Vault_2-_Cases
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Vault Case Interview Practice Guide 2: More Case Interviews
Appendix
Organize, Calculate and Communicate
• WRITE BIG so the interviewer can read your notes from across the desk! If he can read what you write, the consultant can then follow your train of thought and give you helpful hints along the way.
Proper Paper
Management
•Organize your papers properly (page #1: case information and logic tree, page #2: details/calculations from branch 1, page #3: from another branch, last page: conclusion or page #1 logic tree with supporting facts).
•Use more sheets of paper rather than less, and use a new sheet of paper for each discrete module of analysis. Now is not the time to save trees.
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• Practice your mental math. Read How to Calculate |
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quickly by Henry Sticker. Strong mental math will |
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help you to conduct quick sanity check on your cal- |
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culations, and remain calm when met with an ava- |
Math! Math! Math! |
lanche of calculations. You should be able to |
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calculate 95% of $450 in two seconds. If not, read |
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the book! |
• Be organized in calculating your data. Explain what calculation you plan to do before doing them. Write down all the variables involved in thecalculation so the consultant can follow what you are doing. Designate the bottom part of the paper to do the detailed calculations (but you can avoid these if you are good with mental math).
•Practice the Pyramid Principle (by Barbara Minto). Give the answer first and then your reasoning. Giv-
ing the answer sets the context for the reasoning, and also helps the interviewer to focus on what you are saying.
• Try to communicate in point forms so your logic is easy to follow. For example, there are three areas I want to look into, there are two reasons for this
change, I think there are three issues in this problem, etc. Don’t babble a stream of consciousness. Remember the interviewer may have interviewed six students before you!
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Vault Case Interview Practice Guide 2: More Case Interviews
Appendix
Getting Unstuck and Ending Perfectly
When stuck, imagine you are actually in the situation
Summarize the situation the way a CEO wants to hear it
•If you get stuck, take a step back and visualize yourself in the specific situation. Imagine yourself as the consumer looking at the products on the shelves, imagine yourself as the CEO of the company, imagine yourself as the worker operating that machinery on the floor. Putting yourself in the specific situation can help you to think of possible options you might never have thought about.
•Spend a few minutes recollecting the interview in preparation for your recommendation
•Give the answers first, then your rationales. Prioritize which of the solutions you recommend implementing first (80/20).
•Use relevant data and insights from the last 20 to 30 minutes to support your rationale.
•Talk about any major considerations for the relevant solutions, and talk about other potential areas to look at.
•Keep recommendations in point form, and keep all of these under one minute (max).
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About the Authors
Rishi Marwah is a Management Consultant in the Singapore office of a global management consultancy firm. An MBA graduate of the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management (Toronto), he has advised clients in Europe and Southeast Asia. Earlier in his career, he was involved in two startups in Toronto.
Sridhar Parameshwaran is an Associate with A. T. Kearney working out of the London office. He graduated from Kellogg in 2006 with majors in Strategy and Marketing. Prior to Kellogg, Sridhar spent four years working with i2 Technologies as a product manager dealing with supply chain issues.
Robert Vujovich is a Principal with Celenium Group, LLC. He has more than 25 years of diverse industry, information technology, and management consulting experience, particularly in the areas of IT outsourcing, service line portfolio management, manufacturing and product engineering. While a principal management consultant with A.T. Kearney, Bob focused on developing client relationships, account planning and engagement execution. Bob also served as ATK's University of Michigan graduate business school campus recruiting officer.
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