so I hear you saying that the volume of

3d TVs is very important how are you

going to figure out what the ramp-up

volume is of the 3d TVs in other words

how fast they're going to buy them when

you first start to launch the product

well clearly this is a new product so

one of the first things I'd want to look

at is just what the adoption is going to

look like and I know from other new

product introductions that typically the

adoption looks kind of like an s-curve

you have your early adopters until the

rest of the market catches on so in

order to figure out what the shape of

that s-curve might look like I'd

probably look at other comparable

products and those introductions so

something like high-definition TVs also

a TV product you could look at that and

sort of see how that performed in the

market iPads might be another comparable

example I think ultimately the question

is you know how fast or how much does it

ramp up and sure what's the maximum that

it's going to get to I would actually

believe that you know most of the market

if not all the market is going to get

their 3d TVs are obviously better

functionality than 2d TVs of course

there's always the chance that you know

just no one or very few people adopted

in which case would be a very short and

small s-curve

it's a good question you know this is a

brand-new product and nobody's ever

bought a 3d television before and so

there's no current data that we could

use a tell us that so what I really

would like to do is a market research

survey okay because I think what we

could do is actually ask consumers first

would they be interested in buying a 3d

television yeah and then second at what

price point would they be willing to buy

a 3d television and so if we took that

data together we could have an

understanding of what the maximum market

share could potentially be okay and so

we know that in the there will be a ramp

up because this is a new product we're

not going to immediately hit that number

okay and so to understand what our

volume could be in the ramp up period

our best assumption would be to take the

average between today at zero and that

maximum that we find through market

research
well since we don't have 3d televisions

yet we sort of are going to have to make

a bunch of assumptions okay so let me

start with there's a hundred million

households in the United States okay you

told me earlier that I believe it was

every four years a households buying a

new TV yes so we can assume that 25

million households will buy a TV

okay um I'd assume not everyone's gonna

want a 3d TV so I'm gonna make an

assumption let's call it 20% are going

to want to buy a TV okay which gets us

down to five million households that

will actually buy 3d TVs okay um I'd

make a guess and not everyone's going to

buy in the first year so let's say about

a million will buy it in the first year

and then maybe the next year we'll have

about two million folks buying TVs and

eventually that will ramp up and we'll

get to that five million of the five

million households which will actually

buy our TVs

the best answer is number two gales

answer she realizes that the only way to

understand the potential demand is to go

and talk to the customer to do primary

customer research which of course is

what we do here at Bain she also

recognizes that there's going to be a

relationship between price and volume so

even if she's telling you a little bit

about how she would design that survey

she's already highlighting that issue

which is you've got to be thinking about

price because that's going to impact the

volume so it shows a real level of

sophistication finally the thing we like

about Gail's answer is that she also

recognizes that the ramped up volume is

not going to all happen on day one that

you're going to go from zero to

something and the way you would

analytically start to think about that

is taking the average between point zero

and point n she's obviously got an

analytical background even while she's

giving you a practical thought about how

to gather this data so a very strong

answer ants number one by Jen is good

she talks about s curves and of course

there is an S curve and she clearly

understands the dynamics of how new

products get adopted but in this case

it's a little bit too theoretical

because while it may be an S curve shape

we don't know what the exact parameters

that S curve will be there's no market

exactly like 3d televisions and so you

still don't get a sense of what the

total volume will be which of course

makes it hard for you to figure out and

calculate the economics later on you

have to anchor that in some way shape or

form so right kind of business judgment

but maybe not quite pragmatic and not

thinking about the analytics and answer

number three Kristen's is just not the

right answer she comes in and starts

making a lot of assumptions and I think

showing that she is comfortable making

such assumptions but that's not what

we're really testing here what we're

testing to see is whether or not they

understand how you would go and get this

and and get the right data so the best

answer once again is number two Gail's

answer

so given everything that we've talked

about up to this point which option do

you choose

so I would choose option number two the

television without glasses first the

economics are far superior so we'll see

an incremental profit profitability of

seven hundred and fifty million dollars

versus a 300 million dollar of

profitability that we would see with the

first option the television with glasses

okay and now that seven hundred and

fifty million dollars is also

incremental and on top of the five

hundred million dollar upfront

investment that we'll need to make to

develop the technology okay outside of

just the economics we'll also be

providing a better customer experience

so people in their homes would far

prefer to be watching 3d television

without glasses so will not only be more

profitability for our company but will

also be a stronger option for the

customer

you know we've talked about sort of the

economics of each I think you know

option one is good it's it's less risky

you don't have to risk as much money up

front it's a little bit safer but it has

less of a payoff in the end yes

however on the other hand option two has

this great you know a big payout seven

hundred fifty million dollars but it

makes me really nervous that we'd have

to invest so five hundred million

dollars up front that's you know twice

as much as four more than twice as much

as we make in a year and that just seems

like something that you know I would be

nervous if the market doesn't take off

and we end up losing a lot of money on

the other hand option one you know feels

a little too safe in some ways and maybe

we're not capitalizing on the on the

right the right things but ultimately I

think if I had to choose I'd go with

option one it just seems to be the

better and safer option but I'd really

want to see what happens with option two

and see how that plays out

well mark when we start

we looked at I was going to look at

three different things first being the

economics second being market acceptance

in the third being execution risk so

when I look at the first of those the

economics clearly option to going

without the glasses is the better

investment for us a bigger return on our

investment the end of the day but then

when I look at option two which is

market acceptance I realize that there's

just uncertainty about what's going to

happen we just don't know how to have

enough data on whether folks are going

to be interested in this product or not

and what I'm thinking about here is you

know if we go with option one which is

just with glasses do we have the

opportunity to go into option two later

kind of test it out in the market see if

that works and then we can invest in

option two later once we can see what

our customers are interested in and the

third is execution risk which kind of a

certain follows a similar story so I

would assume that executing without

glasses is going to be much harder

undertaking obviously we know the R&D

dollars are much higher but the

technology is just going to be more

difficult and so therefore we would it

be able to backtrack if all of our

competitors go with option one and so

that leads me to believe that option

ones are better are safer bet they're

the smarter bet so looking at all this

the clear answer to me is option one I

know I lose a little bit the short-term

economic incentives of going with option

two but I know that long-term option one

is the best option for us because

eventually if we wanted to go into

launching a TV without 3d glasses we'd

be able to we'd have a nice platform in

order to do that but I think right now

the clear answers option one

all three candidates do a very nice job

of pulling back the facts of the work

that they've just gone through and

analyzed they can make an argument but

answer number three christen is the best

most notably what she does is she takes

her argument and ties it back to that

original hypothesis and framework that

she set out at the beginning so in that

way it's easy for you to understand it

she walks through and gives a very

cogent argument and we like that she

firmly takes a stand

number one Gail also takes a stand and

she makes an argument to talking about

the economics and the customer

experience but it doesn't once again tie

back to what we talked about at the

beginning and it's very pithy it's

almost like she's giving a simple answer

we'd expect a little bit more

sophistication once again not bad

good but not as strong as answer number

three which was Kristen and then finally

with answer number two Jen good argument

she understands all the facts but she's

very wishy-washy you hear talking about

with glasses without glasses and back

and forth and so we it raises concern

there that while she may have done an

excellent job of analysis actually

taking action in deciding what she wants

to do maybe a little bit more difficult

for her the best answer though number

three Kristen she ties it back to our

hypothesis she takes a firm stand and

she understands everything that she did

up to that point

okay I hear that you're going to do

option 1 3d with the glasses

but what happens if once we launch the

product we figure out that in fact

nobody buys it there's very low market

acceptance what happens then

that'd be quite unfortunate given the

the investment we made but in the end

I'm really glad I actually went with

option 1 because I didn't destroy the

company you know I didn't sort of invest

the the largest amount of money and now

you know we still consider a move

forward with our existing technologies

on the other you know in addition I

think I'm also glad I did this and went

through this exercise and developed this

technology because you know now I'm

smart about it I understand it and we

have the technology available so if in

the future it does become popular or a

competitor sort of goes full fledging in

the market with this technology we have

something to compete with and

furthermore there actually may be an

opportunity to to sort of recoup my

investment I'm in a different way

potentially licensing the technology

maybe to the military or maybe there's

some other applications or somebody who

might value it for a different purpose

than the consumer market

very glad I went with option one I give

in our you know the investment of a

hundred million dollars to go with with

glasses versus the investment of a five

hundred million dollars to go without it

clearly made sense given our current

profitability of two hundred million

dollars so we haven't destroyed the

business we have a bet the farm we're

going to continue moving forward so I'm

obviously glad that I went with the

first option and frankly I have to tell

you mark I'm not that all that surprised

by this and you know I'm never really

thought 3d TVs we're going to take off

anyway so I wonder if given you know not

being forced to make a decision I would

have never launched anyway which was

probably the right call

you know it's really interesting because

all of our market research studies they

said that customers are really excited

about this product so that really leaves

me to think that it's a problem on our

end maybe we haven't been advertising

the product appropriately maybe we can

go back and do some more consumer market

research studies with the actual

advertisements that we're using to make

sure that our message is really reaching

our end customer second you know I

wonder if it's really just a problem

with the content that's available okay

perhaps there just aren't enough 3d

television shows being made so we might

actually want to look at investing

further and companies that are producing

television shows for 3d to make sure

there's enough content for our consumers

actually be taking it in their house so

in the end I think this is still a

viable market and I think we just may

need to ensure that we are executing

appropriately I think that the market

will be there and we just need to be

patient and developing it

so now we've thrown in a twist after

they've gone through and solved the case

assuming that there's going to be demand

we tell them that in fact that

assumptions not true it doesn't work out

that way and it's important to throw a

twist in on candidates to see how they

react to it as you look at the answers

number ones

Jen's is the best first she accepts the

fact that that's what the data says and

because she's done a nice job of

understanding the case she realizes that

if it's not there it's not there

she then talks about the fact that she

gets some value and she understood that

there was some learning that occurred

because they went through this exercise

and launched the product she understands

its building corporate capability

capability it sounds very real world and

then the thing we liked most about her

in this case is that she comes up with a

creative idea even though it might not

work for consumer televisions it could

work in another market military and

licensing so I really feels like a

businessperson talking to you who's just

been dealt a bad hand or an unfortunate

event and making the best out of it

answer number two uh Kristen's is also

pretty good she's clearly very smart

because she immediately gets the fact

that if it doesn't work out the way that

we said it was going to work out the big

company is still in business we didn't

bet the farm she says however is she

really going to be open to accepting the

data that gets put in front of her and

accepting the situation and then of

course we finally get to answer number

three Gail's answer which is a little

bit alarming and raises some questions

she clearly is committed to her answer

too long she still thinks it's a good

idea she's either very inflexible or

she's a fighter notice that she starts

saying we'd have to do different things

we'd have to market it differently we'd

have to go and push harder she believes

the markets there if there's really no

reason for her to take such a strong

stand because the only thing she knows

is what we've told her throughout the

period of this case but for some reason

she's locked on to it and so that should

raise some red flags of what she might

be like when a client tells her of

something will she be able to question

it and raise outside issues or will she

just lock into it and will we be able to

manage her if a workstream changes so

some certainly some red flags here that

would be worth checking in a later

question or perhaps in a second-round

interview but overall

number one Jen's answer was the best

okay so now I'd like you to think about

the analytical achievement you're most

proud of and by that I mean where you

really nailed something where you were

where you were at your best where you

might have said to yourself I really

crush that can you give me an example of

that

one good example for you when I was

working at Goldman Sachs we were putting

together a book for an IPO they needed

to go out okay and so this was going to

be presented to a few analysts and we

had the deadline was three weeks away

plenty of time we all felt very good

about that we found out that they had to

move the deadline up a week and so we

had two weeks to finish the rest of our

work which you can imagine was quite

stressful for all that were involved yes

Anahata it was sort of sheer panic in

the group I was very surprised that

folks didn't know where to focus their

energy there was no sort of game plan

and so I was able to say these are the

spreadsheets that need to get done these

are the processes we need to be in place

these are n goals and so kind of get the

team going and then it was just all

about pulling all-nighters putting my

head down getting that work done and at

the end of the day we made the deadline

it was successful meeting we were very

happy and I'm personally proud of it

because of the investment I was able to

be to put in and I think that I really

contributed to it being a success

so before business school I was working

at Johnson & Johnson specifically on

their coughs here at brand and so they

had traditionally only sold a four ounce

size

and I started thinking about cough syrup

and the different SKUs that we actually

provide and I wondered whether or not it

made sense for actually as to move into

the eight ounce size as well to have a

larger product for people especially

thinking about a family right who

multiple people might be sick they

probably need more than a four ounce

product so I started running analyses I

did some sensitivity analyses I

collected all the data that I could

looked at what competitors are actually

doing and it turns out that I found

there was a very strong potential in

this market so I came back and I pitched

the idea to both the sales team and the

brand team and they were very positive

about it and they actually gave me the

go-ahead to set up a test and run a

pilot and the pilot was very successful

and we've actually now rolled out an 8

ounce cough syrup brand and it's been

very successful today and I actually

always buy it when I get sick

I think the example I'll talk about was

back actually when I was an undergrad

okay um and I was taking a programming

class and I'm not a CS major you know

not a math major so this is pretty

tricky and pretty challenging for me so

we had to write a program where actually

you had to calculate all of the prime

numbers between a million and two

million oh wow

yeah it was pretty funny it was pretty

complicated I was really nervous about

it you know last sleep a little bit and

then I sort of sat down and was able to

figure it out and wrote the program not

only that I got the the best grade in

the class and you know I was just really

proud of that in the end because you

know it's not something that necessarily

I was focused on or majoring in but you

know I was still able to succeed

when asking experienced questions

there's no right or wrong answer we're

asking these questions to learn what

type of teammate this candidate might be

what their strengths and weaknesses are

as far as how they would behave on an

actual case and so we want to be careful

here not just to say what is the best

answer but really more importantly what

are we learning from the answer what are

we learning about the person so for

example answer number one Kristin from

Goldman Sachs she talks about being a

hard worker and she defines being at her

best as when she was able to push

through things which is great we

certainly want hard workers at Bain &

Company but note that she doesn't talk

about a truly analytical achievement it

raised this question which is she may be

somebody who really pushes through but

she hasn't given us an indication that

she demonstrates being at her best as

being smart or analytical so not a fatal

flaw but just something we want to check

on answer number two Gail's answer the

cough syrup the new SKU of cough syrup

is the answer I like the best I liked it

because she talks about figuring

something out and she talks about the

analytical process she went through but

perhaps more interesting to me is that

she talks about then convincing people

to do something and the fact that they

actually changed behavior feels very

Bain like the fact that she can talk

about a measurable change because of

something she did however noticed that

she there's two questions that come to

my mind when we listen to Gail's answer

one is it seems a little simplistic that

why wouldn't this company have thought

about an 8-ounce product before it seems

a little unrealistic that she's the

first person ever come up with that so

maybe she's sort of manufacturing that

story and then a little bit at the end

she talked about the word mimimi a

couple times

once again not a fatal flaw I like the

way the story that she went through but

just something we're going to want to

pay attention to and finally number

three Jen's answered the computer

program she took our question literally

analytical achievement she was most

proud of and clearly designing this

computer program was a very difficult

challenge but it's not really applicable

to the real world or what we do at Bain

and so well she's answered the question

it does start to raise questions which

is is she theoretical is she some

hoo-uh is just very analytical and can

is that really when she's at her best I

also wonder with Jen that is this

something that she thinks of was a

rarity that she saw this computer

program or just how she normally is but

once again all three answers are fine

we've learned something very important

about each candidate

I want you to picture a team that you've

been on a team of peers it could be a

school team or a work team if I were to

bring those people here today and have

them around the table and say give me

some constructive criticism on you what

can you do better from a team dynamic

what would they tell me you need to

improve

I think they probably tend to say that I

take on too much of the work myself okay

I'm always sort of looking for ways to

help out and take things over if we have

a lot going on as a team I'll take on

too much myself yes and what do you

think you do that I think it's probably

because some of these things I take

really seriously maybe more seriously

than some of my team members um you know

ultimately I don't want to see us fail

as a team I have a my grades on the line

as well and and I want to make sure that

we succeed

hmm good question I think that they

would say that I typically avoid

confrontation okay tell me a little bit

more about that so I think what they

would say is that I really want

everybody to get along I think the team

is most productive when everybody is you

know feeling good about the team and

they're happy working with each other

and you know I've just never found it

productive - you know publicly embarrass

people in front of their peers or you

know have those conversations in front

of others I think many of those

situations are best handled offline

I think the number-one issue for me is

that I'm taking on too much I'm working

too hard
that's feedback I've gone before and is

that something that in it's something

that you need to improve on that sounds

good it's it's a little bit of both I

think it's both a good and a bad I think

what I find in situations is is that I

am often able not necessary to get to

the answer sooner but to push forward a

little bit quicker than the rest of my

team and so because of that I'm trying

to help the team and so not only I doing

sort of my own work but I'm also kind of

helping them get up to speed and

therefore just kind of taking on a

little bit more than I normally would

in this question we're asking about

people's weaknesses and once again we

learned something interesting about all

three candidates the first answer from

Jen she talks about taking on too much

work and how she pulls it all onto

herself and it raises a question if

she's somebody who doesn't really trust

her teammates is she just too much of a

ball hog does she want to put things the

spotlight on herself

or in fact is she somebody who's very

much at cause she says she takes the

work very seriously and that she's

committed to success obviously if it's

the second set of characteristics that's

a Great Dane person somebody who will do

anything that needs to be done to make

sure we get the right answer but if it's

somebody who doesn't really trust her

teammates well that's a more serious

question answer true from Gail where she

talks about avoiding confrontation your

natural reaction is to assume maybe

she's passive but in fact maybe she's

just very good at people management and

that she understands that you can't

always have an in-your-face style and

then in fact she might be really

terrific at creating change in

organizations and then finally with

Kristin the third answer she doesn't

really want to answer the question about

weakness you notice that she wants to

all keep making it back of strength she

says well I'm a hard worker and then I I

asked her well is that bad and she says

well I sometimes I try to do too much

and I oftentimes a smartest person and

she's just continually coming back and

making it sound like any weakness is not

really a weakness she really doesn't

want to let you know what her weakness

is so we haven't really learned that she

clearly is a very confident young lady

and might be a great bany but we want to

understand this issue about whether or

not she's really understands how it

feels to work with on a team with her

once again none of these answers are bad

we just learned some different things

what do you think the hardest part about

coming to Bain & Company would be for

you

for me I think one of the challenges

could be just the way that the staffing

process work okay so knowing that I

could be on a variety of different cases

that don't necessarily line up with sort

of where my interests are what my

background is okay so I could see that

that could be challenging working on

some of those cases there's a lot of

variability and staffing and I just I

think that that would be a challenge

for me personally I think it will be

going to a client where I am young and

I'm new I may not have worked in the

industry before with that particular

client and knowing that you know I can

do great analyses I have the data

analytic side behind me and I have the

support of my Bain team but actually

trying to change that from just being

the data and implementing it with my

clients who might be set in their ways

they've been working this industry

perhaps for many years if not their

whole career they have a certain way

that they do things and to me it's

pretty intimidating to actually think

about changing their behaviors

so I think the hardest part I believe is

actually sort of gaining credibility

with your clients you know I realized

that Bain has a whole support system and

sort of a team mentality but ultimately

it comes down to to me to be the expert

in this field and you know you're

working with clients who've been doing

this maybe their entire lives and really

have achieved expert status and from my

perspective you know I think I'll just

have to work really hard to come up to

speed you know I think it's possible and

I'm excited to do it but it's definitely

something that could be a challenge

in asking this question we hope to learn

a few things one is do they really

understand what it is that Bain does and

how our industry works many people are

unfamiliar or have romanticized what

it's like to be a management consultant

and of course it's a very hard job as we

all know and so we want to make sure

they come in eyes wide open and so we

want to understand that and in fact by

hearing how they articulate what they

think the challenges the job will be it

helps us start to figure out not just

what kind of questions we should ask

them but even things like who we should

be mapping onto them and what kind of

conversations we might have in closing

when we in fact make them an offer and

then of course by asking what part they

think they personally would have a hard

time with we learn a little bit about

what they think might be their

weaknesses or where they might have some

insecurities so as we look at answer

number one from Kristin who talks about

the staffing process she talks about the

fact that she might be put on a case

that she's unfamiliar with or maybe not

something that was she was thinking

about or energizer it raises a question

is she afraid of new things is she going

to be open to be putting on a case

that's a little bit out of her comfort

zone and so we want to push her on that

and in fact make sure that people tell

her that yeah in the first year or two

you might in fact be put on such cases

the answer to question number two from

Gayle who talks about the fact that

she's young and new and having to

interact with more senior executives I

think shows a nice understanding of the

business um it may make us also wonder

whether or not she's thinks of herself

as an analyst because she talks about

that where she knows her data and she

knows the work that she's done and so

she feels comfortable in analytical

capabilities but you see her get a

little bit hesitant about convincing

people to change and so once again this

issue of issue somebody who's going to

be able to grow in our job and really

have those kinds of client interactions

and get energy out of those client

energy jack interactions or instead

maybe be a little bit fearful of those

and then finally the answer number three

from Jen where she talks about

credibility I thought it was a good

answer there was nothing wrong with it

and clearly she understands our business

she's giving us straight down the middle

a description of one of the concerns

that happens about all management

consults which is our clients know more

than we do

about their own business but we haven't

learned much about Jen from this answer

and so we probably want to push a little

bit more on that because we don't know

what she's actually concerned about but

once again three Grady answers will be

very helpful to further interviewers and

how we might think about a closing

process