Knowledge

Profit has fallen and the cause is not stated. Decompose it, isolate the driver, then say what to do about it.

Should the client enter this market, and if so how. Attractiveness, competition, entry mode, and whether the numbers clear the bar.

Estimate a number nobody has. Pick a path, state assumptions the interviewer can check, and sanity-check the answer.

Set or change a price. Cost gives the floor, competition the reference, and value to the customer the ceiling.

Revenue has to grow. Existing products or new, existing customers or new, and what the client can actually execute.

Take cost out without taking the business with it. Find the large, addressable lines and leave the ones that carry revenue.

Something in the process is the constraint. Find the bottleneck, because improving anything else changes nothing.

Buy, build, partner, or walk away. Value, synergies that survive contact with reality, and what the downside costs.

Compare business units by market attractiveness, competitive position and capital needs. Decide where to invest, hold or exit using explicit assumptions.

The objective is not profit. Beneficiaries, outcomes per rupee, and constraints a company would never face.

Brain teasers and cases with no standard structure. Structure still wins; the structure just has to be built on the spot.

Diagnose a performance decline by separating internal and external causes. Compare evidence, rule out weak explanations and focus the next question.

Explain a revenue change through price, volume and product mix. Build a numerical bridge with consistent units and reconcile it to the total.

Find which customer segment explains a change in performance. Reconcile weighted totals, test mix effects and avoid counting the same sale twice.

Explain a price change or shortage by separating supply and demand. Test shifts with evidence before recommending a response to the constraint.

Map an experience before, during and after an event. Locate customer pain points, choose meaningful metrics and prioritise improvements.

Combine financial thresholds with customer, brand and execution risks. Build a balanced yes-or-no recommendation instead of relying on numbers alone.

Turn a recommendation into immediate and longer-term actions. Assign owners, metrics and dependencies, and distinguish stabilisation from structural repair.

Map who is affected by a business decision. Compare incentives, resistance and trade-offs, then plan the actions needed for a workable transition.

Identify financial, operational, regulatory and reputational risks. Rank exposure, assign mitigation and monitor early warnings in a case recommendation.

Diagnose falling sales through product, price, place and promotion. Use the 4Ps to choose the next question and test the most likely cause.

Assess industry attractiveness with Porter's Five Forces. Connect rivalry, entry, substitutes and bargaining power to margins and strategy.

Trace a cost or quality problem through the business's activities. Use value chain analysis to locate losses and test a focused improvement.

Compare building, partnering and buying when a client needs a capability. Weigh time, cost, control and risk before recommending an approach.

Test how political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors affect a market entry or investment decision.

Compare growth through existing or new products and markets. Use the Ansoff Matrix to organise options, test assumptions and weigh execution risk.

Use company, customer and competitor questions to understand an unfamiliar case. Identify the key uncertainty and choose a focused structure.