Pricing Strategy : A company has a new product, and they want to figure out how they should price this product.
1. What is the product?
2. What’s special about it?
3. Pick one of three strategies:
Competitive-based pricing
Cost-based pricing
Price-based costing
4. Supply and Demand
How will the price affect the balance?
What are other companies charging for similar products?
Growth Strategies: When presented with a question of how a company can expand, or that a company is facing growth issues, proceed with the following questions:
o Do we focus on certain product, division, or company overall?
o How’s the industry and the company’s place in it?
Are the prices competitive?
What are our competitors doing?
Where is the greatest potential?
Can we fund the growth?
o Pick a strategy:
Increase sales
Increase product line
Increase distribution channels (where the product is sold)
Diversify (new product or service)
Acquire company or competitors in another industry.
New Product: Existing company has come up with a brand new product i.e. Philosophy’s new line of anti aging skin care that is PROVEN to remove wrinkles.
o What’s the big deal about the product?
Is it special? Why is it special?
Is there anything like it out there?
Does it make sense for Philosophy (which goes for naturalness for your skin) to make this new product? Does it FIT with the company?
Are there any disadvantages to this product? Maybe, side effects?
o How will this affect Philosophy’s market strategy?
Will it take away from existing products?
What effect will this new product have on our customer base? If its gonna grow it, how and why?
How will competing skin care brands react?
Are there competitors already making this product and if so, how much of the market have they dominated?
o Who are the customer of the new product?
Best way to reach them (internet, etc)
Best way to KEEP them
o Financing:
How is it being funded?
Can company afford it? What will happen if circumstances make it more difficult to pay off the debt.
This post is incomplete, but I learned online that there would be a "mini case study" required as part of my ESADE interview. (Post interview I can say YES this is true). I've purchased two books on the subject and found the first one especially to be VERY helpful.
I've taken some notes on the major case study types, and am posting them here for public benefit. Here is a breakdown of the types of mini cases you can expect to encounter:
I've been having people mock interview me, and researching interviews at IESE and ESADE to DEATH. Here are some pointers I've picked up:
1. Slow down when talking. The more thought out your words are, the more powerful they become. Nothing is more boring than rambling.
2. When you are given a question that stumps you, acknowledge it with something like “Wow, that’s a really good question. I just need a second to organize my thoughts around it”
3. When asked about your experiences with resolving conflict, leading a team, or how you handled certain situations, avoid we. This only prompt the interviewer to ask, ok, so what role in the WE did YOU play. Try to frame your answers with “I”.
Also, the key point in the interview where you get to really show what's important to you, and really turn the interview into a conversation, is when its your turn to ask the questions. This is your opportunity to make yourself stand out, and be a person they remember instead of just another interviewee.
Here are the ones I came up with...
Potential Questions:
1. I am very interested in pursuing an international exchange in my second year, but I’m concerned as to how that will affect my ability to secure a job upon graduation. ESADE prides itself on the relationship your career advisors build with the students from day one – will I be minimizing the impact of this if I chose to be in a different city or country at the end of my education? Will I have to rely on the career opportunities offered by the school I pursue my exchange with? Do the career services of the school take this into account at all?
2. I was very excited to learn about the innovation project partnership with the EU that ESADE will be involved in. Given my background with energy sustainability through my work with Smart Metering, I am very interested in being involved in future advancements in the industry and contributing to it where I can. Will students be directly involved in this effort, or is it more of a faculty/research project? Is this being built into the curriculum at all?
3. In the current economic environment, MBA are increasingly being referred to as either the heart of the problem or useless all together. Over the last two years, you hear about students coming out with prestigious MBAs, a lot of debt, and crawling right back to the employers they left to pursue their MBA, slightly wiser and a lot poorer. How is ESADE responding to the opinion that tomorrow’s business leaders wont be the ones with prestigious business educations but rather the renegades that learn how to work around the new systems that will be put into place as the world works toward a slow and sustainable recovery? What changes have you made to your curriculum to reflect the new needs of the world economy and the faces likely to be faced by businesses in the immediate and long term future?
