All case studies
☕Consulting

A Consulting Interview Case: The Falling-Profit Café

Interview staple·Beginner

In short

A walk-through of the classic consulting case: profits are down at a café chain, and you need to find out why. It shows the framework, the maths, and the synthesis that interviewers use to judge how you think.

The background

The walk-through

1

Clarify the problem

Before you analyse anything, define the question. Profit is down versus last year or versus budget? Is it one region or the whole chain? Don't start the maths until you know what you are solving.

2

Build the structure

Profit equals Revenue minus Cost. Split Revenue into Price times Volume. Split Cost into Fixed and Variable. Keep it MECE: mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive. The structure is what keeps you organised under pressure.

3

Hypothesise

Work down the tree with questions. Is volume down because customers are leaving, or because they are buying less each visit? Each branch leads to a testable hypothesis. This is what interviewers watch for.

4

Do the maths

You will get a small calculation, like footfall fell 10% but spend per head rose 5%, what is the net? Clean arithmetic, stated assumptions, and a sanity check at the end. Interviewers care about process as much as the answer.

5

Land a recommendation

Summarise the root cause in one line, give the top two actions, name one risk, and suggest a next step. Synthesis matters as much as the analysis. End with a clear answer, not more questions.

Key takeaways

  • ▹Structure first, numbers second, synthesis last.
  • ▹The framework is a tool to stay organised, not a script to recite.
  • ▹Interviewers judge how you think, not just what you calculate.

Why it matters

Consulting

This is the core interview format for strategy consulting. Practising it is non-optional if you are applying.

Key terms

MECE
Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive. No overlaps, nothing missed. The gold standard for a clean structure.
Profitability framework
Breaking profit into revenue (price x volume) and cost (fixed + variable).
Hypothesis-driven
Forming a possible answer early, then testing it with questions and data.
Synthesis
Bringing the analysis together into a clear recommendation at the end.
All case studies

We use essential cookies to keep you logged in and, with your permission, analytics cookies to improve FINdr. See our Cookies Policy.