1. September, 2003 How to Ace your Interview Interview Workshop

2. This is a guide to recruitment interviews of Inductis for consultants across levels in all Inductis offices and business areas

4. Introduction

6. What We Look For Analytic and Quantitative Skills Communication Skills Leadership Ability Teamwork Ethics and Integrity Organization Computer Skills Characteristics

7. Our Selection Process Aptitude Test Shortlist Interview (3 Rounds) The test contains 3 sections; Verbal, Mathematics and Analytics. Each section contains 10 questions. Total duration of the test is ½ hour. Shortlist is on basis of the score in aptitude test and past academic record Informal Session You get a chance to interact with our team to address all your queries related to Inductis; Interview, Career etc. 3 rounds of interviews are conducted; each interview having a mix of fit interview and case interview

8. Our Interviews Fit Case Offer Typically each interview is a mix of a fit interview and a case interview. To receive an offer you must succeed in both

9. The Fit Interview

13. The Case Interview

16. United States Basic Statistics Population of the world: 6.2 billion Population of the U.S.: 290 million Number of adults in the U.S.: 210 million (18+ yrs.) 200 million (25+ yrs.) Number of cars per household: 2.5 Number of households in the U.S.: 105 million Minimum wage: approx. $5 per hour While you certainly shouldn't go and memorize the census report, there are certain statistics that you should be familiar with in order to help you solve cases. You should also be familiar with general demographic trends (i.e. Gen-Xers vs. Baby-Boomers and income distribution)

17. India Basic Statistics Population of the world: 6.2 billion Population of India: 1000 million Number of adults in India: 530 million (18+ yrs.) 440 million (21+ yrs.) Number of cars per Household: 0.02 Number of households in India: 180 million Minimum wage: approx. 15 rupees per hour While you certainly shouldn't go and memorize the census report, there are certain statistics that you should be familiar with in order to help you solve cases

20. Strategy Cases Types of Strategy Cases Costs Revenues Marketing Strategy cases generally involve one or more of the following three issues, but these certainly do not represent the universe of possible scenarios

26. Summary

28. Appendix

30. Sample General Cases

31. General Cases Case #1 Case #2 Case #3 You are visiting a new client who sells golf balls in the United States. Having had no time to do background research, you sit on the plane wondering what is the annual market size for golf balls in the U.S. and what factors drive demand. Your plane lands in 15 minutes; how would you go about answering these questions? Why is there no light beer in the UK? You have been called in by a Big 4 accounting firm that is experiencing declining profitability in its auditing operation. What levers would you push to help improve profitability? Hypothetical Approach • Golf balls sales are driven by end-users. You have to determine the number of end-users; this will be some fraction of the total U.S. population (say 300 million to make my math easier). First assume a uniform age distribution and an average life expectancy of 80 years. Then assume that only people in the ages 20-70 will be potential buyers. Thus you eliminate 30 to 80 years or 3/8 of the 300 million population. So, now you are down to a potential buyer pool of about 110 million. Now you might estimate how many people out of 10 play golf – say 4 – so now 4/10 of 110 gets you down to 44 million people who play golf. Now you have to estimate purchase frequency, how many balls per month an average person buys (you may want to temper this “average purchase” assumption by at least mentioning that retired people play more than students). A good guess might be 15. So demand per month is now 15 x 44 million or 660 million. Finally, you need to estimate the number of months per year that people play golf – 12 months in good climate regions, maybe 5 in regions with cold winters – so on average 8 is a decent estimate: 8 x 660 = 5.280 million golf balls per year Hypothetical Approach • Whenever you hear “declining profitability,” start with basic profitability analysis. Determine whether this is a revenue problem, cost problem or both. Hypothetical Approach • This problem does not fit in common framework, but it can be dissected by simply listing the alternative reasons for each component of the issue. Here is one approach: • The reason there is no light beer could be because (1) consumers do not demand it, (2) producers are not producing it, despite consumer demand, or (3) some outside influence, such as the government, will not permit light beer in the country. Following the producer option, one can subdivide the problem as nobody wants to sell light beer in the UK or somehow, light beer producers are blocked out of the UK The following sample cases have been compiled from Kellogg’s, Stern’s, and Tuck’s Consulting Club Guides to management consulting cases. They are intended to assist you in preparing for your case interview. The suggested approaches are by no means the only approach you could take, but rather are the ones authors of these guides thought were most appropriate

32. General Cases (Cont’d) Case #4 Case #5* Your client is going to build a skyscraper, but is not sure how many stories to make it. How should he decide? The airline industry is characterized by low returns and stiff competition. In the early years after deregulation, discount carriers like People Express sprang up. Years later the discounters have gone out of business. In a price-competitive industry, why is it that the higher-cost carriers were able to survive and the low-cost ones weren't? Hypothetical Approach • This is an economic supply/demand mind tease. Clearly you don't want to lose money on the deal. The building will house tenants, who will pay to reside there. The costs of building and maintaining the structure (both fixed and incremental by story) need to be compared to revenue-generating capability of the project. When marginal revenue equals marginal cost you stop adding stories Hypothetical Approach These are some of the basic issues to be fleshed out: • Characteristics of discounters: – Low fares – Limited service • Characteristics of major carriers: – Higher fares, but better coverage and service – Hub systems channeling traffic • Competitive moves by majors: Innovative use of information technology for yield management and differential pricing 1) Basically they priced every seat individually based on continuously monitoring supply/demand 2) They wooed leisure customers with fares lower than discounters and charged more from business travelers (indifferent to price but sensitive to service frequency) 3) They stole the discounters' market and forced them out * This case is too complex for BA candidates. Included here for illustrative purposes only

33. General Cases Guesstimates Examples There are approximately 6 billion people in the world. Lets assume that a third live in areas where they cannot get credit cards (rural areas, poverty stricken areas, etc.). Of the 4 billion remaining lets assume three quarters are adults (in the U.S. it’s 4/5, but we have a slower birth rate than many countries). Of the 3 billion adults a third don't carry credit cards (they have bad credit, don't believe in credit cards, are unemployed, etc.). Of the 2 billion adults who carry credit cards, each carries on average of 3 cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express). Resulting in 6 billion credit cards in the world. Yankee Stadium holds approximately 50,000 fans. There are approximately 150 additional people working at the stadium. Of the workers each either carry approximately 40 quarters or have 40 in their cash registers to provide change to customers for a total of 6,000 quarters. Of the fans approximately 4/5 are male. Of that 40,000 half are like my dad and have about 10 quarters in their pockets at any given time for a total of 200,000 quarters. Of the remaining 20,000 half have no quarters, and half have 6 quarters to ride the subway home for a total of 60,000 quarters. Of the 10,000 women half have 12 quarters for them and their husbands/boyfriends to ride the subway home, and half have 1 quarter to call someone in an emergency for a total of 65,000 quarters. For a grand total of 331,000 quarters in Yankee Stadium. There are approximately 250 million people in the U.S. Of those about half are women. Of the 125 million women 4/5 are adults. Of the 100 million adult women about 3/4 wear either pierced or clip-on earrings for a total of 75 million people. Of the 25 million girls about 1/5 get their ears pierced or start wearing earrings each year and about 2/5 already have until the full 3/4 wear earrings by the time they are adults for a total of approximately 15 million girls at any given time. Of the 125 million men, 4/5 are adults. Of the 100 million adult men about 1/20 wear earrings (based on my personal experience, but obviously subjective) for a total of 5 million. Of the 25 million boys only about 1/50 have parents who will let them wear earrings for a total of .5 million boys. For a grand total of 95.5 million people wearing earrings. How many credit cards are there in the world? How many quarters are there in Yankee stadium during a sold out game? How many people in the U.S. wear earrings? While most cases fall into the strategy category, there are several cases that are brain-teasers. These cases are meant to test your quantitative ability and general logical reasoning skills $

34. Sample Special Cases

36. Special Cases - Puzzles * Fresh BA’s are not expected to have SAS knowledge. Sample case included for illustration only Puzzle #1 Puzzle #2 A Little nation has its gold coins manufactured by eight different European companies. The Treasury Minister and his secretary were examining samples just delivered from the eight companies. "How much should these coins weigh?" the Minister asked. "Ten grams each, Sir." "At least one of these coins - this one - is lighter than the others," said the Minister. "Let's check." He put the coin on the scale, which showed that the coin weighed only nine grams. A bunch of coins, untidily placed on a tray, were frantically searched by the Minister and his secretary. Within the bunch, they found a handful of coins that also weighed one gram less than they should. The two men looked at each other; obviously, one of the manufacturing companies was producing coins with the wrong weight. "Most of the coins are still packed in the plastic wrappers. It should be easy to tell which company is producing the faulty batch," said the secretary. The two men placed eight packs of coins on the table, one pack from each company. "How tedious," sighed the Minister. "Do we really have to use this scale eight more times, just to find the faulty batch of coins?" "That won't be necessary, Sir," grinned the secretary. "We can find the lighter coins by using the scale only once."? How is it possible? One day Arthur came to Merlin and asked him, "Show me how to be a wise and good king." Merlin replied, "If you can pass a series of mental tests, I will teach you". Merlin then showed Arthur three chests, one was labelled GOLD COINS, the second was labelled SILVER COINS, and the last, GOLD OR SILVER COINS. He stated that all the three labels were all on the wrong chests. Given that one chest contained gold, one silver, and one bronze. How many chests must Arthur open to deduce which label goes on which chest? The secretary placed on the scale 1 coin from the first batch, 2 from the second, and so on until he put 8 from the eighth batch. If all coins weighed 10 grams each, then the weight displayed on the scale should have been 360 grams ((1 + 2 + ... + 8) × 10). But, since one batch of coins weighs less, the difference between 360 grams and the weight displayed on the scale should point us to the faulty batch. Arthur does not need to open any chests. Since all labels are on the wrong chests, the chest labelled GOLD OR SILVER COINS cannot contain either gold nor silver, so must contain bronze. Thus the chest labelled GOLD COINS must contain silver coins, and SILVER COINS must contain gold. Puzzle cases are intended to test your conceptual reasoning and ability to think logically

37. Sample Data Analytics Cases

41. Additional Resources