Electronics Retailer

Prompt

Your client, Circuit Co., is a national consumer electronics retailer similar to Best Buy. For the past 5 years, Circuit Co. has grown its revenues and earnings primarily through new store openings. However, Circuit Co. knows that this type of growth can not be maintained forever. For the past year, the company has focused on several initiatives aimed at improving same-store sales and earnings. Specifically, in the third quarter of last year, Circuit Co. ran a pilot program in the digital camera departments of its Southwest Region stores.

Traditionally, all of Circuit Co.’s ground-level employees were “generalists” in the sense that every one of them did all of the jobs that needed to be done. The pilot program involved setting up a group of “specialists” in the digital camera area who were solely responsible for answering customer questions and selling digital cameras. Specialists were paid a small draw plus commissions based on digital camera revenues.

The CEO wants to know:

1. Was the program a success?
2. What improvements can be made to the program?
3. Should Circuit Co. roll the program out to the rest of the country?

Business Case Interview Overview

In this BCG case, the client is a consumer electronics retailer. You’ve been tasked to look into the profitability of a new program the company is rolling out. Your job is to provide a recommendation to the client on whether or not to roll the program out nation-wide.

Use the Profitability Framework to solve for the solution in this business case interview. That said, the best case candidates blend frameworks with their own business understanding to build a custom structure for the task at hand.

The business case interview contains no math exhibits to interpret. This beginner case interview is most similar to a first round at BCG, with a qualitative difficulty of 2 (out of 4),

BCG Interview Pointers

BCG is looking for candidates that are masters of structuring.

Ask yourself: is my structure crystal-clear, and am I succinct in communicating it?

In this business case interview, focus on finding 1-2 areas of growth.

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