BCG-波士顿咨询公司面试实例

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BCG - 波士顿咨询公司面试实例

•在管理咨询公司的面试中, 通常有一种被称为“商务 问题”的面试方法，您的考官向您提供一种场景，然后 要您提出解决问题的建议。您需要像一个顾问一样向 考官文一些关键问题，通过这些关键问题反映您的思 维逻辑，同时通过这些问题发现解决方案。

•下面是一个实例，请注意：同样的一个场景，基于 您分析问题的逻辑将有无数种进展方式，绝对没有统 一的答案或问题。

场景

•Your client is the largest discount retailer in Canada, with

500storesspreadthroughoutthecountry.Let„scallit

“CanadaCo.”Forseveralyearsrunning,CanadaCohas surpassed the second largest Canadian retailer (300 stores)

in both relative market share and profitability.

•CanadaCo是加拿大最大的折扣零售集团，拥有遍及全 国的500家连锁店。经过几年的运营，它在市场占有率 及盈利方面都已远远超过了拥有300家连锁店的第二大 零售公司。它是本公司的客户之一。

•The largest discount retailer in the United States, "US Co," however, has just bought out Canada Co's competition and is planning to convert all 300 stores to USCo stores. The CEO of CanadaCo is quite perturbed by this turn of events, and asks you

the following questions: "Should I be worried? How should I

react?" How would you advise the CEO?

•US Co是美国最大的折扣零售集团。它收购了第二大的零售 公司，准备将其拥有的300家店全部改造成US Co连锁店的

形式。 CanadaCo集团的CEO对此深感忧虑，他向你这样问 到：“我应该对事态的发展担忧吗？应该如何应对呢”

•你怎样向这位CEO提出你的建议呢？

•Ｑ（应聘者）：Well, before I can advise the CEO I need some more information about the situation. First of all, I'm not sure I understand what a "discount retailer" is!

•Ａ（考官）：A discount retailer sells a large variety of consumer

goodsatdiscountedprices,generallycarryingeverythingfrom housewares and appliances to clothing. Kmart, Woolworth, and Wal- Mart are prime examples in the U.S.

•Ｑ（应聘者）： 在我向他提出建议之前，我必须对情况作进一步 的了解。首先，我不太明白什么是“折扣零售店”。

•Ａ（考官）： “折扣零售店” 以折扣价格销售各种各样的商品，包 括家庭用具、服装等等，象美国的沃尔玛超市就是这样的例子。

•Ｑ：Oh, I see. Then I think it makes sense to structure the problem this way: First, let's understand the competition in the Canadian market and how CanadaCo has become the market leader. Then let's look at the U.S. to understand how USCo has achieved its position. At the end, we

can merge the two discussions to understand whether USCo's strength

in the U.S. is transferable to the Canadian market.

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•Ａ：That sounds fine. Let's start, then, with the Canadian discount

retail market. What would you like to know?

•Q：我知道了。我认为问题接下来应该这样分析：首先，我们应 了解加拿大市场的竞争情况，以及CanadaCo是如何成为这个市场 的领先者的；其次，分析美国市场及USCo的情况；最后，我们 将二者结合起来分析，看USCo在美国成功的经验及其优势是否能 移植到加拿大市场来。

•A：对加拿大折扣零售市场，你希望了解一些什么情况呢？

•Q：Are CanadaCo's 500 stores close to the competition's 300 stores, or do they serve different geographic areas?

•Ａ：The stores are located in similar geographic regions. In fact, you

might even see a CanadaCo store on one corner, and the competition on the very next corner.

•Q：CanadaCo的500家连锁店与其竞争对手的300家店是位于不同的 地区还是相距很近呢？

•Ａ：两个集团的零售店基本上位于相同的地区，甚至你在某个角落里 看见CanadaCo的商店，就会在不远处发现其竞争对手的零售店。

•Ｑ：Do CanadaCo and the competition sell a similar product mix?

•Ａ：Yes. CanadaCo's stores tend to have a wider variety of brand names,

but by and large, the product mix is similar.

•Ｑ：Are CanadaCo's prices significantly lower than the competition's?

•Ａ： No.ForcertainitemsCanadaCoislessexpensive,andforothersthe

competition is less expensive, but the average price level is similar.

•Ｑ： CanadaCo与其竞争对手销售同样的商品组合吗？

Ａ：是的。CanadaCo销售的部分商品含有更多的品牌，但总体上，两 家公司销售的商品组合是相同的。

•Ｑ： CanadaCo销售商品的价格比起竞争对手低很多吗？

•Ａ：不。有的商品价格便宜一些，有的也高一些。在总体价格水平上 同竞争对手是相当的。

•Ｑ：Is CanadaCo more profitable just because it has more stores, or does

it have higher profits per store?

•Ａ：It actually has higher profits than the competition on a per-store basis.

•Ｑ：Well, higher profits could be the result of lower costs or higher

revenues.Arethehigherper-storeprofitsdue to lower costs than the competition's or the result of higher per-store sales?

•Ａ：CanadaCo's cost structure isn't any lower than the competition's. Its

higher per-store profits are due to higher per-store sales.

•Ｑ：CanadaCo的盈利超过对手，仅仅是因为它拥有更多的连锁店呢 还是因为每家店的利润都更高？

•Ａ：实际是因为它每家店的盈利能力都比对手强。

•Ｑ：较高的利润里意味着较低的成本或较高的收益。那我们是在哪 方面优于竞争对手呢？ •Ａ： CanadaCo的成本结构并不占优势。每家零售店的高利润来自于 较大的销售量。

•Ｑ：Is that because it has bigger stores?

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•Ａ：No. CanadaCo's average store size is approximately the same as

that of the competition.

•Ｑ：If they're selling similar products at similar prices in similar-sized

stores in similar locations, why are CanadaCo's per-store sales higher than the competition's? •Ａ：It's your job to figure that out!

•Ｑ：那适应为它的店面更大吗？

•Ａ：不是， CanadaCo零售店的平均规模与其竞争对手不相上下。

•Ｑ：那它们在相同的地点、以同样的价格出售相同的商品，为什 么CanadaCo的销售量更大呢？

•Ａ：这正是你的任务呐！

•Ｑ：Is CanadaCo better managed than the competition?

•Ａ：I don't know that CanadaCo as a company is necessarily better

managed, but I can tell you that its management model for individual stores is significantly different.

•Ｑ：How so?

•Ａ：Thecompetitor'sstoresarecentrallyownedbythecompany,

while CanadaCo uses a franchise model in which each individual store

is owned and managed by a franchisee who has invested in the store

and retains part of the profit.

•Ｑ：是 CanadaCo 管理得更好吗？

•Ａ：我不知道作为一个集团，CanadaCo的管理是否更好，但它对 零售店的管理模式是与竞争对手完全不同的。与竞争对其连锁店 的集中管理不同，CanadaCo采取的是特许经营的方式，谁投资 谁经营，谁享有利润分享权。

•Ｑ：In that case, I would guess that the CanadaCo stores are probably

bettermanaged,sincetheindividualstoreownershaveagreater

incentive to maximize profit.

•Ａ：You are exactly right. It turns out that CanadaCo's higher sales are

due primarily to a significantly higher level of customer service. The storesarecleaner,moreattractive,betterstocked,andsoon.The

companydiscoveredthisthroughaseriesofcustomersurveysit administered last year. I think you've sufficiently covered the Canadian market—let's move now to a discussion of the U.S. market.

•Ｑ：那我认为CanadaCo 的零售店应该管理得更好，因为每个店主 都会拥有更强烈的利润最大化的动机。

•Ａ：正是如此。 CanadaCo连锁店更大的销售量主要来源于优质的 顾客服务水平，它们店面整洁，商品排列有序。这些结论都是通 过去年进行的一系列顾客调查获得的。我想你对加拿大市场已经 获得了足够的了解，让我们可以转到美国市场吧。

•Ｑ：How many stores does USCo own in the U.S., and how many does the second largest discount retailer own?

•Ａ：USCo owns 4,000 stores and the second largest competitor owns

approximately 1,000 stores.

•Ｑ：Are USCo stores bigger than those of the typical discount retailer

in the U.S.?

•Ａ： Yes.USCostoresaverage200,000squarefeet,whereasthe

typical discount retail store is approximately 100,000 square feet.

•Ｑ： USCo 在美国拥有多少家连锁店？第二大的集团呢？

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•Ａ：USCo有4000家零售店，位于第二位的它的最大的竞争者有

1000家商店。

•Ｑ： USCo 的零售店比一般的折扣零售店更大吗？

•Ａ：是的。它 们的零售店平均 有 200000 平米，而一般的只有

100000平米大小。

• .

•Ｑ：Those numbers suggest that USCo should be selling roughly eight

times the volume of the nearest U.S. competitor!

•Ａ：Close. USCo's sales are approximately $5 billion, whereas the

nearest competitor sells about $1 billion worth of merchandise

•Ｑ： IwouldthinkthatsalesofthatsizegiveUSCo

significant clout with suppliers. Does it have a lower cost of goods than the competition?

•Ａ：In fact, its cost of goods is approximately 15 percent

less than that of the competition.

•Ｑ：这些数据是否意味着USCo的销售量使其最大的竞争对手的8

倍！

•Ａ：差不多。USCo的销售额为50亿美元，而其最大的竞争对手 为10亿。

•Ｑ：我想如此大的规模使USCo在于其供应商的关系中处于非常 有利的地位。它的金或成本是不是比起竞争对手低呢？

•Ａ：低15%。

•Ｑ：So it probably has lower prices.

•Ａ：Right again. Its prices are on average about ten percent lower than

those of the competition. &&&&

•Ｑ：So it seems that USCo has been so successful primarily because it

has lower prices than its competitors.

•Ａ：That's partly right. Its success probably also has something to do

with a larger selection of products, given the larger average store size.

•Ｑ：那么它出售的商品价格就较低。

•Ａ：对，价格低10%左右。

•Ｑ：那就是说USCo的成功主要在于它提供的较低的价格。

•Ａ：这是一部分原因。还有就是它的店面更大，商品的种类也更 多。

•Ｑ：How did USCo get so much bigger than the competition?

•A：It started by building superstores in rural markets served mainly by

mom-and-pop stores and small discount retailers. USCo bet that people would be willing to buy from it, and it was right. As it grew and

developed more clout with suppliers, it began to buy out other discount retailers and convert their stores to the USCo format.

•Ｑ：So whenever USCo buys out a competing store, it also physically

expands it?

•Ａ：Not necessarily. Sometimes it does, but when I said it converted it

to the USCo format, I meant that it carries the same brands at prices that are on average ten percent lower than the competition's.

•Ｑ： USCo的规模为什么能这么大？

•A：它最早是在乡村地区开办超市，之前这些地区只有一些小的零 售点和家庭小卖部。 USCo认为这些地区的人会愿意从超市购买商 品，后来证明这一判断是正确的。USCo开始

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扩张，与供应商建立 联盟，逐渐购并了其它的一些零售商，将它们归入USCo旗下。 •Ｑ： 是不是每次USCo收购了一家竞争者的商店，都会将它扩充？

•A：并不是每次都需要这样。对于收购过来的有些商店，它只需要 以低于竞争对手10%的价格出售商品，并贯上自己的品牌就可以

了。

•Ｑ： WhatcriteriadoesUSCouseindecidingwhetheritshould physically expand a store it's just bought out?

•Ａ：It depends on a lot of factors, such as the size of the existing store,

local market competition, local real estate costs, and so on, but I don't think we need to go into that here.

•Ｑ：Well, I thought it might be relevant in terms of predicting what it

will do with the 300 stores that it bought in Canada.

•Ａ：Let'sjust assumethatitdoesn't plan to expand the Canadian

stores beyond their current size.

•Ｑ：那它在决定哪些商店需要扩充、哪些只是收购过来的时候， 有什么标准呢？

•Ａ：这取决于很多种因素，比如商店已有的规模、当地市场的竞 争情况、地产的价格等等。我认为这些对我们的问题不重要。

•Ｑ：我是觉得这些有助于我们预测它将会对收购的这300家商店做 怎样的安排。 •Ａ：我们就假定它不会扩充这些商店的规模。

•Ｑ：OK. I think I've learned enough about USCo. I'd like to ask a few

questions about USCo's ability to succeed in the Canadian market. Does USCo have a strong brand name in Canada?

•Ａ：No. Although members of the Canadian business community are

certainly familiar with the company because of its U.S. success, the

Canadian consumer is basically unaware of USCo's existence.

•Ｑ：那我已经对 USCo 有了足够的了解了。我想在为 几 个 关 于 USCo是否具有在加拿大市场成功的能力的问题。USCo在加拿大 拥有很强的品牌吗？

•Ａ：不。虽然加拿大一些商业企业知道它在美国市场成功，但加 拿大的消费者并不知道这个公司。

•Ｑ： DoesUSCocarryproductssimilartoUSCo's,ordoesthe

Canadian consumer expect different products and brands than the U.S.

discount retail consumer?

•Ａ ： Thetwocompaniescarrysimilarproducts,althoughthe

CanadaCo stores lean more heavily toward Canadian suppliers.

•Ｑ：How much volume does CanadaCo actually sell?

•Ａ：About $750 million worth of goods annually.

•Ｑ： USCo 出售商品的品牌和USCo一样吗？或者加拿大的消费者 喜欢一些与美国的小给这不同的产品和品牌？

•Ａ： 虽然CanadaCo更倾向于选择加拿大的供应商，但两个公司卖 同样品牌的商品。 •Ｑ： CanadaCo的销售量是多少？

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•Ａ：每年75亿美元左右。

•Ｑ：Is there any reason to think that the costs of doing business for USCo will be higher in the Canadian market?

•Ａ：Can you be more specific?

•Ｑ：I mean, for example, are labor or leasing costs higher in Canada

than in the U. S.?

•Ａ：Canada does have significantly higher labor costs, and I'm not

sure about the costs of leasing space. But what are you driving at?

•Ｑ：有没有什么原因会使 USCo在加拿大营业的成本会更高呢？

•Ａ：能具体一点吗？

•Ｑ：比如劳动力成本及租金等会比在美国高？

•Ａ：加拿大的劳动力成本要高得多，租金则不一定。问这些是要 得出什么结论呢？

•Ｑ：I was thinking that if there's a higher cost of doing business in

Canada, perhaps USCo will have to charge higher prices than it does

in the U.S. to cover its costs.

•Ａ：That's probably true, but remember, CanadaCo must also cope

with the same high labor costs. Can you think of additional costs incurred by USCo's Canada operations that would not be incurred by

CanadaCo?

•Ｑ：我想如果USCo在加拿大的运营成本较高的话，它对商品 的定价也会比在美国高一些。

•Ａ：也许。但CanadaCo也需要承受这些更高的运营成本呐。你 能不能想到USCo在有些成本方面会比CanadaCo高一些呢？

•Ｑ： USComightincurhigherdistributioncoststhanCanadaCo because it will have to ship product from its U.S. warehouses up to Canada.

•Ａ：You are partially right. CanadaCo is advantaged in distribution

costs, since its network spans less geographic area and it gets more product from Canadian suppliers. However, since CanadaCo continues

to get a good deal of product from the U.S., the actual advantage to CanadaCo is not great—only about two percent of overall costs.

•Ｑ：USCo在运输成本上可能会比CanadaCo高，因为它需要从位 于美国的仓库运货来加拿大。

•Ａ：你只对了一半。 CanadaCo在运输成本方面会有一些优势，因 为它销售网络的地域跨越性较小，它也较多的从加拿大的供应商 处进货。 但是，CanadaCo也有很多商品来自美国。因此，她的总 成本只有2%的优势。

•Ｑ：All this suggests that USCo will be able to retain a significant price advantage over CanadaCo's stores: if not ten percent, then at least seven to eight percent.

•Ａ：I would agree with that conclusion.

•Ｑ：这意味着USCo会比CanadaCo的零售店拥有价格上的优势， 即使达不到10%，也大概会有7-8%。

•Ａ：我同意你的结论。

•Ｑ：Then I would tell the CEO the following: In the near term, you

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be well managed. However, as consumers get used to seeing prices that are consistently seven to eight percent less at USCo, they will realize that shopping at USCo means significantsavingsoverthecourseoftheyear.Althoughsome consumers will remain loyal out of habit or because of your high level

of service, it is reasonable to expect the "discount" shopper to shop wherepricesarelowest.Moreover,overtimeyourbrand-name advantage will erode as USCo becomes more familiar to Canadian consumers. You certainly have to worry about losing significant share

to USCo stores in the long term. You should probably do something about it now, before it's too late.

•Ｑ：我会这样建议这位CEO：公司在短期不会有什么问题。在加 拿大它拥有比USCo更好的品牌，而且它的运营情况也不错。但 是，一旦消费者看到USCo的商品总是更低（7-8%），他们会知 道在USCo购物会在长期内省很多钱。虽然一部分会消费者会由 于你们提供的高质量的服务而对公司保持忠诚，但这些购买打折 商品的消费者会更注重价格的高低。随着人们对USCo的逐渐熟 悉，你们的品牌效应也会削弱。你却是应为公司的市场占有率被 USCo夺走而担忧，并及时采取适当的行动扭转这种趋势。

•Ａ：Can you suggest possible strategies for CanadaCo?

•Ｑ：Maybe it can find ways to cut costs and make the organization

more efficient, so it can keep prices low even if its cost of goods is higher.

•Ａ：Anything else?

•Ｑ：It might consider instituting something like a "frequent shopper"

program,whereconsumersaccumulatepointsthatentitlethemto future discounts on merchandise. •Ａ：你能给出一些战略上的建议吗？

•Ｑ：可以通过削减成本、精简机构来降低出售商品的价格。还可 以采取类似“贵宾卡”等活动来使那些经常光顾的人获得累计的积 分，从而的带更多的折扣。

•Ａ：What might be a potential problem with that?

•Ｑ：Well,itmightnotbethatcost-effective,sinceitwouldbe

rewardingasignificantnumberofshopperswhowouldhave continued to shop with it anyway. •Ａ：Any other suggestions?

•Ｑ：It might want to prepare a marketing or advertising campaign

thathighlightsitshighlevelofservice.Itmighteveninstitutea

"CanadaCo Service Guarantee" that surpasses any guarantees offered

by USCo.

•Ａ ： Assumingtheonlywaytokeepcustomersisthrough

competitive pricing, is there anything CanadaCo can do to appear competitive to the consumer?

Ａ：这会有什么潜在的问题吗？

•Ｑ：这可能不利于降低成本，因为它给与较大一部分顾客更低的 折扣。

•Ａ：还有什么建议吗？

•Ｑ：还应该伴随一些宣传其优质服务的促销及广告活动，甚至还 应建立“CanadaCo服务保证”，提供超过USCo所有承诺的服务。

•Ｑ：It might want to consider offering fewer product lines, so that it

can consolidate its buying power and negotiate prices with suppliers

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that are competitive with USCo's. It might lose some customers who want the variety of product that USCo has, but it may be able to retain

the customer who is buying a limited array of items and is just looking

for the best price.

•Ａ：All of your suggestions are interesting, and you would want to

analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each in more detail before making any recommendations to the CEO.

•Ｑ：它还可以减少商品的种类，这样可以巩固其购买力及其与供 货商的谈判能力，以此获得竞争优势。这样会使其失去一些追求 多样化的顾客，但会保留一些只购买少量品种商品、并且寻找最 低价格的顾客。

•A：你的建议都很有意思。在向CEO提出建议之前，你需要进一 步对每种方案的优势及劣势进行深入的分析。