Public sector, non-profit and other unusual case interviews

Case interviews that are not about profit: public sector, non-profit, turnaround, sustainability and digital cases, and how to adapt your approach. 7 min readUpdated 12 November 2026By the Prepper team

Not every case interview is about a company's profit. Strategy firms do a growing share of their work for governments, charities, lenders and on technology and climate questions, and interviewers like these cases because memorised frameworks do not fit them. The method is the same: define the goal, split the problem, use the numbers, recommend.

What changes by case type

Case type	The goal	What to add to your structure
Public sector	An outcome for citizens, within a budget	Stakeholders, fairness, politics, what the law allows
Non-profit	The mission, per euro spent	Funding, volunteers, how impact is measured
Turnaround	Survive, then return to break-even	Cash and time first, then what to close, cut and fix
Sustainability	Lower emissions at acceptable cost	Carbon price, regulation, subsidies, customer willingness to pay
Digital and AI	A better or cheaper process	Data, adoption by staff, the risk of new errors
Competitive response	Protect profit against a rival's move	Which customers are at risk, cost of each response

Public sector: start with the goal

Ask what success means and how it is measured: "90% of urgent calls reached within 8 minutes", not "better service". Then look for changes inside the budget before proposing spending. In the ambulance case, shortening hospital handover frees the equivalent of 1.7 ambulances without buying one.

Non-profit: find the binding constraint

Money, supply, people or capacity: one of them limits impact. Size each and work on the one that binds. In the food bank case the answer lies in food supply and city site capacity, not donations.

Turnaround: cash before strategy

Ask how many months of cash remain. Then separate what can be fixed from what cannot, and order actions by how fast they bring in cash. See the department store case.

Digital and AI: check the second-order effect

A saving in one place can create a cost elsewhere. In the claims automation case, the software saves €9m in handling but pays out €10.8m more in claims.

Sustainability: use scenarios

The answer usually depends on a price nobody knows, so calculate the break-even price and compare it with scenarios, as in the carbon capture case.

Mistakes

Forcing a profit framework onto a mission-driven client.
Forgetting stakeholders who can block the plan.
Giving a recommendation with no measure of success.

Frequently asked questions

Do consulting firms really ask public sector cases?
Yes. All the large strategy firms have public sector practices, and these cases appear in interviews, especially in offices that do a lot of government work.
What framework works for a non-profit case?
Define the mission and how impact is measured, then test the constraints: funding, supply, people and capacity. Work on the one that limits impact.
How do I structure a turnaround case?
Cash first, then where the losses are, then three sets of actions: close or shrink, cut central cost, and improve what remains, in order of speed.

Do consulting firms really ask public sector cases?

Yes. All the large strategy firms have public sector practices, and these cases appear in interviews, especially in offices that do a lot of government work.

What framework works for a non-profit case?

Define the mission and how impact is measured, then test the constraints: funding, supply, people and capacity. Work on the one that limits impact.

How do I structure a turnaround case?

Cash first, then where the losses are, then three sets of actions: close or shrink, cut central cost, and improve what remains, in order of speed.