Market

Estimation Questions

1. How many gas stations are there in the US?
2. How many garden hoses were sold in the US last year?
3. How many pairs of boxers are sold in the US each year?
4. How much does a 747 weigh?
5. How many NetFlix DVDs get lost in the mail each year?
6. Estimate the size of the bubble gum market in the US.
7. There were 165,000 American children born with autism last year. What % of
the babies born that year are autistic?
8. Estimate how many shoes are sold in the U.S. each year.
9. Estimate the number of gallons of gasoline the typical gas station pumps in a
given weekday.
10. Estimate the total industry wide sales of lipstick in the U.S.
11. Estimate how many tires are sold in the U.S. each year.
12. Estimate how much time it would take a single average size dump truck to
move an average size mountain from one location to another one located 1
mile away.
13. How many hair salons are there in Japan?
14. How many light bulbs are in this building?
15. How many cars are in Los Angeles?
16. How many airplanes takes off from JFK airport each day?
17. Estimate the frozen banana market in NYC.
18. What should it cost to rent Central Park for commercial purposes?
19. How many cases of Red Bull are sold in San Francisco each day?
20. What is the size of the market for disposable diapers in China?
21. How many golf balls are sold in the U.S. in one year?
22. How many hot dogs are sold on the corner of 76th and Lexington in NYC on a
Wednesday in August?
23. How many golf carts are in the US?
24. How long does it take a Starbucks to serve enough coffee to fill the gas tank of a
Hummer?
25. Having fallen on hard times, your consulting firm has decided to serve a
notorious bank robber. He has asked you to determine how many briefcases he
must bring with him in order to steal $10MM in cash, all $100 bills, in bundles
of 1,000 bills each.
26. How many unique horse jockeys ride in races in the United States on an
average Sunday?
27. How many fire trucks are sold every year?
28. How many personal computers are used in the U.S. today?
29. You have been retained joint by a disposable diaper company and a federal
commission on waste management. Estimate the volume percentage of
disposable diapers in the total U.S. household garbage.






Business Case Questions

1. An asteroid is going to hit the earth and destroy 100% of it. You have several
options: create a missile to destroy it (blowing it into several particles which
will still impact the earth but destroy only 50%), or create a missile to push it
out of the way (this only has a 50% chance of working though). Which
alternative do you pick?
2. My grandfather had just died and left me an oil tanker. I need a valuation and I
have hired you to tell me what its worth.
3. Your client, a U.S. firm, owns a meat packing plant in Spain. Over the last few
periods profits have steadily declined, despite the fact that sales are growing.
You have been hired to figure out why.
4. A corn feed company has eight manufacturing plans located in the Midwest.
These plants services the entire U.S. Their plant in Ohio is in need of
refurbishing. The company has four possible options: refurbish the existing
plant, build a larger plant at the current location, build a similar size plant at a
new location, and build a larger plant at a new location.
5. I was sitting in one of Chicagos new specialty Cigar Bars around the end of
August with a friend. It was a Saturday night and the weather was fair. While
enjoying one of the bars finest stogies and sipping a cognac, I asked my friend
how much he thought the bar was worth. On the back of the envelope, how
would you go about determining the value of this bar?
6. Supplies Mate, a distributor of office supplies in Central London, has
experienced declining profitability over the past five years. How can the
distributor address this profitability trend? (Accenture)
7. The general manager of a popular ski resort has called on you to help her
figure out why her resort has been experiencing declining profits over the past
three years. How would you help her?
8. Your client is a large agricultural equipment manufacturer. Their primary
product line, farming tractors, is losing money. What questions would you ask
of your client to help them solve their profitability problem?
9. How would you determine a pricing strategy for a hotel chain?
10. Should Great Burger acquire Heavenly Donuts?
11. How can Magna Health improve its financial situation?
12. Your client is an energy company that has both an upstream and downstream
business. Their upstream business consists of exploration and production
while their downstream business includes refining and marketing &
distribution. They receive 20% of their revenue and 90% of their profits from
the upstream side, 80% of their revenue and 10% of their profits from the
downstream side. This is the first meeting youve had with them and the focus
is on getting the engagement. Keys Why does upstream, with a small portion
of revenues, generate nearly all the profits? Upstream and downstream
business run as separate entities and enjoy no special advantages through their
relationship. (AT Kearney)
13. Your client is a financial services firm, specifically the Treasury services
department. This division has its own software/IT group that created a
breakthrough Web case management system that has netted awards and new
clients. Your firm recently merged with larger firm that made this platform the
enterprise standard. All current clients must migrate to this system while
 requirements from older clients form a serious backlog. Finally, the new firm is
losing market share in its ForEx currency trading operations due to
technology-based issues and has fallen from 1st place to 4th worldwide. How
do you prioritize these demands and how do you restructure to successfully
meet demand? What impact will your recommendations have on the Treasury
Services department and on clients? (AT Kearney)
14. Your client is a large electric utility that serves Louisiana, Arkansas,
Mississippi, and Texas. You have 2 large nuclear plants and are one of the
nations largest natural gas buyers. The new Chief Procurement Officer. (your
client) serves 4 divisions his own (Procurement) and the Nuclear, Fossil
Fuels, and Transmission/Distribution divisions. He wants to know how we can
use IT to improve procurements and thus the overall competitive position of
the enterprise. (AT Kearney)
15. There is a steel industry and it was the dominant player till 10 years ago. Now
market has opened up and competitors have entered. It has four plants each
headed by a manager and two divisions of marketing and planning which are
run by managers as well. All managers are independent decision makers.
Marketing gets an order, gives it to planning and then planning decides which
plant to give it to. The problem being faced is that inventory is going up and
delivery time is going up thus causing customer dissatisfaction. What do we
do? (BCG)
16. One of the local telephone companies (Bells) had a regional monopoly. They
charged a rate that the government deemed fair. However, the technological
boom of the mid-90s showed that the Bells had become choke points and were
inefficient. The government decided to open up the market to competition and
tipped the scale in favor of new competitors in 3 ways. 1) They get to choose
which segments to serve whereas the local Bell must serve everyone. 2) They
can charge any price. 3) They can lease the local Bells lines at a price the
government deems fair so they dont have to invest in building infrastructure.
The CEO of your client saw this as an opportunity to enter other local Bells
markets and started a new division with this goal. The new division grew its
customer base to 1 million over 2 years, but has lost money the whole time.
The CEO now wants to shut down the division. Is this the right thing to do?
(BCG)
17. A new product that can be used by firms which lay fiber optic cable over both
short and long distances to cut costs. Visual information was provided to show
how the product works and also to show how existing methods (PVC pipe
instead of the firms new product) work. What is the viability of this technology
compared to other existing alternatives? What different markets should be
entered? Should the product ultimately be pursued by our firm? (BCG)
18. A steel company in another country was experiencing large amounts of
inventory and customers which complained about long wait times for orders.
Company used to have a monopoly however deregulation had allowed for
competition starting 10 years ago and the firm now had 40% market share.
Firm had four plants, two made mostly flat steel products and two made pipe
like steel products. For all plants half the products were specialized and half
were standard. What should be done to solve the problems? (BCG)
19. Your client is a non-profit hospital. They serve both insured and uninsured
patients but their revenue comes from insured patients only. They are
 concerned because the number of uninsured patients using their services has
been increasing. Theyve hired 2 Patient Financial Advocates whose
responsibility is to contact these patients to set up payment plans. They receive
daily reports with data on uninsured patients treated in the last 7 days.
However, they dont have enough time to contact patients on this list because
they are barely able to handle patients being referred to them each day. What
should the hospital do?
20. Soybeans are a commodity product. Your client is a soybean manufacturer,
which processes soybeans for food and energy. 80% of production is for food,
20% is for energy. The soybeans your client processes are in North America,
but majority of energy demand today is in Asia/Pacific. The CEO has hired you,
the consultant, to understand what is the most efficient method of delivering
the product to Asia. You need to decide whether to process all in North
America and then ship to Asia/Pacific, or ship raw to Asia/Pacific and then
process (McKinsey)
21. Client, Private Equity Co. (PEC), is looking to acquire Personal Care Co.
Personal Care Co. offers a diversified product line of health & beauty products
into several market segments. PEC would like to sell the acquisition in 2-3
years for a profit. The new management team PEC would put in place is unsure
where to focus Personal Care Co.s growth efforts and, therefore, which
segments to target with new product launches. PEC is asking Bain to provide
guidance to help them decide to purchase this firm or not. They also
expect Bain to tell them where to focus their efforts.
22. Your client is going to build a skyscraper, but is not sure how many stories to
build, how should he/she decide?
23. The NBA is contemplating a bigger expansion into China, should it?
24. A copper mining company is losing money. The CEO asks you to figure out why
and what to do about it.
25. A ski resort is having a poor revenue year due to light snowfall. Should it invest
in snow making equipment? The CEO asks you to figure out why and what to
do about it.
26. For a gas station convenience store, what is the optimal layout for where
different types of goods are arranged within the store?
27. A steel manufacturer is contemplating buying one of its competitors. Should it?
28. A bank is considering offer loans to sub-prime borrowers, should it?
29. The CEO of a retail store client is losing money and asks you for help. What do
you do?
30. The year is 1980, your client has invented a new piece of office equipment
called a fax machine. They are debating whether or not to invest in
manufacturing and marketing this product. What factors should they consider
and should the launch it or not launch it and why?
31. Your nephew is running a lemonade stand during his spring break. The stand
will only be open for the 5 days of his spring break. On Monday, he only sold 3
cups of lemonade. He asks you for help to increase sales, what do you do?
32. A leverage buyout firm is considering buying a company that owns proprietary
database of real time Federal Aviation Administration database on every
commercial flight in America and its current flight status. Should they buy the
company?
33. Your client is a car manufacturer, and its revenues are declining. What is the
problem, and how would increase revenues?
34. An electronics stores profits are declining. Determine what the problem is.
35. A city mayor hires you as a consultant, his city population is declining. Describe
your preparation for the analysis, the analysis, and approach.
36. Every three minutes an American woman is diagnosed with breast cancer. How
many American women will be diagnosed this year?
37. American Express is facing stiff competition from a host of new credit cards
that have no annual fee and low interest rates. In response, American Express
is considering dropping its $50 annual fee. What are the economics of dropping
the $50 fee?
38. Your client manufactures hair products. Its thinking about entering the
sunscreen market. Is this a good idea?
39. Your client is a retail bank in the U.S. There has been no growth over the last
couple of years in the domestic market so you are considering pursuing growth
overseas in emerging markets. How would you evaluate whether or not you
should enter a given country? What is the potential market in the US?
40. Your client is an international manufacturer of electronic equipment for
industrial customers. The R&D department has developed a new product a
device that could replace all energy costs (electric, gas, etc.) using solar
technology. The estimated price to the customer would be $5,000/house, with
a pay back in 2 to 3 years. The R & D department says the estimated
investment is $100 million. Should they launch the product?
41. A major furniture retailer has experienced declining profits for four quarters,
yet that same time period, it has experienced a 25% growth in sales and has
opened many stores. Why are profits declining?
42. A fast food company is thinking about putting a franchise in an airport. They
hire you to see if they should do so.
43. A bread division of a large food company is facing increasing competition in its
market and wants to know if it should exit the market.
44. A car company is interested in developing a new car. What marketing related
issues should it consider before doing so?
45. What factors influence the revenue potential of a new pharmaceutical product?
46. Citibank is considering purchasing another credit card company. If the
acquisition is made Citibank will gain access to 100,000 new cardholders. What
is the estimated value of this acquisition?
47. A commercial bank is re-evaluating the number of branches it operates, and
whether they should increase the number of branches or close some down.
How would you suggest they go about it?
48. A large conglomerate company is facing declining profits in its railroad
company division and is considering shutting it down. You have been hired to
determine if this is the right course of action and identify potential alternatives.
49. New York City has hired you to determine what optimal route or what
destination taxi drivers should go to when they do not have a customer.
50. Our client is thinking of acquiring a diversified company that has products in
three different industries. One of those industries is entertainment. Our client
knows nothing about the entertainment industry and has asked us to do an
analysis. What do we analyze?
51. Ben & Jerrys is buying a mid-size cream cheese manufacturer. Does this make
sense? What should they be thinking about?
52. Our client has developed a new biodegradable product, which is both a soft
drink and a car wax. What should they be thinking about?
53. Our client has developed a new Hollywood screenwriting software package.
How are we going to price it? Whats our strategy and why?