to catch
the fish and then sell them post-packaging. Also, we are in the core seafood industry Exploring the decline in sales volume, it can be attributed to two factors: a decrease in
and not in any kind of lending business. market demand or a decrease in our supply. Since the industry hasn't experienced a
decline, the focus shifts to our supply side. Sales may decrease due to reduced fishing
Alright, so the company presently fishes in which all regions? Also is this decline in efficiency, new competitors entering the market and capturing our market share or
profits faced by the industry as well? packaging inefficiencies affecting our image and resulting in reduced orders.
You can consider the operations to be concentrated in Chennai only and this decline is Excellent, that was a thorough categorization. The company acquired a high-speed fish-
seen by the client’s company only. meat packaging machine last year, but it turned out to be a failure due to consistent
So to begin with I want to analyze profitability as a function of revenue and cost. So do issues with sealing the packets. This led to spillage during transportation, resulting in
we have the information regarding it when the revenues have declined, or the cost has the loss of some clients and a decrease in orders. Now you can move ahead and
increased? provide some suggestions on product mix optimization.
Revenues have declined although the costs have remained the same. In the product mix, we need to consider two demand segments: premium fish and
common fish. Likewise, as previously mentioned, the company operates both small and
I would like to know the major contributing food items in terms of revenue and if this
large fishing boats. Depending on the fish's availability in the water, we should
decline in seafood is seen in all our food offerings or if it’s particularly associated with a
determine which boats to deploy. If common fish are found near the shore, it's
particular food item.
advisable to use the large boats. Additionally, premium fish, which fetch higher prices
The major share of our revenue, nearly 81% comes from the fish category and it has and occupy less storage space, can be held in inventory. This way, during challenging
witnessed a decline of 15% in terms of revenue. So only focus on this particular fishing periods like monsoons, the stock can be used to offset declining revenue
segment.
It’s a nice understanding. Thanks, that would be all.
Sure, in fishes category which all varieties does the company sell, and what are their
price and cost differences? Interviewer
Interviewee 18
Seafood Company
• The client is the CEO of a seafood company
Profitability
that has experienced a decline in profitability
and wishes to comprehend the underlying
Revenue Costs reasons for this situation.
Case Facts
Price Sales Volume Product Mix • The company’s operations are concentrated
in Chennai only.
• It deals with the entire value chain (Fishing to
packaging to selling).
Demand Supply
• The company’s profits have declined by 8%.
• 81% of revenue comes from the fish category
and it saw a decline of 15% in terms of
Fish-catching Packaging Competitor Capturing
revenue.
Efficiency Efficiency Market
• Premium fishes sell for nearly 2X the price
compared to common fishes.

• Reduction in revenue is due to packaging inefficiencies caused by the • Further analysis of demand side factors could be done for more
procurement of faulty fish-meat packaging machine. comprehensive coverage of the case.
• Spillage caused due to poor packaging caused spillovers while transportation • Exploring new markets beyond Chennai could also be suggested.
and hampered the company’s image thus leading to reduced orders to serve.
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Onion Wholesale Seller
Case Statement: Our client is an onion wholesale seller and is facing decreasing Has there been any change in sales in the domestic and export market assuming that
profitability. Identify the underlying problem and provide solutions. gains are more from the export market?
I would like to get clarity on the nature of the business, is it domestic sales, or does the Yes, unfortunately recently exports fell so we increased domestic sales
company export as well as part of the sourcing and selling model of the company?
So the reasons for the fall in domestic sales can be either a decline in the number of
The company serves domestic and international markets. It sources onion from orders received, Indian government norms or EU norms, or a decline in the availability
regional small businessmen and exports onion directly to its client. Presently it only of onions thus creating supply-side incapabilities. As mentioned in the beginning
exports onion to EU nations. declining profits were faced by all in the export business so I would like to know if
All right, so there are several heads that influence profitability and they can be government norms were a major reason for it.
classified as either revenue or cost. But before delving into it I would like to know if all
Yes, precisely recently the Indian government imposed a 40% duty on exports thus we
those in the onion wholesale business faced declining profits and also if there’s any rise
lost out on price. What solutions do you propose for such a situation?
in competition.
Not all have faced the same problem but those in export business have faced it and Due to the imposition of such taxes and tariffs government is trying to reduce the price
rising competition is not the reason for it. in the domestic market so this can be mitigated if the domestic market is tracked
properly and accordingly exports are done before the imposition of such duties. Also, it
Since competition is not the reason then can I now explore the revenue and cost side?
is known that such taxes and duties are imposed every year in one form or the other
Revenues have declined so you can leave the cost and proceed with revenues. sometimes it’s in the form of MEP and sometimes in the form of 40% duty as stated, so
this makes the phenomenon predictable and thus it can be mitigated to some extent.
So, revenue in the business is dependent on the selling prices of onions and quantity
sold.
Great, don’t you think under-invoicing could help us trade in such a situation?
Is there anything else since it’s both domestic and foreign market we are talking about?
Yes, revenue will also be impacted by the ratio of domestic sales vs exports since the Yes, it can but it’s not a part of legal operation so there are high chance the business
revenue earned would be different from both markets, and agribusiness is also will run into a major problem if illegal means like under-invoicing are used.
impacted by government norms. Is there anything else that contributes to the revenue
of the business or should proceed with these 3 factors? Good, that would be all. We can conclude the case now.
Yes, you can proceed with the sales mix and also elaborate on how the government
norms affect the business.
Interviewer
Interviewee 20
Onion Wholesale Seller
• The client is running an onion wholesale
Profitability
business facing an issue of reducing
profitability and wants to find solutions to
Revenue Costs mitigate the revenue loss.
Case Facts
Price Sales Volume Sales Mix (Domestic vs Export) • The company deals in domestic and export
markets both.
• Present export destination is limited to EU
Export Domestic nations only.
• Indian government imposed 40% duty on
onion exports.
Orders Received Order-Fulfilment Capability Government Barriers

• Reduction in revenue is due to the reduction in exports which had a greater • Alternative solutions like diversifying export markets, negotiating new
profit margin. contracts, or focusing on value-added products could have been
• Government taxes increased export prices and thus the company lost orders due explored.
to price.
• Tracking domestic prices can help predict future tax impositions and thus
exporting major amounts before such norms can mitigate such risks.
• Under-invoicing is not legal and thus shouldn’t be practiced.
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Profitability (Framework) | Cost reduction (Method) | Moderate (Level)
Two-Wheeler Manufacturer
Case Statement: Our client is a two-wheeler manufacturer and is facing a decline in Sure, so under this I would like to know if there has been any subsidy whose benefits
profits. Could you help them with this? are no longer provided to the company. Or is there an increase in the renewal prices of
various certifications required by a manufacturing plant?
Sure, (confirmed the case statement). Could you give me more information about the
company’s products and it’s services? Certainly, we used to receive a subsidy from the Andhra Pradesh government, but we
Sure, so the company manufactures bikes and also provides after-sales services no longer qualify for it. The certification expenses from regulatory authorities are not a
although for now focus on the revenue generated by sales of bikes. major concern, as we only needed to renew one certification this year. What other
costs can you consider, taking into account the perspective of a regulatory body?
Sure, this brings us to two possible situations: either sales have declined, or
operational expenses have increased. On the revenue side, it depends on the bike's In manufacturing facilities, regulatory agencies closely monitor safety standards and
selling price and the number of bikes sold. On the cost side, it's influenced by factors incidents. Penalties may be imposed in the event of accidents, such as the improper
such as the cost of raw materials, expenses related to packaging materials, release of hazardous effluents without adequate treatment or injuries to workers
manufacturing costs, consumables like coolant and machining tools, storage expenses, caused by unsafe working conditions, like the absence of masks during paint-related
outbound shipping costs, and expenditures tied to land or rented warehouses, as well tasks or the lack of safety equipment during welding. Moreover, regular inspections
as government subsidies and taxes. Should I continue discussing both the aspects? take place, and any failure to comply with regulations results in fines.
No, concentrate on the cost side since a rise in cost/bike has been noticed. Certainly, in this instance, the company fully adhered to the standards established by
To assess costs, I'd like to know how many manufacturing plants the company has, and government authorities and regulatory bodies. The situation was simply that Andhra
if all of them experienced cost increases or varying productivity. Pradesh provided us with a subsidy for the first 5 years on the bikes produced in their
plant, and last year, this subsidy concluded, resulting in a rise in the cost per bike. Also,
Presently, the company has 5 manufacturing plants, and the increasing cost is what do you think should a company open up manufacturing plants solely based on
witnessed only in one plant which is situated in Andhra Pradesh. Also the productivity subsidies provided by the state?
of 1 bike/8 seconds remains same across all the 5 plants.
Even though subsidies do help a lot in the expansion it cannot be the only influencing
Focusing on the plant situated in Andhra Pradesh specifically. The expenses related to a factor and this issue needs to be looked upon from a broader perspective taking into
manufacturing plant in this region can be categorized into six primary areas: labor consideration various other factors some of which are the availability of vendors in
costs, maintenance expenses, material costs, both inbound and outbound proximity, proximity to the target market, availability on skilled manpower in the
transportation costs, consumables costs encompassing electricity and miscellaneous region and also the language barriers.
expenditures, and expenditures tied to government regulations and bodies. Would you
like me to explore each of these components in detail? Great understanding, we can close the case here.
Though that is an exhaustive bifurcation, I want you to focus on the expenses related Interviewer
to governmental or regulatory bodies.
Interviewee 22
Profitability (Framework) | Cost reduction (Method) | Moderate (Level)
Two-Wheeler Manufacturer
Profitability • The client is the owner of a Two-Wheeler

manufacturing company that wants to
identify the reasons for decline in profits.
Revenue Costs
Case Facts
Price Customers/
Fixed costs Variable costs
Quantity Sold • The company had 5 manufacturing plants.
• Productivity of 1 Bike/8 Sec is constant
across all plants.
Labor Utilities COGS Costs associated with

Govt/Regulatory Body
Taxes/ Fines/ Subsidies

Penalties

• Rise in cost can also be due to a reduction in incentivization thus increasing the • The problem was state-specific as it was later identified as well,
cost/bike despite all other factors remaining the same. however, if the performance of the competitors was touched upon then
• Costs can also increase if non-compliance is found by any regulatory body. it could have been identified in the beginning and further drill-down
• Various factors other than subsidies should be considered while setting up a would have helped reach the root cause.
plant such as Availability of skilled manpower, Proximity to vendors and target
market etc..
23
Pricing

Pricing (Framework) | Value Based (Method) | Moderate (Level)
Residential complex
Case Statement : Your client is an upcoming builder in Kolkata. He has recently built a Consider profit margins to be 10% of the cost incurred and maintenance charges to be
housing complex & wants to figure out how to price. Help him decide a price. payable annually and thus not included in the pricing of the apartment . The client is
I would like to ask a few clarifying questions first to understand the complex. What expecting to sell 20% of the flats every year in the next 5 years. Assume floor 1-5 to be
kind of a locality is it located in and how crowded is the market in that region? priced 10% higher than 6-10.
The complex is on the outskirts of the city. It is an upcoming region which the client has Our price should be such that it includes cost incurred by the client & profit expected
managed to make headway into before any other builder. out of the project. Considering profit to be 10% of investment made in project. Total
expected revenue = 280 crores. Expected Revenue = number of flats*price/square
Is there any specific reason for choosing this location? feet*square feet. Since some flats are to be priced higher than others, price/square
There are few offices along with metro project announced by State Government feet for floor 1-5 would be 1467 and price/square feet for floor 6-10 would be 1333
connecting the area to main city INR. Since all apartments would not be occupied in first year, we can increase price of
apartment in future to account for growth, improvement in surroundings & inflation.
This would be able to attract people working & people who are willing to travel in
search of cheaper apartments. How many apartments & buildings in the complex? Okay, & what would be the questions you'd consider with regard to competitors?
There are 10 buildings with 100 apartments each. I would find the competitors’ prices and costs in the economy category to gauge their
margins. Moreover, I would compare their offerings with ours to see if they offer
So, 1000 apartments. Okay, Are these segmented into different categories? And if yes, more/less for unit price. I will then price apartment basing competitor as benchmark.
what are the kind of amenities offered by each of the categories?
One to go now. What about value-based costing?
Assume all the apartments fall into the economy category and that the amenities are
at par with the industry standard. Proximity to Metro & office spaces be a reason to add premium to competitor - based
pricing I had discussed earlier, assuming competitors don’t offer this advantage. We
How much has builder invested & what's the gestation period he is comfortable with?
can also look at proxies in other city parts to analyze pricing strategy followed by
The builder has invested 250 crores and expects a 10–12-year gestation period builders. Therefore, I would price apartments at premium above competitors’ prices,
with overall constraint of keeping prices above or equal to cost-based rate that was
Okay, lastly what is the average size of a single apartment?
computed.
A single apartment is on average 2000 square feet.
That’s fair, What would you recommend in this case?
All right. I would like to look at three kinds of pricing and then take a decision on which
Its upcoming region & metro services are not being offered currently, competition &
pricing method to go ahead with. I will look at cost, competitor & value-based pricing.
value-based pricing won't help us much. We should go with cost-based pricing for now.
That sounds reasonable, let’s look at cost-based first in that case
Interviewer
Expected profit margins & maintenance charges/flat, sale schedule & pricing strategy?
Interviewee 25
Residential Complex
• A builder has approached you to know the
Pricing of Apartments price at which he should sell the apartments
in his newly developed housing complex in
Kolkata.
Cost Pricing Competition based Pricing Value based Pricing
Case Facts
• 10 buildings x 100 apartments/ building =
R&D Cost Industry Margins Proximity to 1000 apartments
metro
• Located on the outskirts of Kolkata
• 10–12-year gestation period
Variable Cost Industry Offerings
(lower limits) • Capex = ₹ 250 crores
Upper Price Limit
Expected Profit
margins

• Estimated Gestation period of investment and location are important in • Understand the client’s business and his expectations through clarifying
construction cases. questions before going on with the structure.
• Different flats (products) of the same family/group may be priced differently. • Figure out a way to collate or coalesce the three prices found through
• Price can be increased over time, as value of product increases. the three methods.
26
Pricing (Framework) |Radical Invention (Method) | Moderate (Level)
Light Bulb
Surya electrical company has invented a new bulb that never burns out. It could burn ₹120 Cr. for this light bulb. For a conventional bulb it costs us 4 rupees to manufacture,
for more than 500 years and would never blink. The director of marketing calls you into we sell it to the distributor for 10 rupees, the distributor sells to store owner for INR
her office and asks, “How do you price this.” What would you tell her? 14, and he sells it to the customer for 18 rupees. This light bulb costs ₹400 to
manufacture.
Alright. So, before we figure out the appropriate price for this light bulb, I would like to
ask few questions about our company, product, potential customers & the Ok so if manufacturing cost is 100 times, then accordingly the customer will have to
competition. pay ₹1,800 for one light bulb. On the up-side this is a bulb that will never burn out, so
say people will buy it once for the next 50 years & are essentially paying for 100 bulbs
Go ahead that they would have used in the next 50 years considering a bulb change twice a year.
What is the objective of the company regarding this product? So? Will the customers agree?
To gain as much profits as possible. I do not think so. However, we have spent ₹120 Cr. on the project, and it is a very
useful invention. Let us broaden the scope for the product a little and think more about
Ok. I would like to know more about the product now. Is this a completely new product
the customers. I think various city councils are our customers too as they need to
or has our company/ any other company introduced something similar in the past?
provide lighting for the streets and public places. There may be around 3000
No this is a completely new product that we have developed. streetlamps and another 1000 bulbs at various stations, hospitals etc..
In that case, is the product patented? Ok, what are you proposing?
We have a patent pending, and no one else is trying anything similar. These customers incur an additional expense of maintenance & changing of light bulbs
and maintaining staff for it. If we can sell this product to them, they will save on these
Can you tell me if the product has any disadvantages? Does it use more energy? Or is it harmful
additional costs & will not have to worry about maintenance. Estimating that these
to the customers in any way?
bulbs are available for ₹500 to the city, upon which they need to pay labour charges of
No, it is safe product ready for the market. It also doesn’t use more energy ₹200 each to 2 workers needed to change bulb, it still costs them ₹900 per bulb, twice
a year. We can have a mark-up over this & sell each bulb at ₹4,000 each. They would
I see. I was thinking we could either price the product at a price comparable with the
recover the amount in 2 years, and we can use this price-based costing to get a very
competition or base it on the costs that we have incurred we can also look at the price
good profit. It is important that we make good profit on this product because for every
the consumers might be willing to pay. Since you have mentioned there is no
sale of a new technology-based bulb, we are losing sales for 100 conventional bulbs.
competition, I shall rule that out and focus on what costs we have incurred for this.
Ok go on. Good point , thank you.
So how much have we spent on R&D for this? Interviewer

Interviewee 27
Pricing (Framework) | Radical Invention (Method) | Moderate (Level)
Light Bulb
• Surya electrical company, has invented a new
Pricing a Product bulb that could burn for more than 500 years
without blinking.
Modification to Similar to other Pricing w.r.t. Case Facts

Radical Invention
existing product products other products
• The invented light bulb lasts for 500 years.
• No threat of competition in the near future.
Value Method • R&D cost = ₹120 Cr
Cost Method
(Upper limit) • Conventional bulb costs ₹4 to manufacture.
• The new bulb costs ₹400 to manufacture.
R&D Cost
Variable Cost
(Lower limit)

• Since manufacturing cost is 100 times that of conventional bulb, customers • Sense check pricing by cost methods using the value methods (will
would ideally have to pay ₹400 for us to recoup costs. This is improbable as customers pay that price for the product).
customers would not shell out huge amount for a bulb & longevity benefits are • Look for alternative markets/customers when cost-based pricing too
difficult to be perceived. high for traditional customer.
• Though this innovation is useful for public places where additional staff is
required for maintenance. A long-life bulb in such areas would be useful as
maintenance costs would be largely reduced.
28
Airplane Company
Your client is an airline company. It has bought 2 new airplanes that would cover the Okay, you have done segmentation. We are a consulting firm take an example that our
distance between New Delhi to New York and back. Form a pricing strategy for it. MD wants to go to NY. Do the pricing.
What is existing capability of the airline company – was there an earlier flight available Could you tell me one day’s salary of a MD
from ND to NY?
For one day, his salary is INR 2 Lakh.
No, first time.
What is the total cost of the flight (one way) per seat?
What is the difference in the engine?
The cost of each seat for a one-way flight (both fixed and variable cost included) is INR
It is of the latest technology and is very fast.
35000
What is the amount of time required (flight time) for the flight from ND to NY?
Okay, so the price of each seat should be INR Two Lakh and Thirty-Five Thousand
Normally, 24 hours are required but these planes would cover the distance in 1 hour.
This is not the right approach. You are missing a big part. Should you consider the
To price them, we can use three methodologies. First, cost based for which I would salary as the saving or something else?
need financial data, depreciation, etc..
What is the amount he would be saving for the company if he goes there?.
Choose another method.
He is solving an issue for the company and if he goes there the company gets INR 3
Second, would be by evaluating if there are any alternate ways? Lakh. What is the upper and lower limit of the price that you would quote?
No, there is no other way to cover the route in an hour. 2 Lakh would be the lower limit and 3,35,000 would be the upper limit (willingness to
Okay, the third method would be value-based (value-use pricing). pay)
What all values would you consider? What would be the price? Closer to 2 Lakh or closer to WTP?
I would consider time saving, service like food & drinks, comfort, behavior of staff, etc.. Since this is starting new, the price per seat should be closer to 2 Lakh rupees.
Focus on the time saving factor. Okay, thank you.
Okay, so for the amount that you save in terms of time = time you save*value per hour
= (24-1) hrs. = 23 hrs. What would be the value per hour?
To find value per time, do customer segmentation.
Since this is a high value price ticket, I would consider only special people such as Interviewer
business class, higher end corporates, government officials and celebrities Interviewee 29
Airplane Company
• Your client is an airline company. It has
Pricing bought 2 new airplanes that would cover the
distance between New Delhi to New York and
back. Form a pricing strategy for it.
Cost based Alternatives Value-based
Case Facts
Cost
• Client is an airplane company that has
purchased 2 new planes.
Food/Drinks
Value/time
• Value proposition: Covers the same
distance in 1 hour which is covered in 24
Time Saving
hours normally.
Time Saved • To find value per unit time, do customer
Comfort
segmentation.
Behavior

• Ensure whether there is an existing capability • Consider factors like prices of competitors along the same route.
• Check about the value the new product/service offers • Value proposition of significantly reduced price as a determinant of the
• Follow the cost, competition & value-based pricing framework pricing strategy could have been considered.
30
Pricing (Framework) | NPV (Method) | Moderate (Level)
Coal Mine
So, a friend of mine has an opportunity to invest in a coal mine in China. What would It is because the technology is very old & inefficient. Also, in the NPV calculation, it
you tell him? seems you have considered infinite time of operation. Is that correct?
I would first like to know what are the objectives to buy this coal mine? Sorry, I forgot to consider the fact that the coal reserves may get exhausted. So, to
calculate the number of years the operations can continue, we need to divide the total
Just wealth creation. We would like to maximize wealth. No other objectives. tons of coal by our annual production.
So, what is the price which is being asked for the coal mine? We know that the mine is 300m x 180m x 20m in dimensions & you can assume the
We need to give them a price. What should be the price we offer them? density of coal to be 700kg per cubic meter.
So, we can value the project by calculating the returns we get from the project by The total amount of coal comes out to be 756,000 tons. So, it should last well over
discounting the cash flows we receive from the project. In order to do that we need to 1000 years at current levels of production.
calculate the revenues we are able to earn from the mine each year. So, could you Suppose we increase our current levels of production to 4 times by investing in new
tell me whether the mine is operational, else we will need to approach the machinery, how will the NPV change?
problem differently.
The increase in annual production volumes by 4 times will lead to 4 times revenue each
The mine is operational already. We don’t need to worry about the operational year. But our operations will last for one fourth the previous timespan, which is still
aspects. over 250 years.
We can calculate the revenue of coal in a year as the volume of coal mined in a year
You forgot to include the machinery cost in the formula. But, the rest is correct. That’ll
multiplied by the price. Do we have any data about how much coal we produce
be all.
annually?
We produce 600 tons of coal per year. How would you figure out the price per ton?
The price of coal depends on several factors which affect its quality like moisture
content, carbon content & so on. First, we need to figure out the quality of our coal.
Then for a specific quality of coal, we can set prices similar to our competitors. Also,
there is publicly available data which indicates at what price a specific quality of coal
sells at. We can set our price in that way.
Public data is not always available. Assume the price to 7000 Rs. per ton. Can you
calculate the returns? What are your observations?
The returns seem less for a coal mine. As far as I know, a lot more volume is generally Interviewer
produced. Is there any reason why we are producing just 600 tons? Interviewee 31
Pricing (Framework) | NPV (Method) | Moderate (Level)
Coal Mine
• Determination of pricing for a coal mine in
NPV Calculation China.
Initial Investment Annual Profit

Case Facts
• Objective behind purchase of coal mine is
Revenue Operational Cost wealth creation.
• Coal mine is operational producing 600 tons
of coal annually.
Weight Price per tons
Volume Density

• Use Discounted Cash Flow method. • Interviewer was testing technical soundness, it’s important to take a
• Provide your rationale behind choosing a certain discounting factor. moment to pause and think when overwhelmed with such cases.
• Factor in all components of DCF.
32
Pricing (Framework) | Value Based (Method) | Easy (Level)
Toll Collection
Your client is an infrastructure company which has just built a new road. You need to Sounds fair. How will you value the time savings?
help them find the right amount of toll to charge for each vehicle which uses the road.
So, we know that the time savings are 30 minutes. Different segments of consumers
That sounds interesting. I would like to know a bit more about the road which the value their time differently. For example, lower income classes are perhaps not that
company has built. Where is it located? Is it an alternative route or it the repaired affected by time savings when compared to upper income classes. We should consider
version of an older route? implementing a price discrimination mechanism, such as charging different tolls to
You can assume that the road connects two Indian cities, which were previously only different vehicle categories after doing surveys.
connected by a single bridge. The road is an alternative to the old bridge. Okay, can you arrive at the rupee amount any consumer ascribes to their time without
I have a couple of questions about the differences between the two routes for doing surveys?
potential users before I begin my analysis. Does the new road reduce the travel time Well, there are a couple of creative ways. We could look at the amount customers are
between the two cities? Is the build quality of the two roads different? willing to pay to skip queues for services which allow skipping them for a premium.
Yes, the new road reduces travel time by 30 minutes, even though it is a longer Apart from this, we can look at the extra charge that customers play on delivery apps
distance to travel. The build quality is the same as the old road. to get a guaranteed delivery time.
Alright, great. There are three possible ways to choose a toll to charge. The first is by Okay, those are definitely some interesting options. It was nice interacting with you.
choosing a time period in which we want to earn back our initial investment. For this, Let’s close the case here.
we will divide our costs by the projected demand in the given time period to get the
minimum required toll price. The second method is to look at the toll prices charged by
other builders. We can record the prices at toll plazas connecting the same cities to
other places, and then given our advantages/disadvantages over them, add a premium
or a discount. The third method is to look at the value which we provide to our
customers and charge an equivalent amount.
Okay, that sounds comprehensive. I am interested in the third method. How would
you price the value which we provide to our customers?
We can provide for value for travelers on three parameters: distance, time, and
convenience. We are at a disadvantage in the first parameter. We can use the extra
fuel charge as a proxy.
Interviewer
Interviewee 33
Pricing (Framework) | Value Based (Method) | Easy (Level)
Toll Collection
• An infrastructure company is trying to set a
Pricing poll charge for its new road, which has a time
saving of 30 minutes.
• Road requires travelers to cover long
Cost based Competitor Based Value based distance.
Advantages Distance Case Facts

• The interviewer mentioned that he was
Disadvantages Time looking for creativity.
• It was also explained that there would be no
Convenience numbers in the round.

• Ensure whether there is an existing capability. • The case was supposed to be done without a pen and paper. The
• Tick all boxes of a basic pricing model. interviewer had mentioned that he was looking for a conversation.
• The new road provides significant value to customers by reducing travel time. Thus, it was important to be quick on my feet and not ask for a couple
of minutes to think.
34
Growth

Growth (Framework) | Cost reduction (Method) | Moderate (Level)
Convenience Store at Gas Station
Case Statement : Our client is the owner of a gas station between towns A and B –10 Firstly, I would analyze the current revenue of the gas station. For this, I would need
miles to each town. He is wondering if it would make sense to add a convenience store the population of each town, and the percentage of people that own a vehicle.
to the gas station.
Sure, Assume that there are 1000 people in each town, 80% of the population owns a
I have a few questions about our client, may I go ahead? car. Also let’s assume that 50% of the people buy gas from our client.
Alright so that gives us:
Sure Per town: 1000 * 80% = 800; 800 * 50% = 400
Total: 400 * 2 = 800-person customer base
Are there any other gas stations in town A or B? Who are the typical customers of the
This seems large enough; do we also have frequency of purchase, and dollar value per
gas station like?
purchase data?
There are no other gas stations in town A or B. The gas stations current customers are
The market size calculation seems correct. I also have the other information you need-
residents of town A and B; there are no other customers.
Customers get gas on average 1x/week; Assume 50 weeks/yr and a customer spends
So, just to visualize the problem a bit more, I am assuming it to be a typical gas station $50 each time. Also, Customers make 40% of all gas purchases at the client’s station
with revenue coming from sale of petroleum and maybe some other service?
Sure, I’ll just quickly calculate the profits :
Yes, that’s a valid interpretation. Gas is 75% of revenue with 10% profit margin and the 800 customers * $50 * 50 weeks/year = 2M on gas per year
gas station also offers car washes with 25% of revenue and a 20% profit margin 2M * 40% of purchases made at client = $800K client revenue
75% of revenue is gas: $800K * 75% = $600K * 10% profit margin = $60K profit from
Finally, I would like to ask what would be a valid criterion for the decision to make
gas
sense? Is the client targeting certain revenue numbers or profitability?
25% of revenue is other: $800K * 25% = $200K * 20% profit margin = $40K profit from
That’s an excellent question! So, the Criteria for “making sense” – 1) making profit, 2) car washes
having a better chance to hold off new competitors enter the market, 3) diversifying $60K + $40K = $100K profit per year
income Do we have information on the expected revenues from the new convenience store?
Do we expect it to attract more customers, apart from the existing gas customers?
I have come up with a structure for my analysis; Firstly, I’ll analyze the decision based
on financial factors, whether the convenience store provides incremental profits. Then Good question! Gasoline customers will spend an additional $20 at the convenience
I’ll jump into the nonfinancial factors like holding off competitors, realizing synergies store per purchase but will not increase frequency of purchases. Also, 50% of town
and diversifying risks. population who currently are not customers (the remaining 1200 non-customers, not
just the 80% car owners) will spend $5 per week at the convenience store.
Alright, your structure seems exhaustive, go on, let’s analyze the project from financial
perspective. Interviewer
Interviewee 36
Alright, so that gives us: For nonfinancial factors, I’ll split my analysis into the following factors: Current
Revenue – existing customers: and new customers, Competition and others. So, in terms of current customers,
800 customers * 50 weeks * 1 purchase/week * 40% purchases made at our gas the convenience store provides higher revenue, may increase visit frequency
station =16K total purchases and better experience. However, it may increase the wait times. In terms of
16K purchases * $20 = $320K additional revenue new customers, It provides conversion opportunities into gasoline customers. It
Revenue – new customers: 1200 non-customers * 50% * $5 per week * 50 also has the potential to attract customers from other cities.
weeks = $150K Total revenue: $320 + $150 = $470K
From a competitive aspect, it becomes important to look at other similar offerings and
Do we also have cost information?
differentiate the service and experience. In terms of other factors, We can consider the
Recurring costs for convenience store are: Labor: $75K/year outside regulations. We can also consider logistic factors like whether there is any
Utilities: $5K/month space to add another store or not. Shall I also think of it from the macro perspective?
COGS: 50% of revenue No, I think you have done a thorough analysis. Let’s end this case. Thank you!
Ignore fixed costs
Okay, so that gives us
Costs:
COGS: $470K revenue * 50% = $235K
Labor: $75K
Utilities: 12 months * $5K = $60K
Profit: $470K - $235K - $75K - $60K = $100K/year
I can see that the convenience store generates profits equivalent to our existing
business. This makes it seem attractive.
Alright, it seems profitable, let’s move on to the nonfinancial factors. What can you
think of?
37
• Client is the owner of a gas station who wants
Profitability to increase profits, competitive advantage
and diversify income with a convenience store
Revenue Costs
Case Facts
Gas Car Wash • Gas is 75% of revenue with 10% profit.
margin; car washes with 25% of revenue and
Fixed costs Variable costs
a 20% profit margin.
• Labor: $75K/year; Utilities: $5K/month;
COGS: 50% of revenue.
Labour Utilities COGS

• The new convenience store will attract new customers as well 50% of town • Including certain operational considerations such as inventory
population who currently are not customers will spend $5 per week at the management and staffing of the convenience store would add more
convenience store. depth to the analysis.
• Customers get gas on average 1x/week; Assume 50 weeks/year and a customer
spends $50 each time.
• Profit: $470K - $235K - $75K - $60K = $100K/year which supports building the
convenience store.
38
Growth (Framework) | Expansion (Method) | Moderate (Level)
Grocery Delivery Platform
Case Statement: Your client is an online food delivery application, something along the I would break up customer interaction into three phases :
lines of Blinkit and is looking to increase the number of Daily Active Users (DAU) for 1) Installation of the app 2)Creating an account on the app
their app. 3) Using the app to place orders
Would that be sufficient?
Thank you for the case. I have some clarifying questions about our client, may I go
ahead? Yes, sounds good. You may go ahead with your analysis.
Yes, sure. Since we are looking to increase the DAU, this can be done by increasing the amount of
time spent by existing users and by attracting new users. Additionally, existing
Can you please exactly define Daily Active Users (DAU) and why our client is specifically customers are unlikely to order groceries daily and new ways of user engagement must
targeting this metric? be devised.
DAU is the total number of people who open and engage with the mobile app on a Those are fair assumptions. You may proceed with your recommendations.
given day and it is being targeted since sales are only made through the app.
Users may be enticed to open the app in two ways. The first is pull mechanism where
So, just to get a bit more clarity about the problem, I am assuming that grocery delivery limited time offers, combo deals, free delivery and happy hours can induce customers
is the sole revenue source and there is no food delivery offered alongside like Swiggy? to open the app at different times during the day. The platform may be equipped with
additional features such as, say, food delivery, games to earn coupons and intra-city
Yes, the client offers only grocery delivery services. courier services. The second is a push mechanism where, by means of frequent app
notifications and alerts, users may be pushed into opening and exploring the app.
Finally, I would like to ask what the current scale and area of operations of the client is
and whether the client is targeting any specific geographies or population where it is That seems quite exhaustive! Can you please elaborate on the push mechanism and on
seeking to increase its DAU? which method would be more suitable for targeting existing users?
The client currently operates primarily in Tier-1 cities with no specific target locations Beginning with the push mechanism, the app may have an in-built predictive feature
or populations as of now. They hope to increase their overall DAU across geographies. which can estimate how long any product sold on the platform is expected to last, and
I have enough information to approach the case now. In order to increase DAUs I a week prior to the expected time of the product getting over, the app can send push
would first like to follow-through with the various steps in the journey of customer notifications reminding users to make the next purchase with the option to repeat the
interaction with the app, right from installation to the use of the app. May I go ahead previous order for added convenience. Both methods are equally suitable for targeting
with that approach? existing customers since they address different concerns, the push mechanism acts as
a reminder and the pull mechanism targets the price-sensitive customer.
Yes, that seems fair enough.
Alright, thank you, we can close the case here.
Interviewer Interviewee
39 39
Grocery Delivery Platform
• Client is the owner of a grocery delivery

Daily Active Users platform who wants to increase the number
of Daily Active Users (DAU) on its app
Download Sign-Up Existing Users
Case Facts
• DAU refers to the number of people who
open and engage with the mobile app on a
Pull Mechanism Push Mechanism
given day.
• DAU is a key metric since all sales are made
through the app.
• Operations currently only in Tier-1 cities.
Intra-City Offers/ Reminders/
Food Delivery
Courier Services Combos/Happy Hours Notifications

• Given that only grocery delivery services are offered as of now, expansion into Try to suggest some newer techniques of attracting existing users which
additional avenues such as food delivery, same-day delivery intra-city courier can add an element of novelty to the solution. Most of the given
services can be a viable expansion option. solutions are already being used by current apps.
• Of the three steps of customer onboarding on the app, primary focus to be on
existing users the number of which can be increased through a pull and a push
mechanism.
40
Bicycle Manufacturer
Case Statement : Your client is a bicycle manufacturer selling the product pan-India and Yes sure, start with telling me how low growth rate of e-bikes will be tackled.
abroad. They are witnessing a growth of 7-8% while the industry is growing at 15-16%.
Sure! To start off, was there any new technology or innovation introduced by
How can they increase the growth more than the industry?
competitors in the industry post which the fall in growth rate was observed?
I would like to understand the objective of our client. When the client is talking about
Yes, competitors introduced a new cruise-mode technology for their e-bikes.
growth, is it the top line or bottom line of the company or some other metric they are
targeting? And what is the expected timeline of achieving this? Alright, so this may be attributed as a reason for the fall in growth rates. To tackle this,
I’d suggest inorganic growth by means of acquiring or partnering with other
Growth refers to sales revenue in INR, and the objective is to increase the sales to
manufacturers with the necessary technical know-how and organic growth by
market level of growth within 1 year.
increasing the revenue per customer and the number of customers.
Okay, since when is the slow growth of 7-8% witnessed?
Great. Can you elaborate on how organic growth may be carried out?
The slow growth has been witnessed for around 2 quarters now.
To increase the number of customers, we begin with estimating the market size. This
Perfect, may I know the range of products offered by the company and where in the can be done through customer segmentation which can be done by identifying users
value chain does our client lie? who visit the website to search for bicycles, and further segment the customers
searching for e-bikes with similar features as our product. This segment may be further
Yes, good question. The major product offerings are e-bicycles suited to various
grouped based on age, gender and regions. To increase revenue per customer, feature
terrains as well as regular mountain and road bicycles and the client is involved in
enhancement through R&D and partnerships with foreign brands for knowledge-
manufacturing & distribution through dealers.
sharing may be forged. Lastly, customer outreach and brand awareness can be built
Is the 7-8% growth constant across all regions or is growth slow for any specific region? through aggressive marketing such as digital interactions with experts on aggregator
And how do the growth figures for different segments compare with the industry rate? websites, client’s website, social media influencers and trade expos.
The growth is similar across all regions with e-bikes growing at 6% vs 12% for the And can you give me one way by which low growth rate for road bikes can be tackled?
industry, mountain bikes at 18% vs 18% for industry and road bikes at 7% vs 7%.
Sure, do we know the market share of the client in the road bikes segment?
At this stage I understand that e-bikes are growing slower than the industry average
Yes, that would be 60%.
while the other two segments are at par with the industry. To further narrow down on
the solution, may I have the revenue split across different bicycle segments? Alright, since our client holds the majority market share and the entire industry is
experiencing low growth, factors such as absence of roads/infrastructure conducive to
Yes, that would be 30% for e-bikes, 20% for mountain bikes and 50% for road bikes.
road bikes may be a probable reason in which case tie ups with state governments to
From the data provided I can deduce 2 reasons for low growth compared to industry. enforce rules for cyclists’ convenience can be helpful.
First, the low growth rate of e-bikes and second the low industry and firm growth rate
Great! That would be it! We can wrap up the case here.
but high revenue share of road bikes. Which of these would you want me to start with?
Interviewer 41
Interviewee 41
Bicycle Manufacturer
Revenues
• Client is a bicycle manufacturer who wants to
increase company growth rate beyond the
industry growth rate
Road Bikes Mountain Bikes E-Bikes Case Facts
• Growth referred to in the case implies growth
in sales revenue (INR) and this growth is to be
Organic Inorganic achieved within a year.
• Product Offerings (Revenue split in
Acquiring/ parentheses) - Road bikes (50%), Mountain
Number of Customers Revenue Per Customer Partnering with bikes (20%), E-bikes (30%)
Manufacturers • Competitors introduced new cruise-mode
technology in bikes
Market Share Market Size Feature Road Bikes Mountain Bikes E-Bikes
Enhancement
Brand through R&D Industry Growth 7% 18% 12%
Awareness
Firm Growth 7% 18% 6%

• Low growth of firm due to two reasons; first, low growth of e-bikes vis-à-vis • Methods to increase the market size and market share could be further
industry and second, low growth rate (both firm and industry) of road bikes elaborated upon such as exploring new geographies, improving sales
despite a high revenue share. and distribution channels or identifying new customer segments. These
• To tackle the former, M&A with manufacturers that have necessary know-how solutions would have more observable results vis-à-vis solutions such as
or increasing number of customers through marketing programs. Revenue per enhancing brand awareness which albeit efficient, cannot be observed
customer can be increased through enhanced R&D spends to improve features. easily.
• For the latter, a focus on improvement of cycling infrastructure through
government partnerships can be useful. 42
Growth (Framework) | New Business (Method) | Difficult (Level)
Wind Energy Company
Case Statement: Your client is an Indian wind energy generation company looking to in a location where water sources are expected to dry up. Water can then be sourced
increase their revenues. Suggest a growth strategy for them. from coastal areas of current operation and purified in our plants.
I would like to start with some preliminary questions. What business exactly is our client Perfect. Our team carried out a similar analysis and they have identified Chennai as one
into & in what geographies does it operate? Have they set a growth target? such location. Can you help us size the demand from hospitals in Chennai?
The client operates in the generation and distribution of electricity produced by Should I look at sizing by value?
windmills. They operate in coastal regions of India & want to grow 5x in next 10 years. Yes, by value. Assume hospitals buy from the client at Rs.10,000/ kL.
Alright, so there are two options to increase sales i.e. expanding existing business or I’ll segment demand by hospital type which can be small clinics or large hospitals (taking
exploring new business. Within existing business, we can increase volume or price and a 7:1 ratio). Assuming 1 hospital per sq. km of area of Chennai (area = approx. 400 sq.
within new business we can consider mergers and acquisitions, entering new km). I assume larger hospitals have a water demand 25x of that of smaller clinics due to
geographical markets or introducing an entirely new product. more capacity. I also assume distilled water demand for small clinics =1 kL/day, and thus
That is right. Let’s say the client wants to explore new businesses. for large hospitals =25 kL/day. This translates to a revenue of Rs 1.6 cr. This market size
seems extremely lucrative.
To understand this option better, we can create a 2x2 matrix of new and existing
businesses and new and existing products. Do we have any information about the Sounds reasonable. Once the water dries up, what alternative sources can be possible?
company’s expansion plans? We can look at rainwater harvesting, sourcing water from locations near Chennai,
Yes, the client wants to enter a new business of water distillation. They want to setup groundwater from nearby forests and sea water from nearby coastal towns.
distillation plants to supply water to hospitals and battery manufacturing companies. Can you list down the costs which will be incurred in distilling seawater?
Interesting. So, if I understand correctly, client will source water from the water bodies, Costs can be divided as fixed & variable. Fixed costs involve infrastructure costs i.e.
purify it in its own plants and supply it further to individual companies. setting up of pipelines, purification plants, licensing costs, insurance costs, salaries.
Variable costs will be operational costs, maintenance costs, wastage and theft costs.
That’s right. How would you identify a good geographical location to start this business?
What costs would be included in operational cost and what would they depend upon?
I would analyze the different locations preferably close to our energy generation plants
(energy source) along the coastline (water source) and choose the ones where there is The operations cost would include the utilities costs like running pumps and power
no formally established network of distilled water suppliers and where the concentration houses to source water and supply it to different locations in Chennai and cost of running
of battery manufacturing companies and hospitals is high. I would also look at the purification plants. The operation costs would depend upon the quality and efficiency of
quantum of demand of these companies and regulatory requirements. pumps used, the geographical spread of hospitals catered to, and the mode of
distribution used i.e. whether through pipelines or in the form of pre-packaged water.
Why don’t you think from the perspective of demand in the future?
Alright! Good analysis. That would be it.
From a future perspective, I would benefit by setting up plants and sourcing network 43
Interviewer Interviewee
Growth (Framework) | New Business (Method) | Difficult (Level)
Wind Energy Company
Sales Growth • Client is an Indian wind energy generation
company looking to increase its revenues by
New Businesses Existing Businesses expanding into a new business of water
distillation.
New Market New Product Mergers and Acquisitions Increase Price Increase Volume
Case Facts
Products Calculations:
New Existing Selling price of distilled water = Rs. 10,000/kL • Client operates in coastal towns of India.
Approx. area of Chennai = 400 sq. km. • Distilled water will be supplied to hospitals
Existing
Number of small to large hospitals ratio = 7:1

Businesses
Modification Penetration and battery manufacturing plants.

Assumptions –
• 1 hospital per sq. km. of area • Chennai identified as a potential city for
New
Diversification Expansion • Small clinic water demand = 1 kL entry into distilled water supply to hospitals.
• Large hospital water demand = 25 kL
Total Water Demand = (7/8)*400*1 + (1/8)*400*25 = 1600 kL
Total Revenue = 1600*10,000 = Rs. 1.6 cr

• Client is involved in purification of water and further supplying it to • Expansion through mergers and acquisitions could have been explored.
hospitals/battery manufacturers. These plants can be located close to existing • Regulatory hurdles and environmental clearance requirements could be
wind energy plants to optimize costs and also close to hubs of battery looked into.
manufacturing along the coastline.
• Alternately, plants may be in areas where water supply is expected to dry up. In
such a situation water may be sourced through rainwater harvesting, nearby
coastal towns or groundwater.
44
Growth (Framework) | Market Penetration (Method) | Moderate (Level)
Home Furnishing Chain
Case Statement : Your client is a furniture and home decor chain looking to grow their That looks comprehensive. Please proceed.
revenues. How would you advise them?
To improve revenue, we can improve all these factors after an analysis on customer
Thank you for the case. So apart from revenue growth are there other objectives? behavior. The customer journey includes Need, Awareness, Affordability, Accessibility,
Experience, and After Sales. Under Need and Awareness, we can take up marketing
No, you can assume the client wants to grow revenue from its stores in Delhi. initiatives such as advertisements, social media, and word of mouth publicity to draw
Sure, I have some questions. Is there a numerical growth target and a time horizon? people to our store. We could make our products/services affordable to capture
maximum market share. Under Accessibility, we can look at ways to expand the
We want to achieve the best revenue growth possible in a 6-12 month time horizon. population catered to by making our store more reachable. We could also explore online
Do we know the pace at which the industry is growing and what our historical growth sales and home delivery to expand the geographical reach of the stores.
rate is? Do I need to keep any budgetary constraints in mind? Great; How would you increase frequency /bill amount?
Those would not be relevant. For that, we look at Experience and After Sales since that increases customer loyalty.
And finally, can you tell me a bit about our products/services? Whether we deliver or Under Experience, I would target 4 senses: Sight, Smell, Touch and Auditory. By making
sell online in addition to store sales? Who are our main customers? store visually pleasing– with furniture arranged in organized manner, say room-wise, and
an easy set of directions to navigate the store and find products, we can achieve growth.
Yes, we are like a regular home decor/furnishing chain like a Homecentre or a
With soothing music & room fresheners, we can make it a pleasant experience to ensure
Homestop and sell similar products. Currently, we only have in-store sales, and most of
customers visit more often and stay longer. Under touch, we can look at fabrics
our customers are residents in the neighborhood.
& materials used. Under After sales, I would look at billing experience, navigating out of
Thank you, sir. May I take a minute to structure my approach before proceeding? the store, & customer complaint redressal.
Sure. Take your time. That's great. You talked about increasing average price of an item. How'd it be done?
Thank you, sir. I will break-down revenue into its various components and factors and Sure. Can you give me some information about our product mix? What percentage of our
then think from the point of view of a customer to determine how to influence products are our private labels and what are resale?
revenue by influencing those factors. Does that sound like a good approach?
Good question. Currently, 20% of our sales are from our own labels, and rest is resale.
Yes, please proceed.
Interesting. I suppose we earn a smaller margin on resale compared to our private labels.
Thank you. I have broken down revenue into no. of billings and avg. revenue per bill. I We can try increasing the proportion of private labels. we can do this by training our Sales
have further broken down no. of billings into no. of customers and customer visit staff to push customers to these labels, shelf these labels at more accessible and visible
frequency. No. of customers is broken down into local population size (our customers places in the store, and providing them at attractive prices and best quality.
are neighborhood residents) and market share. Average revenue per bill is broken
That's great. We can close the case here. Well done!
down as avg. no. of items purchased and the average price of an item purchased.
Interviewer Interviewee 45
Growth (Framework) | Market Penetration (Method) | Moderate (Level)
Home Furnishing Chain
Revenue
• Client is a Home Furnishing Chain which wants
to expand its revenues. Methods to increase
revenues within 6-12 months have to be
No. of Billings Avg. Revenue per Billing suggested.
Case Facts
Number of Frequency of Avg. No. of Items Avg. Price of Item
Customers Purchase Purchased Purchased • Expansion of revenues targeted in stores
located in Delhi.
Local Market • Only in-store sales and customers are
Population Share residents in the neighborhood.
Size
• Company is a home décor/furnishing chain
like Homecentre of Homestop.
Need Awareness Affordability Accessibility Experience After Sales • 20% of sales from own labels and 80% from
resale.
Advertisements, Social Media, Store Reachability, Online Sight, Smell, Billing Experience,
Word of Mouth Sales, Home Delivery Touch, Auditory Complaint Redressal

• Solutions approached from an angle of steps in the customer journey. • The solution was started off which a focus on increasing the number
• Need and awareness can be generated through advertisements, social media of customers which is an expensive and time-consuming process since
and word of mouth. we know that customer acquisition costs are high.
• Accessibility can be enhanced by introducing online sales and home delivery. • The solution should have ideally started with a focus on increasing
• Customer experience can be elevated with pleasant sensory stimuli and a average revenue per customer which was suggested later. This would
smooth billing and complaint redressal mechanism. have allowed for an immediate increase in revenues given the short
• Company can increase proportion of sales of own label items in overall sales. time span in which the growth has to be achieved.
46
Market Entry

Market Entry (Framework) | Partnerships (Method) | Moderate (Level)
Healthcare Test Kit Manufacturer
Case Statement : Your client is an Australian Healthcare test kit manufacturer which has Let’s assume the client wants to go ahead with the Greenfield option. What are the
decided to enter the Indian market. You have been hired to advise them on the mode of initial strategies you would recommend to gain the market share?
entry and pricing strategies.
I would like to know more about the client. What sort of healthcare test kits does it The client can partner with big hospital and laboratory chains across the country to start
manufacture and what are the key customer segments? with. This will help in achieving sustainable revenue streams. Once this is done, then the
focus can be shifted to independent labs across the country. As is common with the
The company makes basic healthcare tests which are used for testing blood sugar levels pharma industry, the pharmaceutical sales representatives (PSR) generally help create
in labs. The kits can be used by lab technicians only and hence the key customers are awareness about the product. The client should focus on developing a dedicated on-
pathology labs. ground sales force for the kits.
Using retail as a proxy for healthcare, the value chain for the kits would be, that the test Good insight into the PSR part. Moving on to the pricing aspect. How should the client
kits are sent to distributors who then sell it retail outlets. How is the company price these test kits?
performing in Australia? Are they present in any other country? Also, what is the
objective for entering into the Indian market? The client has three pricing options: competitive pricing to match the market leader, cost
plus margin pricing assuming similar manufacturing costs, and value-based pricing tied to
You are correct in your assumption of the value chain. The company is the market leader product attributes. Given product similarity to the market leader, the client should
of these test kits in Australia with a 65% market share. They are currently not present in initially adopt cost plus margin pricing, adjusting over time as the product evolves.
any other country. The main objective of deciding to enter the Indian market is business
expansion. The company aims to stabilize operations and turn profitable in the next 2-3 That is a quite comprehensive coverage of the types of pricing. Before we close the case I
years. want to hear your thoughts on the target market share for the client.
That seems like a reasonable objective given its position as the market leader in the To determine the target market share, three approaches can be considered:
Australian market. I would now like to know about the healthcare test market in India. benchmarking against the industry leader's initial market share, but adjusted for industry
How many players are there and what is the market share of the current market leader? factors, using own experience (limited due to differing markets), and estimating demand
based on the total number of path-labs in the country and their average test volumes
There is one major player in the Indian Healthcare Test kit industry that has a
while considering rural and urban variations.
technologically similar product as your client. The rest of the market is made up of small
fragmented players.
Ok, I think I have sufficient data to begin my preliminary assessment. For entering a new
market, they have two options: Greenfield and Brownfield. With the Greenfield option
they can enter the Indian market from scratch. This would involve setting up operations Interviewer
of the company. While in Brownfield another company can be acquired.
Interviewee 48
Healthcare Test Kit Manufacturer
• Client is an Australian Healthcare test kit
How to enter?
manufacturer which has decided to enter the
Indian market. Market entry and pricing
Brownfield Greenfield strategy has to be suggested
Case Facts
Acquire market Acquire independent Set-up manufacturing
Import and sell • Australian company (65% market share)
leader players facilities
which manufactures healthcare test kits, has
Partnership with large Targeting individual decided to enter the Indian market
hospital and path-lab chains path labs through MRs • The Indian market has a market leader (70%),
and the remaining part is largely fragmented
Pricing • The company has decided to enter via the
Greenfield option
Benchmarking with Value based pricing • The client’s product is technologically similar
Cost plus margin
the competition to the market leader’s product.

• The client can partner with big hospital and laboratory chains across the • Short term: a) Create a handbook/ manual with technical specifications
country to start with. This will help in achieving sustainable revenue streams. of all the products for sales personnel, so that it becomes easier for
Once this is done, then the focus can be shifted to independent labs across them to explain the
the country • Long term: a) Provide training to the employees on how to deal with
• Three pricing strategies have been suggested. The target market share can be large scale clients.
obtained by benchmarking against the competitors and also based on the
market share that the company had during the initial years of operation
49
European Shipping Company Entry into India
Case Statement : Your client is a shipping corporation from Europe that might go into In order to access their networks and knowledge, the company would collaborate with
business in India. It is your responsibility to advise whether to enter the market and, if reputable Indian logistics companies and shipping firms. For instance, the business might
you do, to create a plan for doing so. collaborate with an Indian business to offer last-mile delivery services. To assist its clients
in navigating the challenging customs clearance procedure, the business might also
I want to start by learning about the present business strategy and objectives of the collaborate with Indian customs brokers.
European shipping company as it prepares to join the Indian market.
Okay Good, Can you tell me a bit more about the target customer segments as well?
One of the top companies offering container shipping services in the European shipping The business would concentrate on pursuing customer segments, like big exporters and
company. Europe is connected to other global markets by a robust network of ports and importers of expensive and urgent goods like prescription drugs and electronics. The
ships. In order to benefit from the expanding trade and economy of India, the company business may also focus on sectors, like the fashion and automotive industries, which is
is seeking to enter the market there. Within five years, the company wants to take 10% big in India.
of the Indian shipping market. For Indian clients, the business would emphasize its value proposition, which includes its
extensive global network, dependable services, and affordable prices. Additionally, the
Can you give me some information more about the Indian Shipping market?
business might provide value-added services like customs clearance and cargo insurance.
The shipping industry in India is sizable and expanding. By 2030, the nation's economy is The value proposition offered by the company is especially appealing to Indian clients
predicted to rank third in the world. Over the next five years, the $20 billion Indian who want to export their products to Europe and other international markets.
shipping market is predicted to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 10%. Do you think the company would be able to make a name for itself in the Indian market?
That seems like a reasonable objective given its position in the European market. How Yes, In order to increase awareness of its brand and services, the company would
many players are there and what is the market share of the current market leader? establish a strong marketing and sales presence in India. The business could establish a
robust web presence in addition to taking part in trade exhibitions and events for the
There are several well-established domestic and foreign players in the fiercely industry. The business may also choose to bring on seasoned salespeople with in-depth
competitive Indian shipping market. The business will also have to deal with difficult knowledge of the Indian shipping industry.
infrastructure issues and complicated government regulations. In the Indian shipping
market, Maersk, CMA CGM, and MSC are the main rivals. How can the company measure its success?
I would now advise the European shipping company to enter the Indian market based on The following crucial metrics could be used by the European shipping company to assess
my knowledge of the company's business plan, its objectives for doing so, and the the effectiveness of its market entry strategy:
opportunities and difficulties that exist there. Over time, the business would monitor its portion of the Indian shipping industry. Within
five years, the company wants to take 10% of the market
Interviewer
Good. Would you kindly take me through your market entry plan in greater detail? Over time, the business would monitor its profitability in the Indian market. The target
return on investment (ROI) for the company would be 15% or more. Interviewee
European Shipping Company Entry into India
Entry Strategy
• Client is a shipping corporation from Europe
that might go into business in India. The
Targeted customer Market Entry Strategy has to be considered
Partnerships Value Proposition Marketing and Sales for this idea
segments
Indian Logistics Automotives & Cargo Insurance and Case Facts
Industry Trade Shows
Companies Fashion Customs Clearance
• The European Shipping Company wishes to
Indian Customs Electronics & Global Network & Experienced sales enter the Indian Market and within five years,
Brokers Medicines Reliable Rates professionals the company wants to take 10% of the Indian
shipping market.
Challenges Measuring Success • $20 billion Indian shipping market is predicted
to expand at a CAGR of 10%.
Government
Market Share • The business will also have to deal with
Regulations
difficult infrastructure issues and complicated
Infrastructure government regulations.
Profitability
Challenges

• The client can partner with Indian logistics companies and shipping firms to • Short term: Acquire some of the small regional shipping companies if
enter the Indian market easily. The business might also collaborate with the European Company has access to large amounts of funds.
Indian customs brokers. The target customer segments have also been
mentioned and the marketing option has also been mentioned • Long term: Partner with the Indian Government to take Government
• Two metrics of measuring success have also been mentioned in the end in Contracts and negotiate low licensing and docking fees. Long-term
order to allow the company to measure its success.
51
Market Entry (Framework) | Organic (Method) | Easy (Level)
Indian Food Manufacturer Entering Burger Bun Market
I believe I understand the issue at hand fairly well. My analysis can be divided into three
Case Statement: Your client is an Indian manufacturer of bread mixes that is planning on
main categories: financial feasibility, operational viability, and market attractiveness. I
expanding its product line to burger mixes. It is your responsibility to advise whether to
would consider the market's size and characteristics, like its competitiveness and
enter the market and, if you do, to create a plan for doing so.
capturable market share when determining how attractive a market is. I would examine
pre-entry factors and market entry strategies under operational viability. Lastly, to
Can you tell me a bit more about the market size and growth potential of the burger mix determine whether we can successfully break even, I would consider the various cost
market in India? and revenue streams.
The Indian burger mix market is estimated to be worth $100 million in 2023 and is Okay Good, I have some follow-up questions. What are expected revenues of the
expected to grow at a CAGR of 15% over the next five years company
Within five years, the client wants to capture 5% of the Indian burger mix market. Sales
What are some of the key trends driving the growth of the burger mix market in India?
would amount to $11.8 million as a result.
The following are some of the major factors propelling the Indian burger mix market's What is a reasonable marketing and advertising budget for the client?
expansion:
The client could spend 5% of its sales on marketing and advertising or $590,000 per year
• A move toward natural and healthier ingredients
• Growing demand for specialty and gourmet burger mixes Okay. Can you also tell me the key financial metrics, the company would be expecting in
• Growing consumer interest in vegan and gluten-free burger mixes 2028? Assume any margins you want
• Growing acceptance of high-end burger mixes
Considering a CAGR of 15% and a market share of 5%, the company can expect these
financial metrics –
Can you give me some more info about the competitive landscape for the burger mix
Sales in 2028: $11.8 million
market in India?
Assuming a 10% Net Profit Margin – Profit in 2028: $1.18 million
Assuming a 30% Gross Profit Margin – Profit in 2028: $3.54 million
The Indian burger mix market is dominated by a few large players, such as ITC, Britannia,
and Nestle. However, there are also several smaller players and emerging brands that
are competing in the market.
Okay I am satisfied with the answers, we can close the case now
What is the client's target market share?
The client could spend 5% of its sales on marketing and advertising, or $590,000 per Interviewer
year.
Interviewee
Indian Food Manufacturer Entering Burger Bun Market
Entry Strategy
• Client is an Indian manufacturer of bread
mixes that is planning on expanding its
Operational Market product line to burger mixes. Advise whether
Financial Feasibility Risks to enter the market or not
Viability Attractiveness
Pre-Entry
Market
Case Facts
Sales Revenue Market Share
Conditions
• The Indian burger mix market is dominated by
Gross Profit a few large players, such as ITC, Britannia, and
Mode of Entry Market Size Financial
Margin Nestle. However, there are also several
smaller players and emerging brands that are
Net Profit Margin Competition Operational competing in the market.
• The Indian burger mix market is estimated to
be worth $100 million in 2023 and is expected
to grow at a CAGR of 15% over the next five-
year, the company expecting to have a 5%
share.

• The client can look at three factors when considering entry into a new • To be successful, the client should focus on developing high-quality,
product mix - financial feasibility, operational viability, and market convenient, and affordable burger mixes that capitalize on the key
attractiveness trends in the market.
• The expected Financial Metrics of the company have also been provided • The client should also develop a strong marketing and sales strategy
assuming the information provided by the interviewer and various other that targets the right customer segments and communicates the
factors have been assumed benefits of its burger mixes
53
Market Entry (Framework) | Dealerships (Method) | Difficult (Level)
Luxury Car manufacturer looking to enter the Indian market
Case Statement: A high-end vehicle manufacturer hoping to break into the Indian market Realizing the value of building a brand and acquiring customers in a new market, the
is your client. The growing middle class, expanding economy, and rising demand for client has set aside a sizeable budget for marketing and sales in India.
luxury goods in India have led them to recognize the country as a potential market for
I believe Notwithstanding its allure, India poses certain obstacles for the manufacturer,
their products. They are conscious of the difficulties that come with breaking into a new
such as:
market, though, including figuring out local customer preferences, navigating the legal
1. Indian customers are typically price-conscious, even when it comes to luxury goods.
system, and building a reliable distribution network. They've asked you to assist them in
2. Tight Competition: There are already many well-established players in the Indian
creating an India market entry plan.
luxury car market.
In order to better understand their aims and objectives, I would like to pose a few 3. Complex Regulatory Environment: For foreign businesses, navigating India's regulatory
preliminary questions. landscape can be difficult.
Okay Good, How do you think they can enter the Indian market then.
Yes sure, please go ahead.
They can follow the following steps to enter the Indian Market :-
What is the specific timeframe for entering the Indian market? 1. Market Assessment and Segmentation - Understand the buying habits, preferences,
and aspirations of Indian luxury car buyers. Identify their key decision-making factors
The client wants to enter the Indian market within the next five years.
and their perception of luxury brands.
What is the client's desired market share in India? 2. Product Strategy and Positioning - Tailor the product portfolio to suit Indian
consumer preferences and price it competitively.
The client aims to capture a 10% market share in the Indian luxury car market within the 3. Distribution and Retail Strategy - Set up exclusive dealerships in key cities across
next decade. India. Design dealerships that reflect the brand's premium image and provide an
exceptional customer experience.
What is the client's target customer segment in India? 4. Marketing and Sales Strategy - Create targeted marketing campaigns that resonate
High net worth individuals in India who have a penchant for high-performance cars and a with Indian luxury car consumers. Use a mix of traditional and digital channels to
luxury brand affinity are the client's target customer segment. reach the target audience.
5. Compliance and Regulatory Expertise - Hire or engage a regulatory expert to ensure
Which of the following forms of entry into India is most preferred by the client: joint compliance with India's complex automotive regulations. Stay updated on changes in
venture, wholly owned subsidiary, or franchising? regulations and procedures.
The client is open to various modes of entry but is particularly interested in establishing a That sounds comprehensive, we can close the case now
joint venture with a local partner to leverage their knowledge of the Indian market and
distribution network. Interviewer
What is the client's budget for marketing and sales in India? Interviewee
Market Entry (Framework) | Dealerships (Method) | Difficult (Level)
Luxury Car manufacturer looking to enter the Indian market
Entry Strategy
• Client is a Luxury Car Manufacturer looking to
enter the Indian Market. Advise them how to
Product Strategy and Marketing and Sales enter the Indian Market and devise a GTM
Market Assessment Retail Strategy
Positioning Strategy Strategy for the same
Adapt product Partner with Develop localized Case Facts

Research
offerings distributors marketing campaigns • High net-worth individuals in India who have
Emphasize luxury a penchant for high-performance cars and a
Segmentation Establish exclusive Highlight brand
and exclusivity luxury brand affinity are the client's target
dealerships heritage and
Demonstrate value craftsmanship customer segment.
Analyze Consumer Ensure service • The client is open to various entry modes but
Behavior for money Engage in customer
network availability is particularly interested in establishing a joint
relationship
Compliance and venture with a local partner to leverage their
management
Regulatory knowledge of the Indian market and
Appoint a Obtain necessary Ethical Business distribution network.
regulatory expert licenses and permits Practices

• The client has to tackle these main three obstacles before entering the Indian • Use the numbers provided like 10% Market Share in the next decade,
Market - Complex Regulatory Environment, Tight Competition, and price- etc.. to provide a more comprehensive solution and be ready for follow-
conscious consumers up questions if any
• The Client can look at 5 major factors before entering the Indian Market –
• Also ask follow up questions about the competitive environment, even
Market Assessment, Product Strategy and Positioning, Retail Strategy,
if you are aware of it already.
Marketing and Sales Strategy and Compliance and Regulatory
55
American Battery Manufacturer Entering Indian Market
Case Statement: An American battery manufacturer seeking to expand into the Indian I believe I can formulate a solution now.
market is our client. The growing middle class, expanding economy, and growing 1. The key customer segments for batteries in India include Automobile Manufacturers,
demand for electric vehicles in India have led them to recognize the country as a Renewable Energy Products manufacturers and Consumer electronics companies.
potential market for their products. They are conscious of the difficulties that come with 2. The overall pricing of batteries in India is competitive, as there are a large number of
breaking into a new market, though, including figuring out local customer preferences, players in the market.
navigating the legal system, and building a reliable distribution network. They've asked 3. The major distribution channels for batteries in India include Direct sales to large
you to assist them in creating an India market entry plan. customers, Retail channels and E-Commerce Websites
4. Battery manufacturers and importers in India must comply with several regulations,
In order to better understand their aims and objectives, I would like to ask a few including Import regulations, Battery manufacturing regulations and packaging
preliminary questions. What is the specific timeframe for entering the Indian market? regulations.
The client wants to enter the Indian market within the next 3 years. Can you describe how the marketing and sales strategy would look like?
What is the client's target customer segment in India? Reaching target customers and creating demand for products would be the main goals of
our marketing and sales strategy for India. We'd take into account the following
The client's target customer segment in India is electric vehicle manufacturers and components:
battery distributors.
What is the client's desired market share in India? Brand positioning: By highlighting our dedication to quality, innovation, and
sustainability, we would create a brand positioning that appeals to Indian consumers.
The client aims to capture a 5% market share in the market by 5 years.
What is the client's budget for marketing and sales in India? Marketing channels: To reach our target audience, we would use a variety of marketing
channels, such as print advertising, public relations, and digital marketing. To make sure
The client has set aside a substantial amount to enter the market and money shouldn’t that our messaging is pertinent and interesting, we would customize it for each channel.
be a constraint
What is the market conditions of batteries in India? Sales channels: Including direct sales, retail channels, and e-commerce platforms, we
would set up a network of sales channels to reach our target customers. We would
Over the next five years, the Indian battery market is anticipated to expand at a collaborate with knowledgeable retailers and distributors to guarantee our products are
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 20%. accessible to a large audience.
Is the market very competitive? Okay, I am satisfied with the solution. We can close the case now.
Yes. With numerous local and foreign competitors, the battery market in India is highly
Interviewer
fragmented. Tata Power, Amara Raja Batteries, and Exide Industries are the main
domestic players. Interviewee
American Battery Manufacturer Entering Indian Market
Entry Strategy
• Client is an American battery manufacturer
seeking to expand into the Indian market is
Consumer Segments Marketing and Sales our client. Advise them how to enter the
Pricing Retail Strategy Indian Market.
Targeted Strategy
Automobile Competitive Direct sales to Brand Positioning Case Facts
Manufacturers Pricing large customers
• With numerous local and foreign competitors,
Renewable Energy Branding
Large Players Retail Partners the battery market in India is highly
Products Channels
fragmented. Tata Power, Amara Raja
manufacturers E-Commerce
Sales Channel Batteries, and Exide Industries are the main
Consumer Websites domestic players
electronics • Over the next five years, the Indian battery
companies Compliance and
market is anticipated to expand at a
Regulatory
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of
Import Packaging more than 20%
Battery manufacturing regulations
regulations regulations.
• The client has to take into account the main factors of Target Segments, • Use the numbers provided like 10% Market Share in the next decade,
Pricing, Retail Strategy, Marketing and Sales Strategy and Compliance and etc.. to provide a more comprehensive solution and be ready for follow-
Regulatory Challenges up questions if any
• The client would be using print advertising, public relations, and digital
marketing. To make sure that their messaging is pertinent and interesting,
customizable for each channel.
57
Guesstimates

Step by Step Approach to Solve Guesstimates
Define the scope
Select an approach (Demand vs Supply)
Formulate an equation
State assumptions on variable values
Calculate
Validate results
59
• The key to a Guesstimate is understanding the question and assumptions. If unclear, ask questions. Decide on your answer's structure: Bottom-Up or
Top-Down? Break the question into parts and determine assumed values. Avoid seeking help on assumed values as both you and the interviewer are
making educated guesses
• Double-check your estimated values for the calculation. Population figures are often crucial. If asked, specify your assumptions or approach and
incorporate them into your solution
• Perform calculations using estimation for easier math. Balance rounding up and rounding down for accuracy. For instance, to multiply 44 with 5300,
use 50 × 5000 = 250,000 for a more accurate answer
• Identify creative elements to refine your answer if relevant. Highlight parts of your estimate crucial for further research, especially those with high
sensitivity or uncertainty in their closeness to the correct answer
• Household Approach: Let's say, cars are bought as a household purchase and hence we calculate the number of cars as per the number of households
• Population Approach: A category like a pen is bought for individual consumption and is based on the number of people. Hence, we proceed with the
guesstimate about the number of people
• Structural Approach: Example: To estimate the number of airplanes landing in India in a single day, the bottleneck would be the runway as it controls
the entire operation of airplanes flying in and out
60
• For different Interviews you might be asked to carry out a guesstimate related to the area of functioning of the firm
• Axis Bank or ICICI Bank might ask you to approximately find the number of credit card users in the country;
• An FMCG company like GCPL/ NESTLE/ ITC might ask you to answer an approximate number of users in any of its single product or a GTM
strategy based on your answers
• There is rarely, if ever, a verifiably correct answer or one way to tackle a Guesstimate question
• Make logical assumptions; it's fine if some are wrong, as certain figures in the estimation process are obscure, and you lack access to data.
Explain your assumptions logically and highlight those crucial for research to perform well
• Virtually all these questions can be grouped into top-down or bottom-up questions. In some situations, they can even be both
• Top-Down Questions Top-Down Questions start with the entire population and break it down to the answer. For example, estimating the
number of school teachers in Chicago would involve starting with the city's population, estimating the percentage of students, and then the
number of students per class. This gives an estimate of teachers, assuming one teacher per class. To demonstrate creativity, consider retired and
substitute teachers
• Bottom-Up Questions Bottom-Up Questions start from low-level statistics and build up to the answer. For example, to estimate the monthly
revenue of a hair salon, start with the weekly revenue and multiply by four. Begin with the average price per client visit, estimate weekly
volume based on chairs, hours open, and clients per hour. To be creative, consider revenue from salon products and differentiate between male
and female clients due to spending and time differences
61
Guesstimate 1 | PhonePe Interview
Number of premium laptops sold in Delhi

Guesstimate Question Facts/Assumptions
Calculate the revenue generated by the number • The population of Delhi is 3.2 Cr, but we shall take it as 3 Cr for simplifying the calculation
of premium laptops sold in Delhi in 1 year • The population can be divided as follows:
BPL: 10%, Poor: 20%, Lower Middle Class: 20 %, Middle Class: 30%, Upper Middle Class: 15%, Affluent = 5%
Conditions
• Because it is a premium product, we can assume that only Middle Class, Upper middle class, and affluent
• Premium laptop price is Rs. 1 lakh in Delhi people will be able to buy it
• There is only 1 SKU that you need to consider and • Considering a family size of 4, there would be 1 laptop in middle class families, 2 laptops in upper middle
there are no other competitors in the scenario class, and 3 in affluent
for the simplicity of this case • Effectively, 30/4 + 15/2 + 5/3 = 7.5 + 7.5 + 1.6 = 16.6% population owns this laptop
Approach & Solution Since, 16.6% of the populations owns this laptop,
Total Population of Delhi 16.6% of 3Cr = 49.8 lakhs people
30M
The average value of a laptop can be assumed to be 5 years
This implies, the total number of laptops sold in a year are
Middle Class Upper Middle Affluent 49.8 lakh/5 ≈ 1M
(30%) Class (15%) (5%)
Avg household size = 4 Therefore, revenue
No. of laptops per No. of laptops per No. of laptops per generated:
household household household 10,00,000 * 1,00,000 ≈ 10 Bn
1 2 3
Population owning Population owning Population owning Therefore, annual revenue of premium
the laptop = 30/4 = the laptop = 15/2 = the laptop = 5/3 = laptop sold in Delhi ≈ Rs. 10 Bn
7.5% 7.5% 1.6%

Number of Teacups Sold

Estimate the number of tea cups sold in a day in • In Jaipur, tea is sold by various types of vendors, including tea stalls, cafes, street vendors,
the city where you live restaurants, and hotels
• Area of Jaipur is approximately 450 square kms
Conditions • In one-kilometer area, there are: 16 Tea stalls, 4 street vendors, and in two-kilometer area,
• Only milk tea is to be considered; exclude there is 1 cafe and 1 restaurant
other types like green tea, etc. • Sales/day/seller: Tea stall = 150 cups, Café = 300 cups, SV = 100 cups, Restaurant = 300 cups
• Tea prepared in homes and workplaces to not • The number of tea stalls and street vendors is considerably on the higher side. Because of
be included in the calculation this reason, consumption at each outlet is considered on the lower side
Approach & Solution Total Cups Sold in a Day = 7,200 stalls x 150 cups/stall
+ 225 cafes x 300 cups/cafe + 1800 street vendors x
No. of cups of tea
100 cups/vendor + 225 restaurants/hotels x 300
cups/restaurant)
No. of Tea vendors Consumption at each vendor
Area of Jaipur in No. of Tea vendors Total Cups Sold in a

square km per square km Day =
1,080,000 cups +
No. of vendors would be: Consumption Pattern: 67500 cups +
180,000 cups +
Tea Stalls: 450*16 = 7200 Tea Stalls: 150 cups/seller/day 675,000 cups
Cafes: 450*0.5 = 225 Cafes: 300 cups/seller/day Therefore, Total Cups Sold in a
Street Vendors: 450*4 = 1800 Street Vendors: 100 cups/seller/day
Day = 139,5000 cups
Restaurant and Hotel: 450*0.5 = 225 Restaurants & Hotels: 300 cups/seller/day

Selling smartphones in a Day

How many smartphones (not feature phone) can • For ease of calculation, we can assume population of WB to be 10 Cr
you sell in a day in West Bengal? (resident) • We shall consider only one mobile per person, as it is unlikely to buy 2 phones in a single day
• WB can be divided into 3 parts: a) Urban cities, b) Semi-Urban, c) Rural
Conditions
• 70% area is rural (7 cr), 20% semi-urban (2 cr), and rest urban (1 cr)
• What currently is selling is not concerned but how • Children <15 yr (25%) and senior citizens >65 yr (5%) shall not be considered, therefore, 3 cr population is
many is it possible deducted (2.1 cr Rural, 0.5 cr semi-urban, 0.4 cr urban)
• Price range can be anything & you may or may not • 10-20% of Indian population is BPL. Therefore, reducing 20% from Rural (2.1 cr), 15% from semi-urban (0.3
consider multiple phones held by a person cr), and 10% from urban (0.1 cr)
Approach & Solution

Calculating for each division:
• Rural = 7 – 2.1 – 2.1 = 2.8 cr
Total Population • Semi-Urban = 2 – 0.5 – 0.3 =
1.8 cr
• Urban = 1 - 0.4 – 0.1 = 0.5 cr
Urban Semi-urban Rural • Total = 2.8 + 1.8 + 0.5 ≈ 5 Cr
Now, a smartphone has an avg life of 3 years. So, for

Age Groups Age Groups Age groups daily purchases, we can divide 5 Cr by the number of
days in 2 years, i.e., 730 days.
This results in 5 Cr / 730 ≈ 68, 500 phones/day
Income levels Income levels Income levels
Therefore, Total smartphones sold in a

day in WB ≈ 68, 500

Guesstimate 4 | Medium
T-Shirts Sold on Amazon per day

Estimate the number of T-shirts Amazon sells per • E-Commerce Penetration in India ≈ 50% of Internet Penetration = 350 M
day in India • Fashion shoppers on Ecommerce ≈ 30%, hence 100 M shoppers
Conditions • 50% are male and 50% are female, hence 50 M each
• You have to consider all T-shirt types that are • 20% frequent male shoppers (5 t-shirt purchases per year)
available on the platform • 30% frequent female shoppers (7 t-shirt purchases per year)
• There is no concrete data regarding frequent • No of frequent male shoppers = 10 M
or occasional shoppers • No of frequent female shoppers = 15 M
Approach & Solution
E-Commerce Penetration Total No. of T-shirts by Male = 50 M + 120 M = 170 M

350M Total No. of T-shirts by Female = 105 M + 120 M = 225 M
No. of Fashion Shoppers

100 M
Total Yearly T-Shirts sold ≈ 400 M
Amazon’s Market Share in India = 30%
No. of Male No. of Female Yearly T-Shirts sold by Amazon ≈ 120 Mn
50 M 50 M
Frequent Shoppers Occasional Shoppers Frequent Shoppers Occasional Shoppers Therefore, Total T-Shirts Sold in a Day
10 M 40 M 15 M 35 M on Amazon = 3.28 lakhs
5 T-shirts 3 T-shirts 7 T-shirts 4 T-shirts
50 M T-shirts 120 M T-shirts 105 M T-shirts 120 M T-shirts
Guesstimate 5 | Hard
Swiggy’s Revenue in Delhi

Estimate the daily revenue generated by Swiggy • Swiggy has a market share of 45% in the Indian market
in Delhi • 50% of the middle class households and 80% of the upper class households order food online
• 50% of the users are active and order once a week & 50% of users are passive and order once a month
Conditions
• Average order value from middle class is Rs 250 and average order value from upper class is Rs 500
• Revenue of only food orders is to be calculated • Population of Delhi is 3.2 Cr, but we shall take it to be 3 Cr for ease of calculation
• The frequency and order value for each person/ • With an average household size of 4, we can assume number of households to be 75 lakhs, or 7.5M
household can be assumed by candidate, however, • We assume the number of lower class to be 50%, middle class to be 45%, and upper class to be 5%
number of items ordered does not matter
Approach & Solution

Average time between orders for a
Total Population of Delhi household :
30M (7+30)/2 = 18.5 days
Avg household size = 4 Number of households ordering food
No. of Households daily:
7.5M
• Middle Class: 7,60,000/18.5 ≈ 41,000
• Upper Class: 1,40,000/18.5 ≈ 7,500
Lower Class (50%) Middle Class (45%) Upper Class (5%) Therefore, revenue generated:
3.7 M 3.4 M 0.4 M • Middle Class = 41,000 * 250 = Rs. 1.02 Cr/day
• Upper Class = 7500 * 500 = 37.5 Lakhs/day
Households ordering Households ordering Households ordering Total revenue = 1 Cr + 37.5 Lakhs = 1.37 Cr/day
food online food online (50%) food online (80%)
0 1.7 M 0.32 M Therefore, daily revenue generated by
Using Swiggy Using Swiggy (45%) Using Swiggy (45%)
Swiggy in Delhi ≈ Rs. 1.37 Cr
0 7,60,000 1,40,000

Industry Reports

FMCG Industry Primer (1/2)
Industry Overview Market Size
∙ Size: The retail market in India is estimated to be around US$ 1.1
∙ India’s fourth largest sector with household and personal care
trillion as of 2023. This reflects a continued growth trajectory from
accounting for 50% of FMCG sales
the $840 billion reported in 2017.
∙ The sector consists of three segments- household and personal care
∙ Trade: Modern trade expected to grow at ~20% per annum, which is
(50%), healthcare (30%) and Food & Beverages (20%)
likely to boost revenue of FMCG companies
∙ The urban segment accounts for a revenue share of around 57%
∙ Rural Growth: In the last few years, the FMCG market has grown at a
∙ Semi-urban and rural segments are growing at a rapid pace and
faster pace in rural India
FMCG products account for 50% of the total rural spending
∙ Industry Revenue: Revenue of FMCG sector reached $103 bn in
FY20 and reached $180 bn in 2022
Growth Drivers
∙ Shifting Economic Power: By 2035 India would be the third largest economy of the world just after US and China. It will grow to 60% of size of the US
economy. It will touch new heights in terms of purchasing power
∙ Changing Lifestyle: Consumers are buying products which match up with their living standard, class and which are acceptable in the culture
∙ Demographic Transition: Rising incomes, growing middle class and youth population, and increase in consumption of tier 2, 3 & 4 cities are increasing
the interest of multinational in Indian emerging markets
Value Chain
R&D Procurement Manufacturing Distribution Sales/Marketing
68
FMCG Industry Primer (2/2)
Kev Government Policies
∙ Production Linked Incentive (PLI): The PLI scheme has been approved for the packaged food sector. Unique product lines—with high-growth potential
and capabilities to generate medium- to large-scale jobs—have been established
∙ FDI Limit: The Government of India has approved 100% FDI in the cash and carry segment & in single-brand retail along with 51% FDI in multi-brand
retail
∙ GST: The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is beneficial for the FMCG industry as many of the FMCG products such as soap, toothpaste and hair oil now
come under the 18% tax bracket against the previous rate of 23-24%. Also, GST on food products and hygiene products have been reduced to 0-5%
and 12-18% respectively
∙ Consumer Protection Bill: The Government has drafted a new Consumer Protection Bill with emphasis on setting up a mechanism to ensure simple,
speedy, accessible, affordable and timely delivery of justice to consumers
Road Ahead
∙ Rural Consumption: Rural consumption has increased, led by a combination of increasing income and higher aspiration levels. There is an increased
demand for branded products in rural India
∙ Young Workforce: India has a large base of young consumers who form majority of the workforce, and due to time constraints, barely get time for
cooking
∙ Online Portals: Online portals are expected to play a key role for companies trying to enter the hinterlands. Internet has contributed in a big way,
facilitating a cheaper and more convenient mode to increase a company’s reach. The number of internet users in India is likely to reach 1 bn by 2025
69
Airlines Industry Primer (1/2)
∙ Indian Airlines is 3rd largest domestic aviation market in the world ∙ Passenger traffic - India’s passenger traffic could be around 150-160
∙ Key segments are Passenger-Domestic, Freight, International, Low- million in FY24.
cost carriers. ∙ Freight traffic - In FY21, freight traffic stood at 2.47 MT. Freight
∙ Biggest players - Indigo, Vistara, SpiceJet, GoAir traffic on airports in India has the potential to reach 17 MT by FY40.
∙ Growth - Airline industry in India has lowest Domestic Seats Per ∙ No. of airports - As of January 2024, India has 187 operational
Capita in the World which indicates lot of growth left in the market airports
∙ Key Drivers - Cost drivers being fuel and aircraft lease costs & ∙ No. of airplanes - The number of airplanes is expected to reach 1,100
Revenue- passenger, freight services planes by 2027. Currently there are approx. 723 planes in the
industry
Growth Drivers
∙ Robust demand- Rising working group and widening middle class demography to boost demand
∙ Increasing Investment: Expected $4.9 bn investment in the next four years. The Indian Government is planning to invest $1.8 bn for development of
airport infrastructure along with aviation navigation services by 2026.
∙ Policy support- Foreign investment has been allowed up to 49% under automatic route. Lower Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate of 5% on
maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services, making India a more competitive destination for aircraft maintenance, Tax holiday for airlines
operating in underserved and remote areas, incentivizing increased connectivity to these regions.
∙ Airport Infrastructure- Participation of government and private players is growing through PPP. Investment of Rs. 450 Bn is expected in airport
infrastructure between FY 2020-25.
70
Airlines Industry Primer (2/2)
Value Chain
Inbound Operations Outbound Marketing Services
• Route selection • Ticket counter • Baggage system • Promotion • Lost baggage

• Fuel • Aircraft operations • Flight connection • Advertising • Complaint follow -
• Flight scheduling • Baggage handling • Rental car and • Loyalty program up
• Aircraft acquisition • On board services hotel reservation frequent flyer

∙ Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) has been launched Boost air connectivity to smaller cities & northeast states
∙ FDI Limit: 100% FDI under the automatic route in scheduled air transport service, regional air transport service and domestic scheduled passenger
airline. However, FDI over 49% would require government approval.
∙ Abolition of royalty: The Airport Authority of India plans to abolish royalty and offer steep discounts in lease rent to encourage MRO units to set up
facilities at its airports
Road Ahead
∙ Huge untapped potential- Still expensive for majority of the country’s population, of which nearly 40% is the upwardly mobile middle class. Large
scope for expansion with rise in disposable income.
∙ Increasing requirements: Expenditure of Indian travellers grew by up to $180 bn by 2023. India will need 2,380 new commercial airplanes by 2038.
71
E-Commerce Industry Primer (1/2)
∙ The Indian E-commerce market is expected to grow to $111.4 bn by ∙ Online Grocery: The Indian online grocery market is estimated to
2025 from $46.2 bn as of 2020 reach $18.2 bn in 2024 from $1.9 bn in 2019, expanding at a CAGR of
∙ Much of the growth for the industry has been triggered by an 57.0%
increase in internet and smartphone penetration ∙ Digital Economy: India's consumer digital economy is expected to
∙ As of December 2023, the number of internet connections in India become a $800 bn market by 2030, growing from $537.5 bn in 2020
exceeded 1.2 billion, reflecting the continued growth driven by the ∙ Smartphone Penetration: Smartphone shipments in India reached
"Digital India" initiative. 146 million units, with 79 million being 5G smartphones in 2023,
∙ Of total internet connections, ~61% were in urban areas, of which driven by high consumer demand post-lockdown.
97% connections were wireless
Growth Drivers
∙ Consumer Preferences: As most Indians have started shopping online rather than stepping outside their houses, the Indian e-commerce sector
witnessed an increase
∙ Grocery & Fashion: India e-commerce sector will reach $99 bn by 2024 from $30 bn in 2019, expanding at a 27% CAGR, with grocery and
fashion/apparel likely to be the key drivers of incremental growth
∙ High Mobile Usage: By 2025, GMV is expected to reach $20 bn, with a potentially monumental jump to $70 bn by 2030, owing to high mobile usage
∙ Internet & Smartphone Penetration: Much of the growth in the industry has been triggered by increasing internet and smartphone penetration. As of
September 2023, the number of internet connections in India has significantly increased further, reaching an estimated 1,200 million
Value Chain
Inventory
Sourcing Marketing Sales Delivery
Management 72
E-Commerce Industry Primer (2/2)
∙ Digital India: Under the Digital India movement, Government launched various initiatives like Umang, Start-up India Portal, Bharat Interface for
Money (BHIM) etc.. to boost digitization
∙ FDI Limit: In order to increase the participation of foreign players in E-commerce, Indian Government hiked the limit of FDI in E-commerce
marketplace model to up to 100% (in B2B models)
∙ National Retail Policy: The government identified five areas in its national retail policy—ease of doing business, rationalization of license process,
digitization of retail, focus on reforms and open network for digital commerce
Road Ahead
∙ MSME Impact: The E-commerce industry has been directly impacting MSMEs in India by providing means of financing, technology and training and
has a favorable cascading effect on other industries as well
∙ Technological Innovations: Technology enabled innovations like digital payments, hyper-local logistics, analytics driven customer engagement and
digital advertisements will likely support the growth in the sector
∙ Smartphone Usage: Rise in smartphone usage is expected to rise 84% to reach 859 mn by 2022
∙ Second Largest Market: Indian E-commerce industry has been on an upward growth trajectory and is expected to surpass the US to become the
second largest E-commerce market in the world by 2034
73
Financial Services Industry Primer (1/2)
∙ The sector comprises commercial banks, insurance companies, non- ∙ Mutual Funds: In Jan 2024, the mutual fund MF industry’s assets
banking financial companies, co-operatives, pension funds, mutual under management amounted to 52,74,001 crore. The total number
funds and other smaller financial entities of accounts stands at 16.96 crore
∙ However, financial sector in India is predominantly a banking sector ∙ Insurance: The total first year premium of life insurance companies
with commercial banks accounting for more than 64.0% of the total reached $33.7 bn in FY23 showcasing the fast growth of the industry
assets held by the financial system ∙ IPO’s: In FY23, US$62.5 bn was raised across 55 initial public
∙ The Government has taken various measures to facilitate easy access offerings (IPOs)
to finance for MSMEs
Growth Drivers
∙ Growing Demand: Rising income is driving the demand for financial services across income brackets. The number of Ultra High Net Worth Individuals
is estimated to increase from 5,986 in 2019 to 10,354 in 2024
∙ Policy Support: The government has approved 100% FDI for insurance intermediaries and increased FDI limit in the insurance sector to 74% from 49%
under the Union Budget
∙ Growing Penetration: Credit, insurance and investment penetration is rising in rural areas. HNWI participation is growing in the wealth management
segment. Low mutual fund penetration of 6% reflects growth opportunities
Value Chain
Marketing Sales Financial Product Transactions
74
Financial Services Industry Primer (2/2)
∙ FDI Limit: The government has approved 100% FDI for insurance intermediaries and increased FDI limit in the insurance sector to 74% from 49% under
the Union Budget 2021-22
∙ Infrastructure Support: The Cabinet approved continuation and revamping of the scheme for financial support to public-private partnerships (PPPs)
until 2024-25 with a total outlay of $1.1 bn
∙ E-Portal: Launch of automated e-portal on the e-filing website of the department to process and receive complaints of tax evasion, foreign
undisclosed assets and register complaints against ‘Benami’ properties
Road Ahead
∙ Private Wealth Segment: India is expected to be the fourth largest private wealth market globally by 2028
∙ Increased Deals: Over the coming quarters, there could be a series of joint venture deals between global insurance giants and local players due to
relaxation in FDI norms
∙ Mutual Fund Growth: The Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) is targeting nearly five-fold growth in AUM to Rs. 95 lakh crore and more than
three times growth in investor accounts to 130 mn by 2025
∙ Mobile Wallet Segment: India's mobile wallet industry is estimated to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 150% to reach $4.4 bn by
2024, while mobile wallet transactions will touch Rs. 32 trillion during the same period
75
Pharmaceutical Industry Primer (1/2)
∙ Indian pharmaceutical sector supplies over 50% of global demand for ∙ Size: India’s domestic pharmaceutical market is estimated at $60 bn
various vaccines, 40% of generic demand in the US and 25% of all in 2024 and further expand to reach $120-130 bn by 2030
medicine in UK ∙ Biotechnology: The biotechnology industry is expected to reach $150
∙ Globally, India ranks 3rd in terms of pharmaceutical production by bn by 2025
volume and 14th by value ∙ Medical Devices: The market stood at $45 bn in FY24 and is expected
∙ Includes a network of 3,000 drug companies and 10,500 to increase at a CAGR of 37.0% from 2024 to 2028
manufacturing units
∙ Largest provider of generic medicines globally, occupying a 20%
share in global supply by volume, and also supplies 62% of global
vaccines
Growth Drivers
∙ Launch of Patented Drugs: About 120 drugs are expected to go off-patent over the next 10 years; with worldwide revenue between $80 to $250 bn
∙ Medical Infrastructure: Pharma companies have increased spending to tap rural markets and develop better medical infrastructure. Hospitals’ market
size is expected to increase by $200 bn by 2024. New business models expected to penetrate tier-2 and 3 cities
∙ Scope in Generics Market: India’s generic drugs account for 20% of global exports in terms of volume, making it the largest provider of generic
medicines globally
∙ Acceptability Epidemiological Factors: Rising levels of education to increase acceptability of pharmaceuticals. Patient pool expected to increase over
20% in the next 10 years (until 2030), mainly due to rise in population
Value Chain
Consulting Diagnostics Admission Treatment Post Treatment

76
Pharmaceutical Industry Primer (2/2)
∙ Production Linked Incentive (PLI): Additional outlay of $26,578 mn over five years for the pharmaceutical PLI scheme in 13 key sectors such as active
pharma ingredients, drug intermediaries and key starting materials
∙ Covid Suraksha: COVID Suraksha was announced by the Government of India to accelerate development and production of indigenous COVID
vaccines
∙ Fastrack Vaccine Regulatory System: In April 2021, the Union Government decided to streamline and fast-track the regulatory system for COVID-19
vaccines that have been approved for restricted use by the US FDA, EMA, UK MHRA, PMDA Japan
Road Ahead
∙ Medicine Spending: Medicine spending in India is projected to grow 9 to 12% over the next five years, leading India to become one of the top 10
countries in terms of medicine spending
∙ Chronic Therapies: Better growth in domestic sales would depend on the ability of companies to align their product portfolio towards chronic
therapies for diseases such as such as cardiovascular, anti-diabetes, anti-depressants and anti-cancers, which are on the rise
∙ Rural Programs: The thrust on rural health programmes, lifesaving drugs and preventive vaccines also augurs well for the pharmaceutical companies
77
Automobile Industry Primer (1/2)
∙ In 2023, India was the fifth-largest auto market, with ~38.9 mn units ∙ Domestic automobiles production increased at 2.36% CAGR between
combined sold in the passenger and commercial vehicles categories FY16-20 with 26.36 mn vehicles being manufactured in the country in
∙ In FY23, the total passenger vehicle production in India reached FY20
approximately 38.9 million units ∙ Two wheelers and passenger cars accounted for 80.8% and 12.9%
∙ Despite the growth in passenger vehicle exports, overall automobile market share, respectively, accounting for a combined sale of over
exports from India in FY23 dipped by 15% compared to FY22. This 20.1 mn vehicles in FY23
decrease was primarily driven by declining exports of two-wheelers, ∙ Automobile export reached 4.77 mn vehicles in FY20, growing at a
three-wheelers, and commercial vehicles. CAGR of 6.94% during FY16-FY20
Growth Drivers
∙ Robust Demand: Rise in middle class income and young population has resulted in strong growth. In June 2023, the production volume of two-
wheelers, three-wheelers, passenger vehicles, quadricycles reached 1,693,639
∙ Attractive Opportunities: Focus is shifting towards electric vehicles to reduce emissions. The Electric Vehicles industry is expected to create five crore
jobs by 2030
∙ Policy Support: Automotive Mission Plan 2016-2026 is a mutual initiative by Government of India and Indian Automotive industry to lay down the
roadmap for development of the industry
∙ 3Attractive Opportunities: The automobile sector received cumulative FDI inflow of about US$ 26 bn between April 2021 and March 2023. The
Government expects automobile sector to attract US$ 8-10 bn in local and foreign investments by 2023
78
Automobile Industry Primer (2/2)
Key Government Policies
∙ In Union Budget, the government introduced the voluntary vehicle scrappage policy, which is likely to boost demand for new vehicles after removing
old unfit vehicles currently plying on the Indian roads
∙ The Union Cabinet outlaid Rs. 57,042 crore (US$ 7.81 bn) for automobiles & auto components sector in production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme
under the Department of Heavy Industries
∙ Ministry of Heavy Industries, Government of India has shortlisted 11 cities in the country for introduction of EVs in their public transport systems
under the FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) and Electric Vehicles in India) scheme. The Government will also set up incubation
centre for start-ups working in the EVs space
Road Ahead
∙ Indian automotive industry (including component manufacturing) is expected to reach Rs. 16.16-18.18 trillion (US$ 251.4-282.8 bn) by 2026
∙ The automobile industry is supported by various factors such as availability of skilled labour at low cost, robust R&D centres, and low-cost steel
production. The industry also provides great opportunities for investment and direct and indirect employment to skilled and unskilled labour
∙ A report by India Energy Storage Alliance estimated that EV market in India is likely to grow at a CAGR of 36% until 2026. In addition, EV battery
market is forecast to expand at a CAGR of 30% during the same period
79
IT Industry Primer (1/2)
∙ The IT industry accounted for 8% of India’s GDP in 2023 and recorded ∙ The domestic revenue of IT industry is expected to be US$ 45 bn in
1,38,000 new hires FY21, and the export revenue is estimated at US$ 150 bn in FY23
∙ India is the leading sourcing destination in the world, accounting for ∙ Indian software product industry is expected to reach US$ 100 bn in
approximately 55% market share of US$ 200-250 bn global business 2025
∙ Leading Indian IT firms like Infosys, TCS, WIPRO and others are ∙ As of FY23, IT and BPM sector together employs >4.5 mn workers in
diversifying their offerings and showcasing leading ideas in India
blockchain and AI ∙ The data annotation market in India stood at US$ 250 mn in FY23,
∙ Exports from Indian IT industry are expected to increase by 1.9% and and is expected to reach US$ 7 bn by 2030 due to accelerated
reach US$ 150 bn in FY23 demand for AI
Growth Drivers
∙ Robust Demand: Indian IT's core competencies and strengths have attracted significant demand from domestic and various other major countries
∙ Attractive Opportunities: The computer software and hardware sector in India attracted cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows worth US$
71.05 bn between April 2022 and March 2023.
∙ Policy Support: In Budget 2023, the Government of India has allocated Rs. 53,108 crore (US$ 7.31 bn) to the IT and telecom sector
∙ Attractive Opportunities: The GoI has extended tax holidays to the IT sector for Software Technology Parks (STP) and Special Economic Zones (SEZs).
As of February 2023, there were 421 approved SEZs across the country, with 276 of them from IT & BPM and 145 as exporting SEZs
Value Chain
Strategy to Portfolio Requirement to Deploy Request to Fulfill Detect to Correct

80
IT Industry Primer (2/2)
∙ The Arun Jaitley National Institute of Financial Management (AJNIFM) and Microsoft have formed a strategic partnership to build AI and emerging
technologies Centre of Excellence
∙ MyGov, the citizen engagement platform of the Government of India, in partnership with the Department of Higher Education launched an
innovation challenge to create an Indian language learning app
∙ Department of Telecom, GOI and Ministry of Communications, Government of Japan signed a MoU to enhance cooperation in areas of 5G
technologies, telecom security and submarine optical fiber cable system
Road Ahead
∙ Artificial Intelligence (AI) is expected to boost India's annual growth rate by 1.3% by 2035, as per NITI Aayog. A substantial increase in AI by Indian
firms can result in a 2.5% increase in India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the immediate term
∙ Emerging technologies now offer an entire new gamut of opportunities for top IT firms in India. The industry is expected to grow to US$350 bn by
2025 and BPM is expected to account for US$ 50-55 bn of the revenue
∙ According to Gartner estimates, IT spending in India is expected to reach US$ 98.5 bn in 2022
81
Telecom Industry Primer (1/2)
∙ The Telecom industry in India is the second largest in the world with ∙ Internet Subscribers: The total number of internet subscribers
a subscriber base of 1.17 bn increased from 765 mn in February 2021 to 865 mn in Jan 2024
∙ The number of broadband -subscribers rose to 865 mn in Jan 2024 ∙ Revenue: Gross revenue of the telecom sector stood at Rs. 68,228
∙ The tele density of the rural market, which is largely untapped has crores in the third quarter of FY24
increased to 59.5%, & the overall tele density has reached 87.3% ∙ Future Growth: Over the next five years, rise in mobile-phone
∙ India contributes highest in the Global Mobile Data Traffic per penetration and decline in data costs is expected to add 500 mn new
smartphone at 14.5 GB per smartphone per month internet users in India, creating opportunities for new businesses
Growth Drivers
∙ Robust Demand: Tele density of rural subscribers reached 60.3% in March 23, from 58.8% in March 21, showcasing growth potential in demand from
the rural sector
∙ Increasing Investment: the Department of Telecommunications has been allocated Rs. 58,737 crores. Under Union Budget , the government allocated
Rs. 14,200 crores for telecom infrastructure
∙ Policy Support: The Union Cabinet approved Rs. 12,195 crores production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for telecom & networking products under the
Department of Telecom
∙ Attractive Opportunities: India's 5G subscriptions to be 350 mn by 2026. accounting for 27.0% of all mobile subscriptions. The PLI has also triggered
entry of several global players manufacturing mobile devices and components
Value Chain
Chipset Makers Infrastructure Network Carriers Devices Develop Content

82
Telecom Industry Primer (2/2)
∙ Production Linked Incentive (PLI): The $1.6 bn PLI scheme for telecom is expected to bring in an investment of around $400.1 mn and generate huge
employment
∙ FDI Limit: FDI cap in the telecom sector has been increased to 100% from 74%; out of 100%, 49% will be done through the automatic route and the
rest will be done through the FIPB approval route
∙ Capital Allocation: The Department of Telecommunications has been allocated $8 bn. 56% allocation is towards revenue expenditure and the
remaining 44% is towards capital expenditure
Road Ahead
∙ Telecom Advertisement: India is expected to become the fastest-growing telecom advertisement market, with an annual growth rate of 11% between
2020 and 2023
∙ Smart Cities: The Indian Government is planning to develop 100 smart city projects, and IoT will play a vital role for the same
∙ Government Policies: The National Digital Communications Policy 2018 envisaged attracting investment worth $100 bn in the telecommunications
sector by 2022. App downloads in India are expected to increase to 18 bn in 2018F and 37 bn in 2024F
83
Datasheet for Guesstimates (1/2)
Population in Year
Rank City Population Statistics Age Breakup (Years)
2021
1 Mumbai 24 • Current population- 1.4 Bn < 35 65%

• Share in world’s population 17.7 %
2 Delhi 20 <25 50%
• Rank in world in terms of population #2
3 Bangalore 14 • Population density - 464 per Km2 (1,202 people per mi2).
• Land area - 2,973,190 Km2 (1,147,955 sq. miles) 0-6 15%
4 Hyderabad 13 • Urban Rural Divide: Urban -35%, Rural- 65%
5 Ahmedabad 11 Median age- 28.4 years 7-14 15%
6 Chennai 10 15-25 20%

7 Kolkata 15 Population growth rate 1.2% 25-35 15%
8 Surat 8 Birth rate 20/1000 Population
35-65 30%
9 Pune 7 Death Rate ~7.5/1000 population
10 Jaipur 4 Life expectancy ~70 years 65+ 5%
Contribution to Occupation Consumer/Target Base segmentation for easier calculation

Sector can be done by
GDP Structure
• Rural-Urban Split (Geography wise)
Agriculture 15% 50%
• Gender split
• Age
Industry 30% 20% • Income
• Willingness
Services 55% 30%
84
Datasheet for Guesstimates (2/2)
Other important facts about India
• Car penetration in India- 22/1000 people

• Internet - 620 Mn (total 45%) , 67% penetration in urban, 31% penetration in rural area
• Social media users -450 Mn (32%)
• Smartphone penetration -500 Mn
• 1.10 Bn mobile connections in India in January 2021.
• The number of mobile connections in India in January 2021 was equivalent to 79.0% of the total population.
As per 2011 census % of total

Demographics Religious Group Income Bracket
(% ) population
Literacy Rate 75% Hinduism 80% BPL 29%
Youth Literacy Rate 85% Islam 15% Low Income 25%
Christianity 2% Middle Income 30%
Female/Male Literacy 65%/83% Sikhism 2% Upper Middle 15%
Others 1% High 1%
85
SOCRATES
The Strategy & Consulting Club
Senior Club Coordinators
(Batch of 22-24)
AYUSH MADHAV URJA SHASHANK

CHAUHAN GUPTA RASTOGI TIWARI
Junior Club Coordinators
(Batch of 23-25)
ANOUSHKA VERMA ASHISH YADAV KAUSTUBH BAHAL
MANASDEEP SINGH BHATIA STUTI BAZARI
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©2023 Socrates, IIFT Delhi

• Do’s and Don’ts .....……………………………………………………………………………………………... 5

• Case Frameworks .....……………………………………………………………………………………………… 6

• Case Interview Transcripts ……...………………………………………………………………………………….......... 13

• Industry Reports ……..…………………………………………………………………………………………... 67

• Datasheet for Guesstimates …..……………………………………………………………………………………………… 84

Socrates, IIFT Delhi 6

Case Structure Questions Framework

Technology Sales Channel

Case Structure Questions Framework

Case Structure Questions Framework

Growth • What is the expected growth rate of the

Case Structure Questions Framework

Parameters Affecting Factors

• Organization Design / Structure

Socrates, IIFT Delhi 14

Labour Utilities COGS

Conclusion of the interviewee Recommendations/Tips by interviewer

Conclusion of the interviewee Recommendations/Tips by interviewer

Orders Received Order-Fulfilment Capability Government Barriers

Conclusion of the interviewee Recommendations/Tips by interviewer

Profitability • The client is the owner of a Two-Wheeler

Labor Utilities COGS Costs associated with

Taxes/ Fines/ Subsidies

Conclusion of the interviewee Recommendations/Tips by interviewer

Socrates, IIFT Delhi 24

Conclusion of the interviewee Recommendations/Tips by interviewer

So how much have we spent on R&D for this? Interviewer

Modification to Similar to other Pricing w.r.t. Case Facts

Conclusion of the interviewee Recommendations/Tips by interviewer

Conclusion of the interviewee Recommendations/Tips by interviewer

Initial Investment Annual Profit

Weight Price per tons

Conclusion of the interviewee Recommendations/Tips by interviewer

Advantages Distance Case Facts

Conclusion of the interviewee Recommendations/Tips by interviewer

Socrates, IIFT Delhi 35

Labour Utilities COGS

Conclusion of the interviewee Recommendations/Tips by interviewer

• Client is the owner of a grocery delivery

Conclusion of the interviewee Recommendations/Tips by interviewer

Conclusion of the interviewee Recommendations/Tips by interviewer

Number of small to large hospitals ratio = 7:1

Modification Penetration and battery manufacturing plants.

Conclusion of the interviewee Recommendations/Tips by interviewer

Conclusion of the interviewee Recommendations/Tips by interviewer

Socrates, IIFT Delhi 47

Conclusion of the interviewee Recommendations/Tips by interviewer

Conclusion of the interviewee Recommendations/Tips by interviewer

Conclusion of the interviewee Recommendations/Tips by interviewer

Adapt product Partner with Develop localized Case Facts

Conclusion of the interviewee Recommendations/Tips by interviewer

Conclusion of the interviewee Recommendations/Tips by interviewer

Socrates, IIFT Delhi 58

Define the scope

Select an approach (Demand vs Supply)

State assumptions on variable values

Number of premium laptops sold in Delhi