Electronics Firm Catalogue

Prompt

Your client is an electronics firm considering moving to a catalog distribution system.

The client is a small to medium-size company—revenues in the $300-$500M range. The company has a reputation for high quality products at a premium price.

Products manufactured by the client include electronics component parts (75%) as well as some finished goods (25%) such as CB radios, clock radios, wireless transceivers, etc. The client has a small, 8-10 person sales force.

Your client is in trouble financially. Sales are on the decline for the third year in a row. There has been consolidation in the industry among your client’s customers, which include retail electronics stores (like Radio Shack) as well as electronics component manufacturers (like TV/VCR producers).

What do you think are possible issues that the client is facing?

Strategy& Case Study Overview

In this Strategy& case study, the client is an electronics firm that is in trouble financially. Your job is to dig into the profitability and determine the cause of the decline. Ultimately, you will need to present your findings to the client.

Use the Profitability Framework to help structure your approach to the business situation in the case, but don’t be too rigid with the structure. Allow yourself to pick and choose from parts of the other basic frameworks that may help you create a more well-rounded structure.

The case contains no math exhibits to interpret. The qualitative difficulty is 2 (out of 4), making this a beginner case interview you might be given in a first round at Strategy&.

Strategy& Interview Pointers

What does Strategy& look for in its candidates? A creative approach to problem solving and structuring.

Make sure you are comfortable working outside the basic frameworks and creating unique solutions to problems you may come across in the case.

In this Strategy& case study, focus on finding one thing to improve upon.

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