Case Structures

Question 1

How to improve profits?

Answer 1

• Revenue
  
  • Volume
  • Price
• Costs
  
  • Fixed costs
  • Variable costs

Question 2

How to grow a business?

Answer 2

• Grow the core business
  
  • Grow across current segments (better products, improved marketing, competitive prices)
  • Invest in fastest-growing segments (self-driving vehicles, low-cost product line, Asia)
• Grow outside of the core business
  
  • Sell new products to existing clients (insurance, maintenance plans, leasing)
  • Use our capabilities to get into new businesses (trucks, buses, motorbikes)

Question 3

How to cut costs?

Answer 3

• Reduce the need
  
  • Eliminate the need entirely (self-service portal)
  • Reduce the service level (only offer chat support)
• Meet the need with less resource
  
  • Eliminate waste
  • Improve productivity (training)
• Reduce the cost of resources
  
  • Find cheaper alternatives (offshoring)
  • Renegotiate costs

Question 4

Whether to enter a new market?

Answer 4

• Market opportunity
  
  • Market size
  • Market growth
• Potential share
  
  • Competitors
  • Customer needs
  • Our offering
• Potential profit
  
  • Investment
  • Running costs
  • Revenue
• Capabilities & risks

Question 5

How to launch a new product?

Answer 5

• Choose target segments
  
  • Size & growth
  • Competition
  • Customer needs
• Define our marketing strategy
  
  • Product
  • Price
  • Distribution
  • Promotion
• Implementation
  
  • Product design
  • Production
  • Marketing & sales
  • Logistics
  • Aftercare

Question 6

How to price a product?

Answer 6

• Costs
  
  • Variable costs (plus enough markup to cover margin, investment, and fixed costs)
  • Investment costs
  • Fixed costs
• Clients’ willingness to pay
• Competitors or substitutes (should we price above or below?)

Question 7

Whether to make an investment?

Answer 7

• Impact on costs
• Impact on revenue (break even?)
• Implementation

Question 8

Whether to acquire a business?

Answer 8

• Standalone value
  
  • Future revenue
  • Future cost
  • Valuation multiples
• Synergies
  
  • Revenue growth
  • Cost reduction
• Capabilities & risks

Question 9

How to respond to a competitive threat?

Answer 9

• Potential impact on our business
  
  • Segment affected
  • Estimated loss (how much are we likely to lose?)
• Opportunity pursued by competitor
  
  • Size
  • Profitability (are they after an opportunity?)
• Possible responses?
  
  • Do nothing
  • Mitigate (retain our clients)
  • Align (lower prices)
  • Replicate (launch competing offer)
  • Collaborate

Question 10

How to optimize a process?

Answer 10

• Map out current process
  
  • Capacity?
  • Utilization?
  • Bottleneck?
• Look into each step of the process
  
  • Eliminate
  • Reduce cost
  • Increase speed
  • Increase quality
  • Anticipate
• Estimate gains