askivy_assessment_center_case_study

What are Case Studies?
Case studies are part of the graduate interview process at investment banks. They were first
introduced into interviews by management consulting firms, but they are now used by many
firms in the City, including the big 4 accounting firms and almost all of the major investment
banks.
A case study will consist of a question or several questions that are asked about a client’s
business. Your task will be to answer those questions, and justify what advice you would give
the client. Typically, this will be questions such as:
• “The CEO of Tesco rings you up and wants to set up a meeting in a few days to hear
what advice you have for his company. Based on the information you have at your
disposal, what would you advise the client to do?”
or
• “The CEO of Marks & Spencer has prepared a list of potential acquisition opportunities,
and he wants you to recommend which one to go ahead with”
To support your analysis and recommendations, various materials about the company will be
provided. This usually consists of i) the recent stock market performance of the company (if it is
listed), ii) annual reports, iii) broker’s research or investor presentations, iv) recent press
releases, v) other information about the potential targets.
Even if this sounds daunting, this exercise should not scare you, because answers do not
require any specific or advanced finance knowledge. The questions can be answered using
common sense and a basic understanding of finance concepts, and you will only need some
practice to master the case study.
Case studies are essentially used to test:
• Analytical skills: can you handle lots of numbers?
• Creativity: can you come up with interesting and original solutions?
• Problem solving ability: can you find the right answer given the data?
• Logic: are your arguments supported by facts?
• Business sense: do you have a good understanding and knowledge of the business
world and basic finance / accounting concepts?
• Ability to justify a point: can you handle the pressure of defending your arguments?
• Ability to understand and identify key and relevant data from a large amount of tables
and charts.
Case study exercises can be done either individually, or as group exercises, and they can be
written or/and involve an oral presentation in front of a panel of judges, usually consisting of
senior bankers. In this guide, we will show you how to handle both situations.
Overall, case studies should give you a good overview of what bankers do on a day to day
basis and what an investment banker job is like.
3