Case interview frameworks, and why you should not recite them

Frameworks are checklists of what usually matters in a type of business problem. They are useful for practice. Recited word for word in an interview, they cost marks, because interviewers want a structure built for this client.

The ones worth knowing

Profitability

• Revenue: price × volume, by product, customer and channel.
• Costs: fixed and variable, by category.
• Compare with history and with competitors.

Market entry

• Market: size, growth, profitability, customer segments.
• Competition: who is there and how they would respond.
• Capabilities: what the client brings and lacks.
• Entry mode: build, buy or partner. Economics and risks.

Mergers and acquisitions

• Stand-alone value of the target.
• Synergies: revenue and cost.
• Price and returns.
• Integration risk and alternatives.

Pricing

• Cost-based floor.
• Competitor prices.
• Customer value and willingness to pay.

Growth

• Existing customers: more volume, higher price.
• New customers, new products, new markets.
• Organic or through acquisition.

How to adapt

1. Start from the question. Write the client's goal at the top.
2. Choose three or four buckets that would answer it.
3. Use the client's words. For a hospital, "patients and procedures", not "customers and products".
4. Add a first hypothesis. "My starting guess is that costs have risen, so I would begin there."
5. Prioritise. Say where you would look first and why.

Example

"A regional airline's profits have halved in two years."

A generic answer says "revenue and costs". A tailored one:

• Revenue per flight: passengers per flight, fare, extras, by route.
• Cost per flight: fuel, crew, airport charges, maintenance, aircraft leases.
• Network: which routes changed and which lose money.
• External: fuel prices, new competitors, demand.

"I would start with routes, because a few loss-making ones often explain most of a fall."

Practise building, not memorising

For each case, take two minutes to write your own structure, then compare it with the model answer. See the case interview guide.