Office Products Company

Case Study Prompt

Your client is Office Products Co., which sells office supplies directly to businesses and consumers. It is a direct retailer of office products through two channels: catalogue and internet. This market is growing, especially the internet.

Historically, Office Products Co. has had growth that outpaces the market, but over the past two years, revenue growth has been flat and profit margins have been trending down.

The client has hired you to figure out what is causing the declining performance and determine what the management should do to turn things around.

Case Overview

This Bain case study involves a retailer of office supplies/products that has experienced a downward trend in growth and profit margins. What is causing the decline? That’s your job to figure out. In addition, you’ll need to provide a strong recommendation to the client on how to reverse the decline and get back to profitability.

Use your experience with the basic case frameworks to build your structure for the Bain case study. This part of the case is critical – a weak structure will be detrimental to your ability to effectively solve the problem.

This Bain case study is a case that will prepare you for a final round interview. You will need to interpret several math diagrams in the case.

Interview Tips: Bain 

Bain looks for practicality in its case interview candidates. For this case, imagine yourself in an actual Bain client engagement. Make sure your case structure would translate to a real-world scenario.

Maximize your effort in this Bain case study by scoring yourself in each section. Next, find 1 or 2 areas that are weaker than the rest (i.e. quant, insights, structure). Make that area(s) your focus going into your next case.

If you find yourself struggling in the case, consider booking an hour of out-loud practice with an ex-MBB case coach.