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Dear BCC’ers,

As you get ready to sample wine at Uncork Illinois and head to the Chicago Maifest or spend time in a Room with a Zombie this weekend, we’ll give you something to look forward to the next week.

Here’s a preview of BCC news and events—everything you need to keep your finger on the pulse in the world of consulting. If you have any questions or feedback, please email us at bcc-cochairs@lists.chicagobooth.edu.

For our previous newsletters please click here!

Your BCC Co-Chairs,

Announcements

Link to Case Demos presented

May 16th Deck - Case Demo Slide Deck May 16^th Recording - Case Demo Recording

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Get involved in BCC . Please add your name in the Google Sheet to volunteer.

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OCR Corner

Some things you should be doing to prepare for recruiting for consulting in the fall:

Update your LinkedIn profile and use a professional photograph. Photo sessions are being organized by the Program Office but slots fill up quickly.
Good Read: The 5 Strategy Rules of Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs
Schedule resume and cover letter review with career services
Update your resume and cover letter and customize it for each firm
Listen to career podcast: The Career Story that Commands Attention
1. http://feeds.chicagobooth.edu/careercast
Start forming your case prep groups if you haven’t already.
Sign-up for Pam’s case workshop if you need a refresher or need to start.
Practice crop circle for BCC Symposium
Practice your 12, 30 & 1 minute Sales Trailer / Elevator Speech
Looking to improve your Excel & PowerPoint skills- Kieran Luke, an ex-BCG principal, is offering 40% off his courses (regularly $49 but $29) with discount code. E-mail nalidina@chicagobooth.edu for the discount code.

Upcoming Events

BCC: Consulting Case Interview Demo

Date: Sat, May 30, 2015 Time: 12:15 – 1:15 CDT Location: Gleacher

NOTE: This event is a great opportunity to observe and practice on a demo case interview. Anne Hickman (obtained offer from MBBs) will be the guest for this event. After a brief presentation, Anne will interview one of the BCC members who volunteered to take the case.

Pam Schilling Case Workshop May 31 - Click here to register today!

Upcoming Events

Event	Date	Time
Insight into Case Cracking by Neil Patel	June 6^th, 2015	12:15 – 1:15pm

Question of the Week: Market Sizing Case

Purina is thinking of entering the penguin food market. Can you help Purina evaluate whether there is a market for Penguin Chow?

Note: Why market sizing questions? They are easy to create in general and this is also an easy way to accesses your thought structure as well as comfort with numbers.

Tips: Always layout your thought structure when responding as this helps the interviewer correct you if you are going down the wrong path. Please remember there is no right answer. Try to time yourself and practice neatly presenting your work on paper.

Weekly Firm Review: Oliver Wyman www.oliverwyman.com

New York-based Oliver Wyman is part of the Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC), a global professional services network with brands and affiliates in more than 100 countries. The largest component of Oliver Wyman Group is Oliver Wyman, a management consulting business which has more than 4,000 consultants working out of offices in over 50 cities spread across some 25 countries. Oliver Wyman Group also includes NERA Economic Consulting and the brand and identity consultancy Lippincott.

The firm's consulting services cover the automotive, aviation, aerospace and defense, communications, energy, media, financial services, industrial products and services, health and life sciences, public policy, retail and consumer products, and surface transportation sectors. Its clients include numerous Global 1000 companies, more than 80 percent of the world's largest 100 financial institutions and heads of Fortune 1000 companies.

Although Oliver Wyman is headquartered in New York, the firm has a very cosmopolitan flavor with a footprint on five continents. While the firm has a strong foothold in North America, more than half of its offices are located elsewhere, and more than 50 percent of its employees are European. Further boosting the company's geographic and business reach, meanwhile, is the fact that the other companies owned by parent company MMC are available, should opportunities arise for collaboration with Oliver Wyman. Lastly, the company's global staffing approach places consultants on projects based on expertise and development need, no matter their home office. Cross-pollination throughout the offices is the norm rather than the exception.

The firm is committed to the concept of work-life balance and, as part of that commitment, it offers several programs for staff to recharge their batteries or pursue other interests. One example is the Non-Profit Fellowship program, in which employees can choose to work for a non-profit organization for three to six months, while the firm pays a stipend equivalent up to 40 percent of their salary. Since 2008, Oliver Wyman has had an alliance with micro-lending organization Kiva.org, operating a formal externship program that dedicates consulting staff to supporting Kiva's expansion. Oliver Wyman has a strong relationship with One Acre Fund, an organization which invests in farmers in Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi to generate a permanent gain in farm income to reduce poverty and hunger. Additionally, consultants have collaborated with organizations such as the Clinton Health Initiative, Teach for India, United Way, Technoserve and Baseball for Peace, to name a few.

Oliver Wyman has also established long-term partnerships with select non-profit organizations to provide pro-bono consulting services. For example, it has worked with Room to Read, which aims to transform the lives of children in developing countries by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education. The Boston, Stamford and London Symphony Orchestras, Junior Achievement, Women's World Banking, Vision Fund International, Trees for Cities, and Guiding Eyes for the Blind are all organizations for which Oliver Wyman provided assistance. The list continues to grow.

It's not enough for Oliver Wyman's consultants to know their industries-they have to know them well enough to be able to publish frequent reports on the state of those industries. For example, the firm has been putting out a "State of the Financial Services Industry" report every year since 1997, and in 2007 it began publishing a "State of the Communications, Media & Technology Industry" report. Since 2011 it has published an annual Oliver Wyman Risk Journal and since 2012 an annual Oliver Wyman Retail Journal. Additionally, the firm conducts research each year with the World Economic Forum and parent company MMC on global risks. The results are published in their annual "Global Risk Report," which identifies all the major global risks, assesses their economic impact and recommends mitigation solutions. The firm's partners are also regularly quoted in financial and business publications, and leading industry trade publications.

Answer to last week’s question:

How many bottles of children’s gummy vitamins are being sold yearly in the US? Is the market for children’s vitamins increasing or decreasing?

Not a good Answer 1: I have no clue about children’s vitamins. In fact shouldn’t children be eating healthy food and no vitamins?

Not a good Answer 2: Let me guess, it must be in the millions.

Note: Although the answer to you may not be wrong, the reason it’s a bad answer is it does not involve any analysis or structure but it simply puts forth your personal view rather than the firm you represent.

Now let’s explore better ways to answer

Step 1:

Let me clarify the question first. Are we talking about all gummy vitamins (Note: if you stopped your question here, that is fine but it is a very broad question) or specifically the sizes and brands sold at wholesalers like Costco or Sam’s Club (Note: This is a more specific thought after question) for example Lil Critters or Kirkland brand.

Interviewer: The entire market for gummy vitamins in general, sold in bottles in the US. Now remember we are not talking about Halloween candy or the one off sample packets.

Step 2:

Average Answer:

Let us start with the demand side to understand how many gummy bears are consumed or bought in the US each year. (Note: Great way to start as it is slightly harder to establish the supply side, but if you don’t remember to state it that is fine.) Now let us say there are 320 million people including children in the US today. Assuming that the average life expectancy is 80 years, let us say we have an equal representation for every age group. This means that we have 4 million (320/80) people in each age year group. Now, let us say that children from the age of 4.5 to 17 are able to chew gummy vitamins i.e. ((17-4.5) x 4 =50) 50 million children. Assuming each child eats at least 1 gummy vitamin a day and on average consumes 400 gummy vitamins in a year, the total gummy vitamins consumed are (50 x 400 = 20,000m) 20 billion or in other words if the average bottle contains 100 gummy vitamins, then you could say the number of bottles consumed is 200 million (20000/100) per year in the US.

Good Answer: (building on the previous answer)

Now let us assume that, all children in the US do not eat gummy vitamins OR better in any given year, our consumers are only 4/5^th of the children who bought gummy vitamins. Which means now, we have 40 million (4/5 x 50) children who get gummy vitamins. In addition let us say that the average cost of a 100 gummy vitamin bottle is $20. This means that there is an existing market for Gummy Vitamins of 160million bottles (4/5(50) x 400/100) or USD 3.2 billion (160 x 20 = 3200) and a potential market of 40 million gummy bottles (1/5(50) x 400/100) or USD 0.8 billion (40 x 20 = 800).

Better answer: (building on the previous answer)

Now we can take this analysis further. So far we assumed that a bottle of gummy vitamins satisfies all the vitamin needs. But let us assume that consumers also purchase a gummy vitamin bottle just for calcium separate from the multivitamin gummy vitamin. Let us also assume that only 20% of the consumers (20% x 40 =8) who purchase gummy vitamins for children in the first place also purchase these and carry over the same percentage to the potential consumers (20% x 10 = 2) who will purchase these too. Let us also state that on average 400 calcium gummies are consumed and each bottle contains 100 calcium gummies for $20. This means now we have an existing market for of 32 million calcium gummy bottles (20% x 40 x 400/100) with USD 640 million(32 x 20=640) AND a potential market of 8 million calcium gummy bottles (20% x 10 x 400/100) with USD 160 million (8 X 20 = 160).

Now, approximating these numbers, we get

Current Market Penetration : 48M consumers buying 192M bottles for ~ $4B

Potential Market Growth : 12Mconsumers buying 48M bottles for ~ $1B

Even better answer: (building on the previous answer)

Now to establish if this market for gummy vitamins is growing (Note: This is the 2^nd part of the question) let us begin with some realistic assumptions about the population growth of children in US. Although children are born each year, there are also children that turn 18 each year. Hence the net increase in the number of children for our purpose is very low. Assume it is only 2% which means that next year we will have 51 million (50+2% x 50) children. Solely based on this, our numbers potentially will not increase a lot. Hence the market for children’s gummy vitamins is growing at a steady but very slow rate.

We could also mention that our assumption was only 20% of Gummy Vitamins buyers also buy (or will also buy) Calcium gummy. The full potential of the market will be realized if every child consumes 4 bottles each of gummy vitamins and calcium gummy (in addition to population growth as mentioned above).

Follow up Questions?

Would you recommend XYZ Company to enter the gummy vitamins market?

Note:

Remember there is no one way to answer these questions. Average, good, better, even better answers were stated only to help you analyze and structure your responses. Although the potential market is nearly $1B and the existing market is $4B, we need to further understand various drivers if we were to determine market entry and since this was only a market sizing question, we have answered the original question. Please provide your feedback and approaches so we can share these with the rest of the members.