Frameworks for Case Consulting

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Remember that common business strategy cases will include:

• Advising a client on an acquisition,
• Responding to a competitive move by another company, and,
• Evaluating opportunities for a new product introduction.
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Also known as the Cost‐Revenue Framework
• At the MBA level, case questions are rarely simply about profitability or figuring out the
absolute numbers.
• Your goal will be to take the information you gather during the profitability discussion
and make sense of how to apply it in shaping your case solution.
• Always listen to the case question when your interviewer gives it to you. If you are
unclear whether the question is asking about a profit issue or a revenue issue, make sure
you clarify it when you restate the question back to the interviewer.
• If you know that profitability is part of your problem solving, include it in your “roadmap”
statement, which comes after you’ve restated the case question. If, and only if, you need to
gather more information before you lay out your roadmap for your interviewer, ask a
selected number of “clarifying questions.” These questions, once you are practiced and
comfortable with case interviewing, should be focused and strategically wise questions.
This would be the opposite of a series of shotgun questions where you are using the
question‐asking to figure out which direction to approach the case question.
• Once you’ve stated your roadmap, now you are starting the “analytical” phase of the
case interview. By the framework set up here, work on devising questions that drill down
on the root issues from a profit perspective. Language such as “I’d like to take a look at the
Revenue side, and then proceed to the Cost aspect” will assist you in demonstrating
structure and logical ordering of your case solving.
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The 3‐Cs are a key framework because it provides structure when solving case questions that
involve a new market entry. If you take a look at this framework, it can evaluate the market
standing of a given company.
• We will review this framework from left to right, starting with the Company. As you can see, the
revenue and cost structures are one of the ways you evaluate the company itself (thus engaging
parts of the profitability framework).
• In a consultative environment, you would be the consultant reviewing (objectively) how the
company is doing – from a financial, product (or service) array, operations efficiency, and any
industry related specific areas.
• Without customers, no business would remain a “going concern” for long. Thus, the customer is
our next topic for evaluation. Some questions, along with those listed on this section, would
include the quantification of the various tiers/segments of customers, and their retention rates, as
well as understanding how customer acquisition takes place, and the length and effort of the sales
process.
• Equally important is understanding a client’s competition. And to be comprehensive, you want to

keep in mind the macro forces when evaluating the competition. Some macro forces would include
the current economic environment, the innovations in the industry/world, regulatory
changes/impacts. The competition evaluation includes understanding if the playing field is
practically an oligopoly or a fragmented space. If there are say, top 3 players who own 40% of the
market share, but the remaining “pie” is fragmented with over 30 competitors; versus, a playing
field where top 3 own 90% of the market share.
In many cases where marketing is a key part of the solution, the 3‐Cs usually make at least a partial
appearance.
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The 4‐Ps is a key framework. While it is known as one of the two principal marketing frameworks
(along with the 3‐Cs), this framework can help you in many ways.
• For example, a case question concerning a new product launch would utilize this framework,
along with several others, to be solved correctly.
• Again, we will be walking through this framework from left to right.
• Without a strong product, it will not be able to secure customers, and certainly not returning
customers (thus lacking customer retention). By evaluating the product’s features and benefits,
and understanding how it appears to the consumer or prospective client, the consultant (you) will
be able to assess the viability of the product. This is very important if you are working on a new
product launch, or being asked to objectively study a company’s or division’s existing product set to
improve SKU selection or operations efficiency (as a potential case question).
• Pricing is an art into itself; however, in a 20‐25 minute case, you’ll want to be able to work up a
“back of the envelope” pricing suggestion. If called upon, base pricing recommendation on what
you gather about the product’s pricing strategy, the competition’s pricing approach(es), and
company expectations.
• Promotion is different in every industry – this is one area that knowing how the key industries
operate is VERY important. That’s why all of you should be reading and applying what you read –
whether it’s the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Bloomberg’s BusinessWeek, The
Economist, or your Competitive Strategies class!
• Place aka Distribution – this P looks at how the product in question is distributed. If it’s a food or
CPG product, is it in supermarkets, big box stores, in high end specialty markets? If a baby product,
shoes or electronics, is it primarily online, and split between storefronts and the web?
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Many students run to this framework, and sometimes erroneously. As a word of caution,
interviewers are assessing your logical and strategic thinking in what you choose as your
framework(s) to solve the case question at hand. A pet peeve of interviewers is if you try
to force‐fit a framework to solve your case.
Michael Porter believed that there are 5 competitive forces in play within an industry.
• Under the top box of “Threat of New Entrants,” this speaks to barriers of entry and
whether they are high or low in a given industry.
• Pressure from substitution products – Bathroom tissue or cooking oil are both good
examples. There are so many different options that consumers can purchase. That said, it
forces the companies that provide these products to price based on the many compelling
options – to the point of price wars to maintain their individual market share.
• Bargaining power of buyers – an example might be college textbook pricing. With the
advent of Amazon jumping into the textbook business, it changed the competitive
landscape – likely forces on‐campus bookstores to modify pricing to keep students.
• Bargaining power of suppliers – when there are many suppliers for a few buyers, the
buyers have the upper hand. And visa versa – if there are many buyers for a few suppliers,
the suppliers have the upper hand.
• Rivalry is another competitive force – in the past 20 years, companies have increasingly
had to compete both in their local/domestic and global space, and thus address
competitive forces globally.
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1

Remember that common business strategy cases will include:

• Equally important is understanding a client’s competition. And to be comprehensive, you want to

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