Beginner trying this case

Question

This was my first time practicing a M&A case but I found it really hard.

How are you meant to know that you're supposed to go down the route of calculating wine production and costs to run, are there any pointers in the case prompt?

As a beginner I started going down:

M&A framework: market attractiveness (for wine), company attractiveness (ability for vineyard to produce more), synergies (buyers skills/employees skills) and finances (cost to buy more equipment/resources/employees, profit of wine vs grapes

AND

Marketing: product, distributing, branding

I managed to “ask” some right questions to gain access to the additional interviewer-provided info, but my structure was very different to the solutions provided

Answer 1

Hi Anne,

You're not supposed to ‘know’.

In the real interview, interviewers also nudge you along. It's important to sharpen your intuition and to pick on the hints, but don't assume you need to know everything.

All of this makes it important that you have either a good casing buddy or a coach throughout the practice process. You need somebody who can simulate well what is actually going to happen during the interview.

When I was practising, I'd often get frustrated because my casing partners would provide little support (too little compared to what a real interviewer would do) and that made it impossible to solve the case.

Lastly, you should use your upfront structure as a means of navigating through the case. Feel free to also use the following guide to get a stronger grasp on the basics of structuring (frameworks or brainstorming questions):

Mastering Brainstorming: A Consultant's Guide

Best,
Cristian

Answer 2

Well… this is not an M&A case.

This is a performance improvement case.

This highlights the dangers of trying to memorize frameworks and then to assign frameworks to types of cases. The whole approach you are taking is wrong: do not memorize frameworks; and don't try to have pre-fit approaches to case types.

The whole objective of the case practice is to become a good problem solver. This means you have to learn on how to solve problems by yourself. No one hires Bain for them to come with a pre-made framework.

Going back to the case. This is a performance improvement case, particularly they want you to revamp the winery part of the business (give the winery some impetus). How to you give some impetus? Improve revenue. Improve margins.

But since you have two lines of business, you need to make sure that producing wine will be better than selling production to other people.

No pre-made framework will account for this specific situation. That's why you should not memorize. You need to be focused on the specific GOAL and CONTEXT of the case.

I am sure that if you understood the GOAL and CONTEXT, you were actually able to come up with a more sensible structure and ask many more “right questions”.

Answer 3

Hi Anne,

First, be patient with yourself. This is going to take a long time. Keep reflecting on cases, reviewing them, learning frameworking, etc. and things will start to make more sense.

You are never supposed to KNOW any exact step of the case…just like a consultant doesn't KNOW exactly where a project will go.

Rather, you need to leverage your framework to ask the right questions in the right way to get what you need.

A case can go anywhere. But having a framework/structure means that, after, 3-5 well-framed questions, you can solve ANY case.

By the way, this isn't an M&A case :)

Consider coaching! Sounds like you could benefit immensely from real guidance (instead of trying to figure out what you don't know)

Here's some reading to help:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/how-to-shift-your-mindset-to-ace-the-case

https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/pitfalls-case-interview-preparation