Guides

Practical, student-built playbooks for real-world problems.

Step 1: Find the Real Problem (Not Just the Loudest One)

Before you open Excel or PowerPoint, work out the true issue. Clients usually shout about symptoms, not causes.

How to do it

  • 1.Don’t stop at “profits are down”. Keep asking why.
  • 2.Use the 5 Whys to drill to root cause.
  • 3.Sketch a Fishbone Diagram to group causes (people, processes, systems…).
  • 4.Prioritise by impact; ignore minor or out-of-scope noise.
Example:
  • Sales are down.
  • Fewer repeat customers
  • Long queues and new checkout machines
  • Self-checkouts are slow and glitchy

Root cause: Poor checkout tech is damaging customer retention.

Step 2: Make a Smart Guess Early (Hypotheses 101)

Don’t wait for perfect data. Great case-solvers form an educated guess—a hypothesis—then test it quickly and iteratively.

How to do it

  • 1. Craft a statement: “I believe [Problem X] happens because of [Cause Y].”
  • 2. Break that into mini-questions and test each one:
  •     • Is Cause Y actually occurring?
  •     • Is it large enough to explain the whole issue?
  •     • If yes, what change would fix it?
  • 3. Pull whatever evidence you can—interviews, quick charts, reports—and pressure-test your assumption.
Example:
  • Hypothesis: “Sales dropped because delivery times got slower.”
  • Check delivery records, Net Promoter Scores, and competitor benchmarks.
  • Confirm—or disprove—the hypothesis with logic and supporting data.

Outcome: Hypothesis either validated (slower deliveries hurt sales) or rejected, guiding you to the next root-cause candidate.

Step 3: Financial Analysis Without Fear

You don’t need to be a finance major to run effective financial analysis. It’s about understanding how the business makes and loses money and being able to model that in a simple, structured way.

My personal experience: Arez and myself (James) are computing and business students respectively. Before business cases, I thought financial analysis was a daunting task with its large numbers and complex formulas, but we’re here to break this down for you. Read below!

What to look at:

  • • Revenue and cost breakdowns (by product, region, or customer segment).
  • • Margins:
  •     o Gross Margin = (Revenue – COGS) / Revenue
  •     o Net Margin = Net Profit / Revenue
  • • Growth trends in revenue and expenses.
  • • Valuation basics:
  •     o P/E Ratios
  •     o EV/EBITDA
  •     o Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) estimates

Tip:

Use colour-coded Excel sheets to model best-case, base-case, and worst-case scenarios.

Resources:

Step 4: Build Realistic, Actionable Recommendations

Clients don’t want theory, they want solutions they can implement. The best recommendations are clear, specific, and tied to real numbers.

How to do it:

  • • Connect each recommendation to a finding or insight from your analysis.
  • • Rank your ideas based on:
  •     o Impact (how much value it adds)
  •     o Ease of execution (cost, timeline, difficulty)
  • • Use this format: Action → Timeline → Expected Result
Example:
  • Good: “Switch logistics providers within 2 months to reduce delivery delays by 30%.”
  • Bad: “Make logistics better.” (Too vague, no outcome or deadline.)

Step 5: Spot the Risks Before They Bite You

Every plan has risks. Good case solvers anticipate them and propose mitigation strategies. This shows maturity, credibility, and realism.

Risk strategy format:

  • • Risk: What could go wrong?
  • • Impact: Low / Medium / High
  • • Likelihood: Low / Medium / High
  • • Mitigation: How you would reduce or manage it
Example:
  • Risk: New app doesn’t gain traction
  • Impact: High
  • Likelihood: Medium
  • Mitigation: Run a pilot with 500 users before full launch

Risk Matrix Template:

Low Impact High Impact
Low Likelihood Monitor Prepare fallback
High Likelihood Fix immediately Escalate and act now

Step 6: Write Executive Summaries

Your executive summary is the one-pager for decision-makers. It must be clear, focused, and compelling — no jargon, no filler.

What to include:

  1. Context — What is the business challenge?
  2. Findings — Key insights from your analysis: financials, market analysis.
  3. Recommendations — What actions should be taken?
  4. Risks and Mitigations — Anticipated risks and how to manage them.
  5. Impact — Quantify the upside (e.g., +5 % market share over five years).
Example:
  • Company X is experiencing a 12 % revenue decline due to churn among premium users.
  • Recommendation: Launch a loyalty programme projected to retain 25 % of those customers.
  • Risk: Low adoption. Mitigation: A/B testing and targeted offers.
  • Projected impact: +£1.2 M in revenue over 12 months.

Understand Case Realities

  • • Practice timed cases, start with a small one hour long case, then three hour long cases, etc. This is excellent practice for business cases and is utilised by many business schools and consultants.
  • • Get used to making assumptions without full data; companies are paying you to tackle their problems. You are expected to critically think about the problem.
  • • Use our walkthroughs and mock exercises to simulate interview-style cases

Use Strategy Frameworks - Do not force fit them if they do not feel right

  • • SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
  • • Porter’s Five Forces:
  • o Threat of New Entrants
  • o Bargaining Power of Suppliers
  • o Bargaining Power of Buyers
  • o Threat of Substitutes
  • o Competitive Rivalry
  • • Business Model Canvas:
  • o Understand how companies deliver and capture value

Risk & Mitigation Strategy

  • • Score risks based on likelihood and impact
  • • Use colour-coded matrices (Red = critical, Yellow = monitor, Green = low concern) - Ask: “How likely is this risk, and what would the impact be if it occurred?”
  • • Use a risk matrix
  • • Build risk thinking into your recommendations and executive summaries
  • • Anticipate, Don’t React
  • • Think: “What could go wrong, and what would that mean?”
  • • Encourage foresight: risks are not just worst-case scenarios, they are any factor that could reduce value or derail the plan.

Risk & Mitigation Strategy example 1

Risk & Mitigation Strategy Example 1

Risk & Mitigation Strategy example 2

Risk & Mitigation Strategy Example 2

Executive Summary Templates

  • • Downloadable editable templates (see Additional Resources )
  • • Clear structure with placeholders for each section
  • • Built-in KPI formulas and formatting aligned with consulting-style outputs

Bonus: Fit your presentation around the origin country of the company

  • • Using their currency denomination, £ or $ – it helps to keep the presentation coherent
  • • Use their culture to your advantage; if you are talking about customers, then use common names from that country. Or if you are advising a food company, then analyse local food trends to synergise your information.
  • • Bonus tip: I was once told when presenting to European companies to cut any theatrics out of my style and keep it strictly business. However, across the Atlantic, Americans prefer a more informal, upbeat presentation with a bit more theatrics and story-telling.