Hacking the Case Interview

Question 1

The 8 buckets?

Answer 1

1. Market attractiveness
2. Competitive landscape
3. Company attractiveness or capabilities
4. Customer segmentation and customer needs
5. Financial considerations
6. Risks and mitigations
7. Synergies
8. Create your own bucket

Question 2

What is market attractiveness?

Answer 2

• Anything about the market goes into this bucket.
• What is the market size
• Market growth rate
• Average profit margins?
• Major trends/changes in the market?
• new technologies
• new regulations?
• Is the market developing or mature
• Is the market convergng with another market?

Question 3

Competitive landscape

Answer 3

• Who are the competitors
• How much market share does each player have?
• What products do competitors sell?
• What capabilities do they have?
• What do competitors do to differentiate themselves from the other players?
• What are the barriers to entry?

Question 4

Company attractiveness/company capabilities

Answer 4

• What line of products does this company offer?
• What ways do the products differntiate themselves from other products?
• How much market share does the compnay have,
• How profitable is the company?
• What distribution channels does the company have?
• What partnerships does the company have?
• How much buying power does the company have?
• What ist he go-to-market strategy?
• In what geographic regions is the company based in?
• Is the company growing or declining?

Question 5

Customer segmentation and needs

Answer 5

• What are the different customer segments?
• What are the characteristics of each customer segment?
• What are the needs/preferences of each customer segment?
• how are customers changing in each customer segment?
• how profitableis each customer segment?

Question 6

Financial considerations?

Answer 6

• Is the implication of this business decision profitable?
• What are the different revenue elements?
• What are the different revenue elements?
• What are the different cost elements?
• How can we increase revenues?
• What is the pricing strategy?
• How long until we breakeven?
• What is the cost of acquisition?
• What is the financial exit-strategy of this business decision?

Question 7

Synergies

Answer 7

Anything about synergies between two products or two companies

• What are the possible revenue synergies?
• What are the possible cost synergies?
• Are synergies realizable?
• How long will realizing these synergies take?

Question 8

Risks and mitigations?

Answer 8

• This is a versatile bucket that you can use in frameworks where you need one more bucket but cannto think of one.
• What are the risks of this business decision?
• What is the likely impact of such risks?
• Can these risks be mitigated?