Opportunity Assessment: Alternative Revenue Streams for a Salt Mine

Note for Interviewer

Show Exhibit 1 to the candidate. Grant some time for the candidate to digest the information. Encourage them to describe what they see on the chart if they do not proactively do so. If candidates ask, they can assume that the historical CAGR values shown on the chart also apply for the next 5 years.

Good candidates will:

• determine industry size, growth rate and residual value to be key criteria in the decision making process
• try to better understand the use of fiberglass in the various industry applications and corresponding industry characteristics to aid in their assessment - either by discussing their own thoughts about use cases or by seeking to clarify with the interviewer (additional information are provided in the Solution section)
• proactively address the aspect of accessibility of the fiberglass itself depending on the individual use case (otherwise the interviewer needs to provide guidance and ask for other relevant criteria, hinting to costs for extracting the material, asking about how to implement such a project or how the process of getting to the fiberglass would look like)
• use a simple scoring methodology to prioritize relevant industries but also mention the possibility to weight criteria differently
• identify the Wind Energy sector as the only viable focus area for further investigation

Note for Interviewer

Show Exhibit 2 to candidate. Grant some time for the candidate to digest the information. Encourage them to describe what they see on the chart if they do not proactively do so.

Note for Interviewer

Show Exhibit 3 to candidate. This part of the case is conceptual in nature. There are no numbers or figures provided nor needed. The provided list of use cases for salt caverns is not intended to be exhaustive so that candidates could think of additional options if it made sense