Cigar Bar

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Case Prompt

I was sitting in one of Chicago’s 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 bar’s finest stogies and sipping a cognac, I asked my friend how much he thought the bar was worth.

How would you go about determining the value of this bar?

Case Overview

You are attempting to estimate the value of a new cigar bar in Chicago. How will you approach the problem?

This is a “back-of-the-envelope” type case, combining different case styles – namely, M&A and Market Sizing. It’s an opportunity to stretch yourself and get creative with your structure. Don’t get too comfortable within the basic frameworks. Develop a custom structure tailored to the question you’re being asked.

There are no math diagrams in this case. The qualitative difficulty is 2 out of 4, which makes this a fairly basic case interview you would likely see in a BCG first round.

BCG Interview Tips

BCG is looking for candidates that are structured and are able to clearly communicate that structure.

When going through the case, make sure that your framework is crystal-clear (for yourself and for your interviewer), and that you verbalize each part of your structure. Emphasize your process instead of the actual answer.

In this case, identify several areas of improvement that can help take your casing to the next level.

Looking for professional feedback on your case performance? Book some time with one of MC’s expert interview coaches.

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