【案例面试】45分钟,你会经历什么

【案例面试】45分钟，你会经历什么？注：部分资料来源于某咨询公司。

要想进入MBB，一般需要经过4到6个一对一的案例面试。

每个案例面试由一位项目经理或合伙人作为面试官，每个面试的时间都是45分钟。

只有每一个面试官都认可你的面试表现，你才有可能进入下一轮和最终拿到offer。

通常情况下，45分钟的案例面试分为三个部分：行为面试、案例分析和问答环节。

一、行为面试（5-10分钟）行为面试主要围绕你的个人背景展开。

面试官希望在面试过程中能对你有进一步的了解，看你是否适合该公司。

例如，面试官可能要求你介绍，在以往的某个团队环境中，你通过何种方式在团队中发挥作用。

面试官也可能请你谈谈，你曾经怎样克服障碍，说服其他人接受一个他们原本极力反对的决策。

面试官也可能只想了解一下你为什么会选择到该公司工作。

二、案例分析（30分钟）案例分析是每场面试的核心。

面试官会通过一个案例研究，让你有机会展示和证明解决问题的技能。

因为这些案例基本上是基于面试官自己亲身经历过的客户项目。

而借此机会，你也能够对该公司的战略咨询工作有独特而深入的了解。

案例研究通常是给出一个商业问题，需要你和面试官共同解决。

解决这样的问题，通常不需要非常丰富的行业和流程专业知识。

面试官给出的案例通常也没有正确与错误的答案。

相对最终的解决方案而言，面试官更看重你在分析过程中提出的问题和你的思考过程。

下面我们就举一个案例分析的例子，让大家感受下这个神奇的30分钟。

值得注意的是，案例面试通常是Interviewee-led。

也就是说，在面试官简单说完案例的背景后，剩下的就都靠应聘者来主导。

除非应聘者主动询问，面试官一般不会主动提供信息或者数据。

因此，应聘者需要知道该问什么问题，组织自己的分析框架，向面试官获取数据，进行分析和为客户提供建议。

以下黑色部分是面试官的对白，蓝色部分是应聘者的对白。

（首先，面试官简要说明背景）Your client is GenCo, a large, international,diversified company with a health care division that produces a wide variety ofmedical instruments and related services. Five years ago, it expanded into thehealth care software industry by purchasing MedCount, which markets administrative systems to largeU.S.hospitals. These systems are designed primarily for back-office functions; theyare not designed for managing patients or providing other physician and technicalsupport. Since it was purchased, the software division has failed to deliverthe growth needed to justify the multiple GenCo paid for it. GenCo feels it hasalready squeezed margins as much as possible, and now is looking for new salesopportunities. MedCount turned to BCG to help identify potential ways toincrease revenues. How would you approach this problem?（接下来，应聘者需要和面试官确认自己对案例的理解）First, let me make sure I understand theproblem. The parent company produces medical devices and services, but before theacquisition was not involved in health care software. The company itpurchased,MedCount, sells only administrative systems software to large hospitals. It isnow looking for opportunities to increase revenues. That is correct.Could I take a moment to jot down a few thoughts?Sure, that would be fine.（然后，应聘者需要花几分钟写出来分析该案例的框架）I would suggest using the following framework:∙ First, I'd want to understand the market size and growthrates for MedCount's market and related software markets.∙ Next, I would like to explore the competition and theirmarket shares.∙ Third, I would like to examine customer requirements andthen, giventhose external conditions, look at the division'scapabilities tounderstand how well prepared it is to meet theneeds of the marketplace.（接下来，应聘者将根据自己的分析框架，对案例展开分析）That sounds fine. So what do you want to knowabout the market?Well, the first hurdle would be to identifythe markets the company wouldbe interested in. Besides administration systems,what other types ofmedical software systems do large hospitals purchase?There are many software systems, but for thesake of time, the team focusedon three primary markets: administration systems,patient administration, andphysician support systems.What do those systems do?Patient administration includes systems likeadmissions and tracking.Physician support systems are more specialized, forindividual physicianprocedures.I would like to know how large each marketis and how fast each isgrowing. I would use secondary sources such as pressreleases, analystreports, and published market studies, to obtain this information.Great! That is what we did during the marketstudy. Our information revealedthe following market sizes and growth rates.Administration Patient administration Physician support Market size ($M);1,5001,0001,200Growth rate5%5%12%From a size and growth perspective, physiciansupport systems lookslike a very attractive market. I'd like to know a littleabout the customers themselves. The client is currently targeting largehospitals.Approximately what percentage of the market do they represent?We were unable to get an exact break down,but we know that these hospitalsmake up the vast majority of the total medicalsoftware market.That would make sense, since the more sophisticatedprocedures at ahospital might necessitate more advanced software solutions. Iknow thatthere have been a lot of changes in the industry as a result ofmanagedone. I would want to look at their financials, annual reports,and press releases to find out a bit more about their strategy in each of theseareas. You'd find that they recently enteredthese noncore markets. Why might they have done that?Perhaps, like our client, each had a strongposition in its own segment, HTI in patient administration and HCS SoftwareSystems in physician support. Maybe they too decided to branch out into theother segments to find additional growth.That is a very good hypothesis. Let's say thereis evidence in the sources you consult that supports your assertion.Well, if that were true, these two companiescould be a threat not only in the other two segments, but also in our client'ssegment, administrative systems. It looks as if the client is slowly losingmarket share in its segment, since it is growing more slowly than its market.Good observation.The market and competitor trends couldalso suggest that the client may want to enter these other markets. Inparticular, the physician support market looks attractive, given it has high growthand lack of a dominant competitor. The higher gross margins may provide attractivereturns on the necessary investment in software development.However, the patient administration marketmay also be attractive. Although it is more concentrated and offer slowermargins than physician support, the client may be able to enter this segmentwith a smaller up-front investment. Given the trend toward upgrading existingcomputer systems, it may be important for MedCount to have a product offeringin each of the three market segments. That should not be too difficult,sincethe company is already in the software industry. Perhaps, but you should think a littlemore closely about these types of software. Are all software systems alike?Well, let me think about that for amoment. I suspect patient administration would have relatively low entry barriers.From your earlier description, these systems appear to be pretty basic, dealingprimarily with admissions and patient tracking. However, the entry barriersinphysician support might be higher, since these systems are more complex andthere are probably multiple systems for the various physician procedures. Iguess it would be harder to get into those types of systems.That would make sense.Since the company might want to go into onlysome of the segments, I would want to know how important it is to have productsin all three segments. Do we know if the competitors are marketing heirproducts as a bundle?How might you find that out?Since it would be difficult to talk to acompetitor directly, I would probably target a competitor's customer, particularlyone that just converted from our client's software.Let's say you get an interview with a customerthat recently switched to HTI. You discover that the competitor was offering ita better pricing deal and service for software products in all three segments.How were MedCount's software and serviceperceived in relation to those of competitors?The customer thought that its administrativesystems were adequate, "the old standby," but not stellar.Were there any other key reasons it switchedfromMedCount's system? When it decided to upgrade its systems, ittried to contact MedCount, but could never get a representative to describe itsoptions.Interesting. How did HTI perform?The HTI representative had heard that the companywas considering switching software vendors and provided a sales representativeto pitch HTI's administrative product the next day.It definitely sounds as if there was a problemwith the sales function and that customer relations need to be improved,particularly for the larger hospital chains. There also seems to be anadvantage from both a marketing and sales perspective in having multiplesoftware products. I would want to confirm those views by doing furtherinterviews.Let's say further interviews support thoseassumptions.Since we have already looked at theexternal conditions, I would like to move on to the client itself. I'd like to knowmore about its marketing and selling organization as well as its software developmentskills.So far, we knowthat our client offers administrative software and that there may be a problemwith sales and marketing. Could you tell me a little about the marketingdepartment?The marketing department is organized regionally.Teams are assigned to hospitals within each state or geographic region, such asNew England.That could explain some of the problems withMedCount's marketing and sales. If hospital purchasing is centralized, the marketingorganization may be outdated. Does the company have any teams dedicated to thefour or five biggest hospital networks?No, there are no dedicated teams. They talkedabout doing that for a while, but it conflicted with the regional structure ithad in place.With regard to software, does thecompany feel it has any strengths or weaknesses?It feels that their administrative productis very strong ("best of breed") and is the dominant technology. Also,the product is modular in design, which allows for easier upgrades. Althoughthecompany has never branched out into other market segments, the softwaredevelopers believe that certain modules could be used to build the foundationfor other administrative software programs. The company feels customer supportis also an area in which it excels.（最后，应聘者需要对案例分析进行总结，并为“客户”提供建议）Let's start with our client's market. Theclient dominates the administrative software market, which is fairly large butgrowing slowly, and the company appears to be slowly losing market share. Patientadministration is also growing relatively slowly.Both markets are relatively concentrated andappear to offer lower margins than physician support. The physician support marketis large and less concentrated, and could potentially provide higher margins,but would require a larger investment. The hospital market itself is becomingmore concentratedand is pushing to consolidate vendors. The purchasing agentis often the same for the three types of software.Looking at our client's competitors, two,HTI and HCS Software Systems, appear to be particularly threatening. Each has adominant position in one segment and is branching out into other areas. Theyappear to be marketing their products and services as a bundle and are usingservice as a key point of differentiation.The client offers only one type of systemand appears to have some weaknesses in its marketing organization, particularlyin marketing to the larger hospital networks, which offer the most promisingmarket opportunities.How would you recommend proceeding?The first priority should be to fix the marketingorganization, particularly for the large hospital networks. MedCount will havetrouble expanding into new markets if it can't defend its current position andshore up its existing customer relationships. There should be a team dedicatedto each of the major chains. The client should also look at improving customertracking so that it is clear when its customers are going to upgrade. Thereshould also be clear contacts so that the customer can easily keep in touch withMedCount.Next, I would recommend that the client exploreentering the other market segments by leveraging its dominant position inadministrative systems. At first glance, patient administration does not appearto be very attractive, with slow growth, low margins, and large, dominantcompetitors. There appears to be some advantage, however, in having productsacross the product range. I would recommend that we interview some of MedCount'sexisting customers to better understand their needs and future IT requirements.If the customer base is interested in one software provider for bothback-office administration and patient administration functions, this segmentlooks promising.If the client does decide to enter this market,it should look at thelowest-cost method of entry, either developing a productinternally or acquiring a competitor. The modular design of its existingadministrativesoftware suggests internal development of the patient administrationproduct may be the way to go, but we would need a more thorough comparison ofthe internal development and acquisition options, including both cost and timeto market. I think that physician support offers our client an exciting growthopportunity, given its high margins, high growth, and fragmented competition. Iwould definitely think about an acquisition strategy, since the client may lackthe technical capabilities to enter this specialized market. I would recommendgoing for one of the larger companies, as that would give the client a strongerposition. Smaller companies would probably not offer an important enoughposition in the market. More research would be needed, however, for us tobetter understand the intricacies of the market and each potential acquisition.Those are very interesting conclusions. Thankyou.三、问答环节（5-10分钟，具体情况取决于45分钟里剩下多少时间）问答环节由应聘者向面试官提问。