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Case Interview Fundamentals: Lesson 19 [Drill: Beer Direct Sales] — Transcript

by CraftingCases · 5,336 words · 850 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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  1. 0:00Hey guys, so in this framework drill,
  2. 0:02you will learn and apply two things. The
  3. 0:05first is the step-by-step to build and
  4. 0:08present your frameworks, as we've seen
  5. 0:11in the theory video on on that. And the
  6. 0:13second thing is
  7. 0:15how to adapt the 3Cs or how to adapt
  8. 0:19your frameworks, in this case the 3Cs
  9. 0:21framework,
  10. 0:22for a specific case. This is a
  11. 0:27medium to difficult, but more towards
  12. 0:30medium case on a beer company that's
  13. 0:33trying to start a direct-to-home
  14. 0:37beer delivery operation in major cities,
  15. 0:39and they want to know if they should do
  16. 0:40it or not. We're going to go into the
  17. 0:42case questions soon.
  18. 0:44Uh but first,
  19. 0:46a note for you guys who are practicing
  20. 0:49or who are learning. There are two time
  21. 0:52frames that you can consider in order to
  22. 0:55do the drill, do the exercise on paper
  23. 0:58or while recording on audio
  24. 1:01before you watch my answer. If you're on
  25. 1:04skill-building mode, so if you're
  26. 1:06building the skills of building
  27. 1:08frameworks,
  28. 1:10take 10 to 15 minutes to structure this.
  29. 1:13I'd say 95% of you who are watching this
  30. 1:16are in this mode. If you can't yet
  31. 1:19build a really good framework for every
  32. 1:22case that you do, then you're on
  33. 1:24skill-building mode. And you're going to
  34. 1:27take longer in this mode than you would
  35. 1:29in an interview because you're learning.
  36. 1:31So, take your time to learn. Later, you
  37. 1:33can focus on improving time. If you're
  38. 1:36on time-improving mode, so if you if you
  39. 1:39know how to build frameworks, but you're
  40. 1:40not just fast enough yet for an
  41. 1:43interview, then take two to three
  42. 1:45minutes to structure because that's the
  43. 1:47time you've got in the interview. So,
  44. 1:49you already know how to do it, you just
  45. 1:51can't do it quick enough, so you're
  46. 1:53practicing for a time. Most of you guys
  47. 1:55are going to be on skill-building mode.
  48. 1:58So, just take take your time to
  49. 2:00structure this. You can always come back
  50. 2:031 2 3 weeks from now and structure this
  51. 2:06again on time-improving
  52. 2:08mode. All right?
  53. 2:10So, let's go into the case.
  54. 2:13And the case question is, should a major
  55. 2:17beer company start a direct-to-home
  56. 2:21beer delivery operation in major cities?
  57. 2:25Let me give you some context because
  58. 2:27this is not an obvious situation. This
  59. 2:30company's trying to, instead of going
  60. 2:33through retail to sell beer, they're
  61. 2:35trying to instead sell directly via
  62. 2:38delivery. A lot of people drink beer at
  63. 2:40home with their friends, and they need
  64. 2:42to go to the supermarket or order from a
  65. 2:45third-party delivery service. This beer
  66. 2:48company's trying to cut the middleman
  67. 2:51and sell beer directly for the
  68. 2:53drink-at-home occasion. And as a side
  69. 2:56note here, in a real interviews, it
  70. 2:58often happens that your interviewer
  71. 3:00casually tells these context situations
  72. 3:04in an informal manner, as I just have
  73. 3:06done. So, they will explain the case
  74. 3:09question in more depth, just informally.
  75. 3:12Even though it's informal, all this
  76. 3:14information should be used to solve the
  77. 3:18case. So, your next step now should be
  78. 3:20to ask clarification questions in case
  79. 3:23you have any. What would yours be? Well,
  80. 3:26here are mine.
  81. 3:28Actually, I just have one clarification
  82. 3:30question, which is, why do they want to
  83. 3:33do it? Is it to increase their margin by
  84. 3:36cutting the middleman off, or is it to
  85. 3:38gain market share because their beer's
  86. 3:41going to be so convenient to buy for
  87. 3:43that specific drinking occasion that
  88. 3:46people prefer to buy their beer because
  89. 3:49of the channel instead of
  90. 3:53going to supermarkets and having the
  91. 3:55option to choose among competitors. So,
  92. 3:57what is their
  93. 3:58reason to do this? Let's say that the
  94. 4:01interviewer tells me that they want to
  95. 4:03do this to get more margin by cutting
  96. 4:05off the retailer and to get more market
  97. 4:08share in the drink-at-home drinking
  98. 4:11occasion. So, both reasons, and this
  99. 4:14makes the case a little bit more
  100. 4:15complex, but not too much. Okay?
  101. 4:18There are other clarification questions
  102. 4:20that would make sense. Anything that
  103. 4:23helps you define the problem
  104. 4:26is game.
  105. 4:28If it's something that should be used to
  106. 4:30solve the problem, then it should be in
  107. 4:33your structure, not in your
  108. 4:34clarification question. So, that's kind
  109. 4:36of the line that you should draw. If
  110. 4:38it's a question that helps you define
  111. 4:41the problem and come up with the right
  112. 4:42structure, it's a clarification
  113. 4:44question. If it doesn't help you define
  114. 4:47the problem, but it helps you solve the
  115. 4:49problem, then it should be in your
  116. 4:51structure.
  117. 4:53Right? So,
  118. 4:54now it's the time for you to pause your
  119. 4:56video and structure the case.
  120. 4:5910 to 15 minutes in case you're learning
  121. 5:01how to build frameworks, two to three
  122. 5:03minutes in case you're learning how to
  123. 5:05do that fast. Now,
  124. 5:08most of you guys are going to do it on
  125. 5:09paper, which is fine. I highly recommend
  126. 5:12you that you do it on paper, and then
  127. 5:15hit the record button in your cell
  128. 5:17phone, in your smartphone, and actually
  129. 5:19deliver the presentation to your
  130. 5:21interviewer. You can then listen to that
  131. 5:24later or compare that to the way I
  132. 5:26present my framework, and that will help
  133. 5:28you improve your communication skills as
  134. 5:31well. Okay? So, pause the video now and
  135. 5:33do the framework on paper. If you want
  136. 5:35to also record the delivery of it, it's
  137. 5:38really important, and I'll see you soon.
  138. 5:41So, let's jump into my answer in this
  139. 5:43framework. So, I'll do it in three
  140. 5:45steps, as you should have.
  141. 5:47You should do the categories first, and
  142. 5:49these categories are the parts of the
  143. 5:51system that you're studying, in this
  144. 5:53case beer sales. Then, you should state
  145. 5:56your issues, the questions that you want
  146. 5:58to make about each category and the
  147. 6:01answers you want to have. And then, the
  148. 6:03third step is to, for most issues or for
  149. 6:06the most relevant issues, to say the
  150. 6:08hypothesis behind them, the hypothesis
  151. 6:10that underlie them, or at least explain
  152. 6:13why you need that piece of information.
  153. 6:16Now, as you've seen in the other video,
  154. 6:18there is a fourth step, which is how to
  155. 6:20test that hypothesis, but we can omit
  156. 6:23that for now
  157. 6:24because the interviewer will ask you
  158. 6:27in case
  159. 6:29they want to know how would you test it.
  160. 6:31And we also cover that in the hypothesis
  161. 6:33testing session of this course, in the
  162. 6:36hypothesis testing module, which you
  163. 6:38will get access
  164. 6:40in a few days.
  165. 6:42Okay? So, from now on, it's me
  166. 6:46delivering this framework to the
  167. 6:48interviewer after thinking for a few
  168. 6:50minutes.
  169. 6:51And here's how I would say it.
  170. 6:53Okay, so to answer how to answer if this
  171. 6:57major beer company should start a
  172. 6:59direct-to-home beer delivery operation
  173. 7:01in major cities, I would get a
  174. 7:05prioritized list of some cities that
  175. 7:08they think or that we think would make
  176. 7:09sense.
  177. 7:11And for this list, I would ask
  178. 7:14four more major questions or I would
  179. 7:16study four major categories. Here they
  180. 7:18are. The first are the customers. I want
  181. 7:21to know if they would like this
  182. 7:23direct-to-home delivery service channel.
  183. 7:26The second is the company. I want to
  184. 7:28know if we can operationalize this.
  185. 7:31Then, I want to study the competitors to
  186. 7:34know if we can outcompete them.
  187. 7:37And by competitors here, I mean other
  188. 7:39beer delivery services,
  189. 7:41not other breweries. And finally, I want
  190. 7:44to study our current distribution
  191. 7:46channels to see how does this move
  192. 7:48change our relationship with them. So,
  193. 7:51let me start with the customers first. I
  194. 7:53have four main questions regarding the
  195. 7:55customers. The first one is, do they
  196. 7:58currently get beer delivered? And if
  197. 8:01not, is this a lack of supply or a lack
  198. 8:04of interest? So, if it's a lack of
  199. 8:06supply, if no one delivers beer to their
  200. 8:08home in the select cities that we're
  201. 8:10studying, we need to confirm if there's
  202. 8:13interest. We need to see if they do a
  203. 8:15lot of beer runs, for example, if they
  204. 8:17go to the supermarket just to buy beer.
  205. 8:20That would be the perfect occasion for
  206. 8:22this delivery service. If there's
  207. 8:24supply, but they're not getting the beer
  208. 8:26delivered, there might be a lack of
  209. 8:28interest, and we can check that because
  210. 8:31if there is no market for this, then we
  211. 8:34probably don't want to do it.
  212. 8:36Second issue I want to analyze. How
  213. 8:38satisfied are they with the current
  214. 8:41delivery options? So, if they do get
  215. 8:43beer delivered, how satisfied are they
  216. 8:46with their options?
  217. 8:47I want to know if they're satisfied with
  218. 8:50time to deliver, with the price of the
  219. 8:53delivery beer versus the supermarket. I
  220. 8:55want to know the delivery conditions,
  221. 8:57for example, is the beer cold enough?
  222. 8:59And I want to know how the ordering
  223. 9:01process looks like and if they're
  224. 9:02satisfied with it. So, if they're
  225. 9:05calling
  226. 9:06companies to get beer delivered, but
  227. 9:08they heavily prefer an app, then
  228. 9:13there could be opportunities here with
  229. 9:15their insatisfaction. And here is, maybe
  230. 9:17they're getting beer delivered, but we
  231. 9:19can do a much better job. Third issue,
  232. 9:22how often do they drink at home?
  233. 9:25I want to know if this is a frequent
  234. 9:27purchase,
  235. 9:28and I'm assuming it is for the people
  236. 9:31who who who do drink beer at home
  237. 9:34because if it is, then we have we can
  238. 9:37have the opportunity to have loyal
  239. 9:39customers, which tend to be more
  240. 9:41profitable. And the fourth issue here
  241. 9:43is, do they get delivery for other
  242. 9:45things? So, maybe they're not getting
  243. 9:47beer delivered,
  244. 9:49perhaps due to a lack of supply, but
  245. 9:53our hypothesis is that if they're used
  246. 9:55to deliver
  247. 9:57to use delivery for foods, for other
  248. 9:59things, maybe drug stores, anything like
  249. 10:02that, they're more likely to use this
  250. 10:04channel for beer as well. So, by going
  251. 10:07through these four issues, I think we
  252. 10:09can understand if customers would like
  253. 10:11this channel. Now, let's move on to
  254. 10:13company. There are three major issues
  255. 10:15that I want to analyze here. The first
  256. 10:17is how a warehouse and logistics work.
  257. 10:21So, I want to know specifically within
  258. 10:23warehouses
  259. 10:25how many warehouses in a city do we need
  260. 10:28or per city? And I know there's a
  261. 10:30trade-off of having more warehouses and
  262. 10:32delivering faster versus having less
  263. 10:35warehouses and having less investment.
  264. 10:38So, I want to know what the optimal
  265. 10:39number is. And then the logistics.
  266. 10:42We will how will we deliver this beer
  267. 10:45home and how will it work? Second thing
  268. 10:48about if the company can operationalize
  269. 10:50this is how will we take orders? So, how
  270. 10:53how does our ordering flow look like?
  271. 10:56And then how do we assign these orders
  272. 10:58to specific warehouses and delivery
  273. 11:01people? And then finally, what should be
  274. 11:04our delivery terms? And this involves a
  275. 11:07bit of customer analysis as well, but
  276. 11:09also what does the company want to
  277. 11:10achieve with this? Do they want to fast
  278. 11:12delivery like in
  279. 11:1430 minutes like Domino's? And do do we
  280. 11:18want to deliver the beer cold? And also
  281. 11:22what type of
  282. 11:24pricing and what is our cost? So, just
  283. 11:27to know how profitable will this
  284. 11:29operation be. Now, on to competitors.
  285. 11:34So, regarding our competitors, I want to
  286. 11:36know if we can outcompete them, other
  287. 11:38delivery services. And there are three
  288. 11:39questions here. The first one is how
  289. 11:42good are the current delivery services?
  290. 11:45Are they doing a good job or not? And
  291. 11:47this involves customer satisfaction, but
  292. 11:49also their operations. So, we need to
  293. 11:51study them.
  294. 11:53Second, can we compete with them given
  295. 11:56that we won't carry our competitors beer
  296. 11:59brands? And I'm assuming that we won't.
  297. 12:02And the hypothesis here is that
  298. 12:04customers like to buy different brands
  299. 12:06in the same shopping occasion.
  300. 12:08And then because of that, assortment is
  301. 12:11an important decision driver. So, if
  302. 12:14this is true and we won't carry our
  303. 12:16competitors beer brands, we'll we'll
  304. 12:20uh
  305. 12:21be lacking to our customer in an
  306. 12:23important driver. And then finally,
  307. 12:27if we enter this market, can we stop
  308. 12:30supplying to these competitors? Because
  309. 12:33then they won't have our brands and this
  310. 12:36will uh give them a disadvantage as well
  311. 12:39in case the last hypothesis was true.
  312. 12:42And here I think there are two things.
  313. 12:43One is contractual obligations. Maybe by
  314. 12:47law we can't stop supplying them. And
  315. 12:49then the second thing to see here is if
  316. 12:52they can buy wholesale or even in the
  317. 12:54supermarket,
  318. 12:56uh
  319. 12:57and then we have no business telling
  320. 12:59them that they shouldn't buy our
  321. 13:01products or not.
  322. 13:03Finally, let's move on to distribution
  323. 13:05channels. I want to know how does this
  324. 13:07change our relationship with them?
  325. 13:11And I think here there's just one real
  326. 13:15issue, which is would supermarkets,
  327. 13:17convenience stores, etc. retaliate? So,
  328. 13:21what I mean here, I think there are
  329. 13:22three
  330. 13:23competing hypotheses of what could
  331. 13:26happen with distribution channels in
  332. 13:28case we implement this strategy. The
  333. 13:30first one is that our move towards
  334. 13:33direct sales will weaken our negotiation
  335. 13:35power with them if this new channel is
  336. 13:37successful. So, we're selling more
  337. 13:39direct and less through supermarkets,
  338. 13:43convenience stores, etc. and take sales
  339. 13:45away from them. Now, I don't believe
  340. 13:48that this channel will be so huge that
  341. 13:52we will severely hurt these channels,
  342. 13:54but it could be the case. And in this
  343. 13:56case, we may lose negotiation power.
  344. 13:58They may even take our product out of
  345. 14:01premium
  346. 14:02shelf space.
  347. 14:04The alternative hypothesis is that we
  348. 14:06will control the shift from indirect to
  349. 14:10direct sales.
  350. 14:11For example, by pricing our direct
  351. 14:15delivery beer lower or higher. So,
  352. 14:18instead of
  353. 14:19them gaining bargaining power, then
  354. 14:21maybe we could gain bargaining power
  355. 14:23with them and our negotiation power is
  356. 14:25even stronger.
  357. 14:27So, as they threaten us to
  358. 14:30remove our beer from premium shelf space
  359. 14:34and etc., we can threaten them to lower
  360. 14:37the price of home delivery beer and then
  361. 14:40they won't sell as much of our beer nor
  362. 14:43our competitors beer because people are
  363. 14:44just going to be ordering it. So, that's
  364. 14:46an alternative scenario. And the third
  365. 14:49scenario is that that this has no effect
  366. 14:51on bargaining power.
  367. 14:53People don't do a lot of beer runs or
  368. 14:54they won't switch. And in this case,
  369. 14:57maybe this business model isn't that
  370. 15:00good. It's not going to get that large.
  371. 15:02Now, I have a meta-hypothesis here,
  372. 15:05which is what I think could happen about
  373. 15:08these scenarios is that we may be able
  374. 15:10to control them through pricing. If we
  375. 15:13price close to their price, we won't
  376. 15:15have much of an effect. If we price a
  377. 15:18lot lower, then maybe we will
  378. 15:22bother them a lot. So, maybe we can
  379. 15:24control the scenarios through pricing,
  380. 15:26which then makes pricing a critical
  381. 15:30issue here. Just in case this business
  382. 15:32actually makes sense, which is what
  383. 15:34we're studying in the other buckets. So,
  384. 15:37it is by doing this this analysis and
  385. 15:40asking these questions and getting these
  386. 15:42answers in these four buckets that I
  387. 15:44would advise this beer company if they
  388. 15:46should start this direct-to-home beer
  389. 15:49delivery operation or not.
  390. 15:52And
  391. 15:53the way I would do it is I would start
  392. 15:56understanding if customers would like
  393. 15:58this channel. So, I would do the
  394. 15:59customer analysis first because if
  395. 16:01there's no demand for
  396. 16:03beer delivery at home, then I don't
  397. 16:05think it makes sense to study the other
  398. 16:07things. The answer is no, they
  399. 16:09shouldn't. So, that's where I would
  400. 16:10start and that's it.
  401. 16:13So, let's do a quick debrief here. What
  402. 16:15are the key learnings that you should
  403. 16:16have gotten from this framework? The
  404. 16:19first one is I've used the adapted three
  405. 16:22C's to structure this case. Pretty
  406. 16:24obvious I said I would that I would do
  407. 16:26it up front. But let's go through what I
  408. 16:29did exactly to adapt the three C's here
  409. 16:32and why this was the best option. The
  410. 16:35first thing I did is that there's no
  411. 16:37product. So, you might say, "Well,
  412. 16:39Bruno, but the three C's are customer,
  413. 16:42competition, and
  414. 16:44company." And you'd be right, but a lot
  415. 16:46of candidates use the business situation
  416. 16:48framework, which is the three C's and
  417. 16:51the product. So, I'm covering that up
  418. 16:53here. There's no product as this is a
  419. 16:55shift in the channels for all products.
  420. 16:59I'm not changing anything about the
  421. 17:01products of this brewery. So, it doesn't
  422. 17:03make sense to talk about products.
  423. 17:06Second thing is I considered competitors
  424. 17:09as the other delivery services, not the
  425. 17:13other breweries. Why did I do that?
  426. 17:15Isn't the competitor of a beer company
  427. 17:18another beer company? Well, yes, but
  428. 17:22in this case, we're talking about this
  429. 17:25beer company being a delivery service or
  430. 17:28verticalizing into a delivery service.
  431. 17:31So, we're talking about the competitors
  432. 17:33of this move of being a delivery
  433. 17:37service.
  434. 17:38Finally, I added other distribution
  435. 17:41channels as a category because this
  436. 17:43affects them. And I want to know how
  437. 17:45does it affect them because we as a beer
  438. 17:48company are the
  439. 17:50we're dependent on our distribution
  440. 17:53channels. So, if it affects them, it
  441. 17:55might as well affect us. And that's
  442. 17:58exactly what I'm looking for in this
  443. 18:00category. Now, I've done this case with
  444. 18:04candidates before and there are two
  445. 18:06patterns that I noticed. Some candidates
  446. 18:09are going to build a profitability tree
  447. 18:12to try to solve this case. Is selling
  448. 18:15beer through this new distribution
  449. 18:17channel going to be more profitable than
  450. 18:20our current business as usual?
  451. 18:23And while this can work,
  452. 18:26uh
  453. 18:27it's a very numerically oriented way of
  454. 18:30seeing this problem. And the problem is
  455. 18:33no one's done this before.
  456. 18:35It's a new move in the beer industry.
  457. 18:37So, you can make some assumptions about
  458. 18:40which one's going to be more profitable
  459. 18:42than than others. But if you do the
  460. 18:45assumptions yourself as a candidate,
  461. 18:46you're
  462. 18:47you're assuming something you cannot.
  463. 18:50You're not being data-driven. And
  464. 18:54if your interviewer just gives you a ton
  465. 18:56of data,
  466. 18:57you're going to be able to go through
  467. 18:59the case, but that data is going to be
  468. 19:02made up. In a real project, you wouldn't
  469. 19:05be able to do that
  470. 19:07to do a profitability comparison unless
  471. 19:11you
  472. 19:12did this study of these four categories
  473. 19:16first. Now, other candidates will use a
  474. 19:18business situation or a three C's
  475. 19:21framework or some other framework that
  476. 19:23they've learned somewhere of I don't
  477. 19:25know, new channel or
  478. 19:27or something like that. And the problem
  479. 19:29with those is
  480. 19:32let's say you're using the business
  481. 19:34situation framework from Victor Cheng.
  482. 19:36The problem with that is there's no
  483. 19:39product here. Some people would say,
  484. 19:41"Well, but the new product is the new
  485. 19:43channel." But then you're you're just
  486. 19:46mixing concepts up. A product is a
  487. 19:48product, a channel is a channel. There's
  488. 19:51a reason why they have different names.
  489. 19:53You analyze different things about them.
  490. 19:55You And you're not changing your product
  491. 19:58in this in this in this case. So,
  492. 20:02while you can
  493. 20:03uh do that,
  494. 20:05first, it's going to be very obvious to
  495. 20:06your interviewer that you're
  496. 20:07force-fitting a framework because you're
  497. 20:10calling something a concept that it it's
  498. 20:13not. You're calling a channel a product.
  499. 20:16Uh
  500. 20:17and second,
  501. 20:19you're going to just be doing a lot of
  502. 20:20mental gymnastics just to be able to fit
  503. 20:24your framework into the problem while
  504. 20:26you should be doing the opposite. You
  505. 20:28should be
  506. 20:29uh building or adapting a framework to
  507. 20:32your problem. So, this is the first
  508. 20:34takeaway. I've used the adapted 3 C's in
  509. 20:37the structure uh
  510. 20:39as the structure for this case because
  511. 20:40it's the best way to approach this
  512. 20:42problem or one really good way.
  513. 20:45Second takeaway here, notice the
  514. 20:47phrasing of the buckets. I didn't say
  515. 20:49customers, I want to analyze customers,
  516. 20:52but I said, "Would customers appreciate
  517. 20:55or like this new channel?"
  518. 20:57And this is a strong differentiator
  519. 21:00between candidates because first, it
  520. 21:03shows that you're not repeating a
  521. 21:05framework from memory. And second, it
  522. 21:07becomes an answerable question. So, a
  523. 21:09lot of candidates, they have these
  524. 21:11buckets in mind.
  525. 21:13And they say, "Well, in this case, I'm
  526. 21:14going to
  527. 21:15put distribution channels." And if you
  528. 21:18just say, "Well, I want to analyze the
  529. 21:20distribution channels." Or I want to
  530. 21:22analyze the customers.
  531. 21:24It's not clear what you want to analyze
  532. 21:26about them or why do you want to analyze
  533. 21:29them. So, much better to say, "Would
  534. 21:32customers appreciate this new channel? I
  535. 21:35need to do a customer analysis to answer
  536. 21:37that question." Or "Will the current
  537. 21:40distribution channels retaliate in some
  538. 21:42way? Or is this going to change our
  539. 21:44relationship with them?"
  540. 21:46I need to study them
  541. 21:48uh things about them to answer this
  542. 21:50question. This makes you more human,
  543. 21:52less robotic. A lot of you guys are
  544. 21:55worried, "Well, how am I not How do I
  545. 21:57not become a robotic candidate?" Well,
  546. 21:59this is one answer. You speaking real
  547. 22:02phrases, "Would customers appreciate?"
  548. 22:04instead of "I want to analyze
  549. 22:06customers." which doesn't mean anything.
  550. 22:09And the other thing is you need to
  551. 22:11questions that you can answer. "I want
  552. 22:13to analyze customers." is not a question
  553. 22:15and you can't answer that.
  554. 22:18A customer analysis can take as much as
  555. 22:21I don't know, years to make. Rig- It's
  556. 22:23not well-defined in scope. But if
  557. 22:26instead you have a real phrasing, real
  558. 22:29questions in these buckets, then
  559. 22:32uh you can answer these questions.
  560. 22:34"Would customers appreciate this
  561. 22:35channel?" You can gather enough data,
  562. 22:37enough evidence to say yes or no to
  563. 22:40that. Or probably or probably not, as it
  564. 22:44often is in real life because you can't
  565. 22:46really predict things, but you can say
  566. 22:48if they're likely or not. Now, another
  567. 22:51note
  568. 22:53uh for those of you who are curious
  569. 22:54before we jump into the business sense
  570. 22:57debrief in which I tell you which issues
  571. 22:59were are most important and which issues
  572. 23:02are differentiators. And this note is,
  573. 23:04"How do I lay out the structure on
  574. 23:07paper?"
  575. 23:09If you see my slides here, you're going
  576. 23:11to see that there's a lot of phrases
  577. 23:13written. And just to write these phrases
  578. 23:15on paper in a real interview, you'd take
  579. 23:17a lot of time. You'd spend more time
  580. 23:19writing than thinking, and that's not
  581. 23:21ideal. So, how would I do that on paper
  582. 23:24in a real interview? Well, not like
  583. 23:27this. Instead, I would say instead of
  584. 23:29writing "Customers, would they like this
  585. 23:31channel?" as I did here so you'd get
  586. 23:34clarity on what I'm talking about and
  587. 23:37what exactly uh I'm asking, I'd just
  588. 23:40write "Customers."
  589. 23:42When I'd communicate this to the
  590. 23:44interviewer, instead of saying "I want
  591. 23:46to analyze customers." I'd say, "I want
  592. 23:48to analyze if customers would like this
  593. 23:49channel." So, I'd give the inter- the
  594. 23:51interviewer all the information in
  595. 23:54verbal. But in writing, I just write
  596. 23:57"Customers." or "CUST"
  597. 24:00because I know by reading that that I
  598. 24:02meant customers.
  599. 24:04Let's check one issue of that. Here I
  600. 24:06wrote, "Do they currently get beer
  601. 24:09delivered?" "If not,
  602. 24:11is it lack of supply or lack of
  603. 24:13interest?"
  604. 24:15In a real uh interview, I'd just jot
  605. 24:17down whatever words I would need to
  606. 24:20remember so I could say these words to
  607. 24:23the interviewer. So, I'd write something
  608. 24:25like I'd make a bullet point and I'd
  609. 24:27write something like
  610. 24:29"Currently delivery?" {question mark}
  611. 24:33and then two uh
  612. 24:35ramifications of that. One is supply?
  613. 24:39{question mark} interest? {question
  614. 24:41mark} And as I read that, I would be
  615. 24:44able to tell the interviewer, "Well, my
  616. 24:46first question here is, do they
  617. 24:47currently get beer delivered?
  618. 24:50And if not, is it a lack of supply or a
  619. 24:52lack of interest?" So, here in this
  620. 24:55case, what you see on the screen is
  621. 24:58something that makes you it easier for
  622. 25:00you to understand, but in a real
  623. 25:02interview, you need to be able to do
  624. 25:04that writing a few words uh just so you
  625. 25:08can remember. And once you've trained
  626. 25:10enough and once you're used to doing
  627. 25:12that, you're going to be able to
  628. 25:14remember uh by your own writing. And
  629. 25:16then you speak to the interviewer in
  630. 25:19full phrases as a real human. Now, let's
  631. 25:22jump into the business sense debrief so
  632. 25:25we you can see which
  633. 25:27uh of these issues are more important
  634. 25:29and which of these issues really
  635. 25:31differentiate you and make you stand out
  636. 25:33as a candidate so you can compare with
  637. 25:35your own framework because I understand
  638. 25:37that your own framework is probably
  639. 25:39different from the one I did.
  640. 25:41Uh and that's not a bad thing, but you
  641. 25:43have to have some way to understand if
  642. 25:46what you did is good or not. So, let's
  643. 25:48jump into that.
  644. 25:50So, to be seen as a candidate with
  645. 25:52really good business sense to your
  646. 25:54interviewer, you need
  647. 25:56two required issues. If you didn't touch
  648. 25:59on these issues in your framework, then
  649. 26:02you can consider that you've made a
  650. 26:04mistake in terms of business sense, even
  651. 26:06in terms of structuring because it
  652. 26:08wouldn't be an exhaustive structure. And
  653. 26:10this is how structuring and business
  654. 26:12sense overlap. The first one is
  655. 26:15acknowledging that this specific channel
  656. 26:18addresses one specific consumption
  657. 26:22equation which might not be currently
  658. 26:24addressed by current channels. So, it is
  659. 26:27acknowledging that well, this client
  660. 26:30wants to do delivery at home and this is
  661. 26:33useful because there's one consumption
  662. 26:35occasion which is people drinking beer
  663. 26:38at home and
  664. 26:41current channels, supermarkets, even
  665. 26:43convenience stores may not be really
  666. 26:47uh
  667. 26:48really good for this specific
  668. 26:51consumption occasion. And maybe there
  669. 26:54are other delivery services which would
  670. 26:56be good if they're doing a good job, but
  671. 26:59the thing is to acknowledge that, you
  672. 27:00know, when you're drinking beer at home
  673. 27:02with friends or uh in an event, you
  674. 27:05don't want to go to the convenience
  675. 27:07store or to the supermarket to buy more
  676. 27:10beer. No one wants to do that. That
  677. 27:12sucks.
  678. 27:13And it's really simple. Business sense
  679. 27:16is usually common sense and you need to
  680. 27:19acknowledge this in your framework
  681. 27:21somehow.
  682. 27:23The second thing you need to have in
  683. 27:25your framework in order to have
  684. 27:26acceptable business sense in your
  685. 27:28interviewer's mind is the operational
  686. 27:31challenges in warehouse, logistics, and
  687. 27:34ordering. And the reason you need to do
  688. 27:36that is that this is not something that
  689. 27:39your company, the beer company,
  690. 27:41currently does.
  691. 27:44So,
  692. 27:45this may seem
  693. 27:47pretty simple,
  694. 27:49but operating a warehouse, doing
  695. 27:52logistics for e-commerce
  696. 27:54uh in a time-sensitive product such as
  697. 27:57beer, when people order beer via
  698. 27:59delivery, they want to
  699. 28:01get the beer as soon as possible, as
  700. 28:03cold as possible. And dealing with the
  701. 28:05ordering and the software platform, this
  702. 28:08seems simple because a lot of e-commerce
  703. 28:10companies do it really well, but it's
  704. 28:13not something that an industrial
  705. 28:15company, a beer company, knows how to
  706. 28:18do. And while you can buy
  707. 28:22{quote} {unquote} this stuff from
  708. 28:25third-party providers, if you're doing
  709. 28:27that, then why not just uh simulate
  710. 28:31sales or uh support current uh players
  711. 28:36in the delivery space. So, if you want
  712. 28:38to do this yourself, you better get good
  713. 28:40at it. And this is something that you
  714. 28:42need to make your interviewer aware that
  715. 28:44you understand is important because even
  716. 28:47though it's not something
  717. 28:49uh unusual for a company to be able to
  718. 28:52do these three things well, it's not
  719. 28:53something that a beer company really
  720. 28:55does well.
  721. 28:57Now, there are two what I call standout
  722. 28:59issues that you must have done in this
  723. 29:02case in order to be outstanding in
  724. 29:05business sense. And there may be others
  725. 29:06which I haven't thought about. I mean,
  726. 29:09these are things that make you stand
  727. 29:10out, so uh
  728. 29:12there's no rule book for them. A lot of
  729. 29:15it comes down to creativity, but these
  730. 29:17are two things that I think you could
  731. 29:19consider in a case similar to this, to
  732. 29:22add in a case similar to this next time
  733. 29:24you do one. The first one is, "What
  734. 29:26matters to this customer in this
  735. 29:29occasion?" So,
  736. 29:31in my framework, I mentioned that we
  737. 29:34need to know what matters to this
  738. 29:36customer in this occasion. And I
  739. 29:37mentioned that indirectly, but I said
  740. 29:40that the customer might care about the
  741. 29:42time to deliver or how cold the beer is
  742. 29:45or how easy it is to order. Now, one
  743. 29:48thing to notice here, this is not
  744. 29:50something that usually beer customers
  745. 29:53care about. I mean, they care about how
  746. 29:55cold a beer is if they're in a bar or in
  747. 29:58a restaurant, but they don't care about
  748. 30:00it too much if they're in a supermarket.
  749. 30:03They care about
  750. 30:05uh ease of ordering
  751. 30:07if they are in a convenience store
  752. 30:09because they want to convenience. I
  753. 30:11mean, it should be easy to to buy,
  754. 30:14but
  755. 30:16yeah, I guess this is important anyway
  756. 30:18because it's beer. Uh but, the thing is,
  757. 30:21by mentioning to the interviewer that I
  758. 30:23can understand what is important to this
  759. 30:26customer in this occasion, I'm implying
  760. 30:30that I can understand what is important
  761. 30:32what is an important driver of purchase
  762. 30:34to any customer in any occasion. So,
  763. 30:38this is one thing that will make you
  764. 30:40stand out by
  765. 30:41uh you've probably not thought about
  766. 30:43this beer delivery problem before. So,
  767. 30:45if you can come up with this in an
  768. 30:47interview, it shows to the interviewer
  769. 30:48that you have this ability.
  770. 30:50Now, the second thing that uh you should
  771. 30:53have
  772. 30:54talked about to stand out in terms of
  773. 30:57business and strategic knowledge that
  774. 30:58this move
  775. 31:00might change the relationship with the
  776. 31:02current distribution channels. And the
  777. 31:04reason why this is important,
  778. 31:06I didn't say why this is important
  779. 31:08during the case, but I'm going to say
  780. 31:11now,
  781. 31:12is you have a whole beer business to to
  782. 31:16to run.
  783. 31:18And this includes the drinking at home
  784. 31:20occasion,
  785. 31:21but it includes other occasions, other
  786. 31:24drinking purchasing occasions as well.
  787. 31:27And for every
  788. 31:29purchasing occasion nowadays, and even
  789. 31:31if this direct to home service is really
  790. 31:34successful, to all the other
  791. 31:37uh drinking occasions in the future, you
  792. 31:40will need your distribution channel's
  793. 31:43goodwill. You need them to sell more.
  794. 31:46You need them to guarantee a high market
  795. 31:49share. So, acknowledging that this move
  796. 31:52might change this relationship is
  797. 31:53important because if you don't
  798. 31:55acknowledge that, and there is indeed
  799. 31:58after you gather the facts, the data,
  800. 32:00the information about how they might
  801. 32:02react, if you find out that they will
  802. 32:05retaliate,
  803. 32:06then you're putting your whole business
  804. 32:09at risk because of one new channel
  805. 32:12initiative. Now, if you're a consultant
  806. 32:15and you propose that they should do it
  807. 32:17without addressing this thing first,
  808. 32:20some executive in the beer company might
  809. 32:23deny
  810. 32:24uh the the logic, or they might uh get
  811. 32:28really angry, or they might
  812. 32:30even make you not look good to the other
  813. 32:33executives because they will just raise
  814. 32:35this issue and say, "Well, have you
  815. 32:37thought about that risk? This is a risk
  816. 32:39that could put our whole company in bad
  817. 32:42waters, that could reduce our market
  818. 32:45share. And have you asked them how they
  819. 32:47might retaliate, or have you benchmarked
  820. 32:50what happened in other countries once
  821. 32:52companies did that?" So, things like
  822. 32:54that. This is really important because
  823. 32:55distribution channels are a key part of
  824. 32:58your business. They're a key partner of
  825. 33:00your business.
  826. 33:02Okay? So, the first two required issues
  827. 33:05are needed. You need them in your
  828. 33:07framework. These last two standout
  829. 33:10issues
  830. 33:12uh are
  831. 33:13differentiators.
  832. 33:15You don't need them to have done a good
  833. 33:18job, but you need them to have done a
  834. 33:19great job. And there might be others
  835. 33:21that I haven't thought of, of course. I
  836. 33:24hope you've liked this drill. I hope
  837. 33:26you've improved on it. Uh if you didn't
  838. 33:29do a good job, try to structure this
  839. 33:30case again.
  840. 33:32Close this video, try to structure it on
  841. 33:34paper again, maybe even replay it to
  842. 33:36watch it again because
  843. 33:38that's how you learn. You learn by
  844. 33:41trying to apply what you've just read or
  845. 33:44watched in this case. Okay? So, I'll see
  846. 33:46you in the next drill, and I hope you
  847. 33:48had a good time. The next drill is a
  848. 33:49really good one, so check that out to to
  849. 33:52improve your framework building and
  850. 33:55adapting skills.

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