How to Ace the Deloitte Consulting Case Interview: A Case Example + MCO’s 6 Tips

you've applied to deloitte and now you've been invited to the case interview congratulations you are now one step closer to becoming a deloitte consultant and you're probably feeling both excited and maybe even a little nervous after all the case interview is very competitive and firms like deloitte use it to make sure they're only hiring the best of the best they're looking for the brightest candidates out there who can help them add value to their clients but don't worry after watching this video you're going to feel more prepared to land that deloitte offer in this video we'll cover the types of case interview questions that deloitte uses the skills that you'll need to exhibit if you want to be hired as well as we're actually going to go over an actual case to show you exactly what you can expect and how to ace your deloitte case interview we'll also give you our six tips for acing the deloitte case interview so that you're ready and you feel confident on your interview day [Music] hi my name is davis nguyen i'm the founder of my consulting offer our company helps people just like you from all types of background land their dream jobs at top consulting firms including deloitte we've helped over 500 people including wilson land his dream firm at deloitte and we can help you too just thinking about having to pass all the different rounds of interviews and then interviewing with so many different firms and you know all of them having such a low acceptance rate i think that was really my biggest fear i received an internship offer from deloitte as a strategy summer scholar and i also received an offer from ey and i'll be joining deloitte in the atlanta office next summer i'm just really thankful for all you guys for helping me through this and helping me actually achieve achieve this goal that i've been wanting to achieve for a while now if you're joining us today for the first time click subscribe and you'll get new videos on landing your dream consulting offer as soon as they are available deloitte is one of the big four accounting and consulting firms and in the consulting space one of the biggest consulting firms out there and their interviews are known to be thorough we know that preparing for the case interview can feel scary especially if you do not have a business background fortunately my team and i at my consulting offer know exactly how to help you get ready and we have a track record for making sure candidates are ready to perform their best during their interview days including to pass the deloitte case interview let's start with what a business case interview looks like at deloitte and the types of cases that you'll be evaluated on first of all what is a case interview a case interview is an interview conducted within a business context the interviewer will present information about a company and a business problem that they're encountering these two elements together are known as a case case interviews can either be interviewee led or interviewer led depending on who is expected to determine the order of which the case is analyzed deloitte case interviews are mostly interviewee led which means that they're looking for you to control solving the case for example if a case involves looking at the cost and the revenue you get to decide where you want to look at first so you can look at the cost first or the revenues first it'll be your job to break down the problem choose a framework and ask appropriate questions to gather data that you need to solve the case deloitte uses three types of cases which corresponds to the branches of deloitte consulting that you may be applying to those are strategy and operations also known as deloitte sno cases with strategy sno focuses on corporate issues such as organizational strategies supply chain improvement operating model transformation and business process improvements if you haven't started your preparation yet and don't know what these terms mean that's okay trust me by the time you've seen a few case examples you're gonna know what these terms mean and one thing to remember is that business is not rocket science once you know what a word means for example you just do a google search or even ask the interviewer it's all about applying logical thinking and intuition second is technology consulting these cases focus more on technology such as digital strategy i.t program delivery infrastructure software solutions and cyber security it may all sound technical but once again you're going to be tested on applying logic and problem solving skills finally are human capital cases which focuses on people issues such as organizational transformation cultural changes knowledge management and talent acquisition and development in practice the branch of deloitte consulting you're applying to will of course influence the business case that you receive we'll cover an example of a case later in this video for you to know exactly what to expect before we break down a case in depth let's move on to reviewing the skills that you'll be tested on during your case interview that you'll want to be aware of so that you know what interviewers are looking for the skills you'll be assessed on deloitte uses case interviews to assess a number of skills that it values in consultants in particular they're going to test you on your structured problem solving your analytical skills making sure that you have a balance of creativity and practicality and your resilience let's go through all of them the first is structured problem solving this is the ability to carefully think through a problem in a structured and logical way it's a key skill for consultants really this is a key skill you'll need to be able to break down a business problem to identify and analyze root causes as well as potential solutions case interviews test this skill by providing you a lot of information and data for you to manage within an unfamiliar business context your ability to be able to sort through the information to pull out what's the most relevant and important is how you'll be assessed on this skill you'll also get to know what this means in the next part of the video where we'll demonstrate a live case the second skill that you'll be assessed on are your analytical skills this is the lord's way of knowing if you're comfortable with numbers and your ability to handle numbers in practice consulting math is just high school math you don't need a phd or fancy calculus to crack it but you do need to be comfortable going through a lot of numbers under pressure in the middle of a conversation with your interviewer so you want to make sure that you brush up on your mental math way in advance of your interviews the third skill that you'll be assessed on is your ability to be able to balance creativity with practicality the reason that deloitte and other firms do this is that the case interview gives the interviewer a chance to see how creatively you can work to solve a client's real-life problem clients hire consultants to solve complex multi-factor problems clients are not looking to spend tons of money on mundane issues that they can solve themselves so the interviewer will want to see whether or not you can contribute to building these values for the client using your ability to come up with innovative solutions however that innovative thinking needs to be balanced with good business sense suggesting solutions that aren't viable or attracted to the client shows that you lack good business sense and good judgment whatever your recommendation is always make sure that you highlight the risk associated with it and how those can be managed the next skill that deloitte interviewers look for is your ability to be resilient case interviews can feel challenging very much like solving a real life client problem as a result case interviews are a perfect environment for interviewers to see how comfortable you are when you're faced with ambiguous problems and how resilient you are when things get tough whether that's working through a tricky calculation or struggling to see how the pieces all fit together interviewers want to make sure that you don't easily give up when this happens when you feel challenged take a breath and give yourself a moment to clear your head then jump back and keep going when you're on the job sometimes the client will ask your team to change something that you've done last minute or they might challenge you on your conclusion when that happens it's extremely important for you to keep your calm and have a go-getter attitude so make sure to never give up in the case interview and always keep going while staying personable so great so that's all the skills that you'll be tested on so how does solving a case actually look like in practice again i know preparing for the case interview can feel quite daunting so let's cover an example so you know exactly what you can expect so that you feel confident on your day of the interview this case is taken straight from the case interview preparation tool that you can find on deloitte's website so you can be sure that this is representative of what you'll encounter on the day of your interview here we go your client is recreations unlimited a global apparel and sportswear company facing declining market share they are seeking to improve their digital customer experience and understand broader organizational impact of change after you get the interview prompt the first thing to do is repeat the interviewer's information that you just heard to make sure that you got everything right because you don't want to accidentally use the wrong information or solve the wrong problem then you get an opportunity to ask clarifying questions about the business and the case that's anything that's related to the scope of what you're trying to solve for for example if you're trying to solve for revenue or cost or profit case you might want to know how much of an impact the client wants to see in their revenues their costs or their profits is there a certain timeline is there a certain geography for example is this bound to the u.s market an asian market is it global what's the capacity and of course all this additional information that you get access to before the case is going to help you solve the case but not all of it will end up being relevant in the analysis but it's important for you to have a full picture of what you need to focus on you've learned that the consumer product industry is seeing a shift in competitive landscape with an increase in sales through e-commerce rather than traditional brick-and-mortar retailers e-tellers and direct-to-consumer manufacturers despite high quality performance and lifestyle products the client has not successfully reacted to the change in consumer experience preferences and lags behind in e-commerce sales moreover you have access to some detailed information about the company first you learned that it's clearly a well-established brand with a long history it was founded in 1952 has 11 billion dollars in revenue globally and more than 30 000 employees and hundreds of retail locations second you know that their offerings seem pretty thorough with clothing for men women and children as well as sportswear and equipment third you know they still have the largest market share in europe and are growing in other continents but they are lagging behind the 10 industry average of e-commerce sales standing at only 5 currently finally you know that they have a high turnover among young employees overall employee satisfaction has also been going down the last couple years in this very hierarchical organization and that's it for the background information so make sure that you know about the client's objectives as well as any numerical target that you're trying to hit here the goal is to grow sales through e-commerce with a 40 annual growth in direct to consumer digital channels over the next five years that's a lot a strong candidate will comment on that and note that it is very aggressive target the client also asks deloitte to address organizational considerations in the recommendation that means that factors such as talent acquisition or organization will also have to be touched upon during this analysis moving on to the first question the structure the first question you're being asked is the potential reasons for the client's poor e-commerce performance relative to competitors one thing to understand is that the first question of pretty much any business or case interview is just an excuse for you to show off your structuring skills during these questions you'll lay out a framework that will be the backbone of your analysis for the rest of the case here's how you can go about doing it and you can also check the deloitte's website for their own version of the answer later in order to solve this problem i'd like to break it down into two major buckets the first are the internal factors which are related to those that the company can completely control within the company and then external factors which are outside the company's direct control so within the internal factors i like to look at three sub buckets the first is the strategy the second is the execution which i also call governance and the third is the capabilities within strategy for example there could be multiple reasons why our client has had a history of poor e-commerce performance relative to their competitors the first could just be inertia for example because we have so much brick and mortar maybe there's just resistance to being able to move on that so we're not focused on e-commerce or if we are focused on it there's no clear plan or plan for focus of investments and putting it into the fastest growing segments second is the execution of governance it could be that we might have a plan and we might be moving towards e-commerce but there's no clear ownership of who is accountable for achieving our targets second is perhaps we do have someone who's owning it but they don't have the right team because they can't retain the right talent talent keeps leaving or third we just have poor tracking for example we don't know what our online experience is or what our customer satisfaction is so we can't improve on it and we're just guessing the last sub bucket is the capabilities for example maybe we just lack talent maybe it's not even retaining talent but we just cannot find the right talent to be able to execute our plan or second we just lack overall knowledge and expertise so these are all the factors that could be affecting us internally but are also external factors that we need to consider for example the market dynamics and the competitive space so first with the market dynamics is first is maybe it's just that we're in a location where consumers are not going into e-commerce as relevant as they are into brick and mortar for example given that let's say in europe there's less ecommerce presence or second our consumers who typically prefer brick and mortar aren't the same as those who prefer e-commerce for example the e-commerce crew maybe perhaps they have different preferences and they don't see our brand as one that they would purchase as an e-commerce brand and then next is the competitors for example maybe our competitors have a better experience shopping online that's stealing away our potential customers and second is perhaps they're moving into faster moving growth areas and it's making it harder for us to follow in with them especially if we aren't the first to market and we don't already have a large presence so these are all the factors that we could be affecting our clients poor performance in the e-commerce space relative to our competitors that's a decent structure to start with notice how we're touching on all the key issues and there's a very clear structure here that's three levels deep to help us make our decision on the next question to win digital customers our client wants to find ways to improve and differentiate their digital customer experience what are some potential ways to improve it and how would this create value for the customer and the business this is a simple brainstorming question for brainstorming questions it's okay for you to ask for a few moments to organize your thoughts however whether you do that or not strong candidates will always deliver their answer in a structured way here's a potential structure that is kind of hinted at in the question value the customer and value to the business so there's two buckets to consider here first is the value to the customer and second is the value to the business when it comes to the value to customer i see three main values first is the speed and convenience second is customers are able to have a more personalized experience when they're browsing more items for example you can get customized recommendations which is what you can get when you're shopping for example at amazon or shoppie and third is there's more emotional connection to the brand especially given that there are multiple ways to purchase the item next is the value to the business which i see as four things first is increase customer loyalty second is that we're able to have more targeted ads or shopping and third is we're able to have a lower cost compared to for example a brick and mortar store and finally we have improved sales notice how the last example there are at least two to three ideas for each bucket the case on the deloitte website has another brainstorming question that we'll skip to keep this video short but make sure to go back and actually practice it so you can hone your brainstorming skills next let's move on to the math question of this case our client has provided us with data to help us evaluate the costs and potential opportunities of improving the website we know that if recreationals unlimited decides to improve the website it will cost them 10 million dollars but this 10 million investment will result in an additional dollar spent on average for each of the 20 million people visiting the website every single year moreover we know that the average profit margin on products sold through the website is 50 that means that for every dollar spent half of it goes directly to profits with that information what can we say about the improvement to the company's total sales and profits also known as their top and bottom lines so here the math is pretty easy which is that for every 20 million visitors we get if we're assuming that we get one dollar on average per visitor we're gonna get an additional 20 million dollars per year in revenue and since we have a profit margin of 50 percent that means a 10 million dollar increase in profits so to know if this is actually a good amount or not we need to consider our goal which is to grow by 40 in a direct to consumer online sales so magic here is if this 20 million in revenue and the 10 million in profits actually will help us closer to that target now a great candidate will not stop there but will link it back to the original question here's what it could look like so we know for example that we are 11 billion right now in sales and we know that five percent of that is due to e-commerce here so if we know that e-comm provides for five percent of 11 billion that equals out to be 550 million per year so if you look at that 20 million here as a out of 20 million here looks like it's roughly about three percent increase okay so this three percent increase here is pretty low compared to how big the segment is but of course we know that directing consumer is just a share of total e-commerce however if we do assume let's say that half of the total sales on online sales is e-commerce that would be half of this year so be 20 million here even if that is the case with a million if that's the case it is 20 million then we're still looking at roughly about seven percent increase so that's pretty far away from our 40 target of an increase so we'll want to look at other ways for our client to reach their 40 target because i don't think they're gonna be happy with an increase of three to forty percent if their success metric is forty percent as you saw from the example on the map question what matters is being organized first explain to your interviewer what you will do similar to the example and then do it make sure to practice more case math well ahead of the day of your interview because doing math under pressure makes you more likely to make mistakes and if you practice beforehand you're less likely to make any mistakes at all the last question is another brainstorming question what are the people and organizational implications of implementing the proposed strategies here again there is a structure that is rather apparent from the prompt which is organization versus people your answer could look like the following so when i approach this question i want to break it down into two buckets which is one organizational implications and second talent and people when it comes to the organizational implications there are three things that we want to be looking at one is we want to make sure there is clear accountability that is someone's owning the fact that they need to be able to implement this change and the benefit of having this 10 million dollar investment second is there needs to be clear governance and accountability all the way from the top to the bottom so that performance can actually be achieved so it doesn't matter if we have buy-in from the top if people at the bottom are not implementing it we can't have that change and finally we need to have a proactive system of communication going so that we can actually see what's happening and make sure that everyone is aware of how their work is impacting the organization next is on the talent piece which i also call the people piece is we need to do four things first is we need to be able to evaluate our current talent poll and be able to figure out what's causing our low retention so that we can increase our retention second is we want to be able to review our hr recruiting and career process which again further helps making sure that we have great talent and third we need to be able to design internal training programs that will actually attract and retain workers who want to be here and workers that we actually need and finally we want to develop an innovation culture within our organization so that employees know that new ideas are valued and that their ideas will actually be considered and potentially could be the one that allows our organization to achieve our goals here great you just finished up the last section of the analysis after you finish up the analysis cases typically wrap up with you making a final recommendation to the client similar to what you would do in real life based on the key results from your analysis when giving the recommendation you want to make sure that you include the actual recommendation your reasons for your recommendation any potential risks to the client and any potential next steps that you could do to help the client here's what a recommendation for a case could look like so recreation unlimited hired us to improve sales through e-commerce with a goal of 40 annual growth in the direct to consumer digital channels over the next five years our current recommendation for our client based on our analysis so far is to invest in improving the website experience and we recommend this for three reasons first is that this will increase our sales by an estimated 20 million dollars annually every single year and that the break even starts after the first year with just a 10 million dollar investment so every year afterwards we're gonna see a 10 million dollar profit from that second is that it will also create more value for our customers and also create brand loyalty with them this would also require some deep organizational and talent shifts third of course is that this change will also have a positive impact on our culture by making sure that we have to move towards a more innovative culture which has its long-term benefits as well at this point though the major risk is that we have not yet to look at the chance to quantify how far away from our target this leaves us and there's a lot of details that need to be made in order for us to implement this change as well as hit our 40 target as next steps given more time my team and i would like to work with you to assess how much sales is missing in order for us to hit our target and lay out a detailed plan to get there congratulations you just solved a real deloitte case it's okay to feel like that was a lot especially if this is your first time going through a case interview for most people it can take a bit of practice before you feel comfortable with a case interview if you want more case examples feel free to check out our youtube channel as well as our website my consulting offer dot org and we'll link you to more resources to help you prepare for your case interviews including where you can get personalized one-on-one coaching all the links are in the description below in the meantime let's cover the six tips to keep in mind to perform your best on the day of your deloitte case interview six tips for acing your deloitte case interview tip number one keep organized notes case interviews can last up to an hour so you have a lot of information that you need to process so you want to make sure that you have all the information in front of you make sure that you take organized notes throughout the case and don't forget anything important because you might need to use that information later on in your analysis neat and logical notes also show that you can manage large amounts of information and data effectively if you were hired so not only is it helping you but you're also showing the interviewer that you can be a great consultant tip number two ask questions to fill in the gaps it's important to fully understand the problem that you're trying to solve for so don't be afraid to ask clarifying questions or for data to fill in any gaps in your analysis asking clarifying questions can keep you from going in the wrong direction and wasting a lot of time it also gives the interviewer insight into how you're approaching the problem so if you're not sure if a client's problem is regional for example to the united states or globally ask it tip number three take time to organize your thoughts make sure that you take the time during the interview to compose yourself and to structure your thoughts it might be tempting to launch into responding right away to every time that your interviewer asks you a question but really give yourself the space and the time to think through your answer first you want to make sure that you don't miss on something important or forget an important point that you want to convey to the interviewer tip number four use a framework and develop a hypothesis using a business framework or an issue tree helps you drill into the heart of the problem this means that you're more likely to develop a hypothesis that solves the key issue the client is facing keep referring back to your issue tree and hypothesis during the interview to make sure that you're on track and that your analysis is logical and you haven't gotten down the wrong rabbit hole as you go through the interview keep explaining your thought process to the interviewer so they know exactly where you are and exactly what your reasoning is and how you're thinking about solving the problem tip number five structure your recommendation present your analysis in a clear and structured way start but the main takeaway what's your recommendation for the client then walk the interviewer through the key results of your analysis in a logical way highlighting the most important points and explaining how they led you to draw the recommendation and conclusion that you have but you do not need to repeat the entire analysis stick to what matters the most and what will back up your recommendation share any assumptions that you've made to reach your recommendation and also any associated risks this shows that you're also thinking more broadly about the client as well as the situation in the business as a whole and the final tip and number six is don't forget to breathe while case interviews can feel daunting don't panic view the case as a conversation that helps you and the interviewer understand your ability to think through a problem rather than just something that needs to be solved this will help you ease the pressure and remember the interviewer wants you to succeed they're here trying to find their next great teammate and they want to hire you because they want you to succeed they're really hoping that that person they give an offer to is you so there you are you have everything now that you need to master the case interview especially the deloitte case interview now it's time for you to start practicing and if you want to become great at case interviews to the fact that you can quickly master case interviews and feel confident going to every single interview that you'll land the offer we want to help you feel that way we offer an entire curriculum teaching you how to prepare for consulting interviews including the case the fit and all other interviews that you'll encounter when you work with my consulting offer you'll get one-on-one coaching with former interviewers who will work with you to develop your strengths as well as remove your weaknesses we have a proven process in fact here are wilson and john two clients who landed their dream firm deloitte while working with us at my consulting offer my results for working with davis and his team were like incredible i came out of it um improving my resume like tenfold being able to be a significantly better caser than i went into the process being just thinking about having to pass all the different rounds of interviews and then interviewing with so many different firms and you know all of them having such a low acceptance rate i think that was really my biggest fear i received an internship offer from deloitte as a strategy summer scholar and i also received an offer from ey and i'll be joining deloitte in the atlanta office next summer i'm just really thankful for all you guys for helping me through this and helping me actually achieve achieve this goal that i've been wanting to achieve for a while now now that you've heard from wilson and john would you like to know how we can help you land your dream offer including deloitte for a limited time i've asked my team of former recruiters to help anyone who's watching this video land their dream offer when you click the link in the description you'll be given an opportunity to book a free 30-minute strategy session with one of the members of our team the best part is that we typically charge a thousand dollars for these strategy sessions but until slots run out you can grab one of these thousand dollar strategy sessions today absolutely free all you need to do is click the link in the description below the video and schedule your free strategy session i'm so excited to meet you and to help you become a management consultant

Channel: My Consulting Offer

Views: 61,118

Keywords: #CaseInterview, #CaseStudy, #case, #ConsultingInterviewTips, #CaseInterviewExample, #Consulting, #ConsultingInterview, #ManagementConsulting, #MBB, #DeloitteConsultingInterview, #DeloitteCaseInterview

Id: d128nmP_yN8

Length: 27min 43sec (1663 seconds)

Published: Thu May 19 2022