« Week 14 » Harshit's Newsletter
Welcome!
The 14th iteration of the newsletter is here!. If you have not checked yet - “How you can get maximum out of the newsletter!”
Relevant links are provided in the title of the section itself, for further reading. Here is the sectional outline of this edition!
Week 14
|— Concepts
|— — — Decision Model: McKinsey 7S Model
|— — — Product Metrics: KPIs for E-learning
|— — — Soft Skills: How to learn a language
|— Articles
|— — — Industry Analysis: Gems and Jewellery Industry
|— — — Biz-Tech News: Highlights
|— — — Preparation Articles: Preparation Better Than Planning
|— Tests
|— — — Estimation Guess: Sales volume of BMW cars
|— — — Puzzles: 5 Puzzles of the week
|— — — Quantitative Aptitude: Mba Rendezvous (Full Length) 6/6
|— Questions
|— — — Case Interview: Growth | Software Product
|— — — Product Interview: Prioritization Question
|— — — HR Interview: Why should we hire you?
Concepts
~ Section covering the theory part of the business world, which are tested in the interviews.
Decision Model: McKinsey 7S Model
The McKinsey 7S Model refers to a tool that analyzes a company’s “organizational design.” The goal of the model is to depict how effectiveness can be achieved in an organization through the interactions of seven key elements – Structure, Strategy, Skill, System, Shared Values, Style, and Staff.
1. Structure
Structure is the way in which a company is organized – chain of command and accountability relationships that form its organizational chart.
2. Strategy
Strategy refers to a well-curated business plan that allows the company to formulate a plan of action to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage, reinforced by the company’s mission and values.
3. Systems
Systems entail the business and technical infrastructure of the company that establishes workflows and the chain of decision-making.
4. Skills
Skills form the capabilities and competencies of a company that enables its employees to achieve its objectives.
5. Style
The attitude of senior employees in a company establishes a code of conduct through their ways of interactions and symbolic decision-making, which forms the management style of its leaders.
6. Staff
Staff involves talent management and all human resources related to company decisions, such as training, recruiting, and rewards systems
7. Shared Values
The mission, objectives, and values form the foundation of every organization and play an important role in aligning all key elements to maintain an effective organizational design.
Product Metrics: KPIs for E-learning
Here the the KPIs which tells about the success of an online course.
Completion Rate
Completion rate is a percentage of students who have successfully completed the course.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
NPS is a user loyalty index. The metric is the difference between the number of supporters and critics: subtract the number of your critics (those who’ve chosen 1-6) from the number of your supporters (those who’ve chosen 9-10).
Number of new users
New users come from lead conversion. This conversion correlates with the traffic on your website and other channels.
Soft Skills: How to learn a language
Every language is different and presents its own challenges.
Deciding on goals include how to get there. Consider what you want to get out of learning a new language.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to language learning.
Available language methods:
Textbooks with written exercises.
An all-audio method like Language Transfer.
An online language course taught by an expert teacher.
A language tutor, where you book online lessons through Italki.
Apps such as Duolingo, Memrise and Babbel, vocabulary-building apps such as Drops, a spaced-repetition app like Anki, or Lingualism.
Lexilogos offers courses, dictionaries and resources.
The Open University offers a free course on how to learn a language.
YouTube and podcasts.
When you hit your goals and grow your knowledge of the language, it's time to find content that will help you improve. Find ways to embed the language into your life
Articles
~ Section on various articles which open a new horizon of thinking and builds critical analysis skills.
Industry Analysis: Gems and Jewellery Industry
India's gems and jewellery sector is one of the largest in the world, contributing around 29% to the global jewellery consumption. The market size is estimated to reach Rs. 6.99 lakh crore (US$ 100 billion) by 2025. The sector is home to more than 300,000 gems and jewellery players, contributing about seven% to India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employing over 4.64 million employees.
The gems and jewellery sector plays a significant role in the Indian economy, contributing around 7% to country’s GDP and 15% to India’s total merchandise export.
It employs over 4.64 million people, which is expected to reach 8.23 million by 2022.
India exports 75% of the world’s polished diamonds as per statistics from the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC).
India's Gems and Jewellery sector has been contributing in a big way to the country's foreign exchange earnings (FEEs).
India’s gems and jewellery sector is one of the largest in the world, contributing 29% to the global jewellery consumption. The sector is home to more than 300,000 gems and jewellery players. Its market size will grow by US$ 103.06 billion during 2019–2023.
In the coming years, growth in gems and jewellery sector would largely be contributed by the development of large retailers/brands. Established brands are guiding the organised market and are opening opportunities to grow.
Biz-Tech News: Highlights
Top highlights of the week
Upstox Alerts Users of Data Breach; Says Funds, Securities Remain Safe
Amazfit Bip U Pro Smartwatch With Alexa Built-In Launched in India
Elon Musk's Neuralink Lets a Monkey Play Pong With His Mind: Watch Video
Samsung Galaxy SmartTag+ Uses AR to Guide You Find Lost Things, to Be Available Starting April 16
LinkedIn Confirms Data Breach of 500 Million Subscribers, Personal Details Being Sold Online
Twitter Said to Hold Discussions for $4-Billion Takeover of Clubhouse
WhatsApp Now Lets Businesses Manage Catalogues Via Its Web, Desktop Clients
Preparation Articles: Preparation Better Than Planning
Planning as a first step is good. But preparation is even better.
Planning helps you to know what you will be doing on a day. Preparation gets you ready to actually do the tasks.
Tips to help you with preparation
Do it the night before. It can help you so that you don't have to scramble, for instance, to find clothes or to look for a missing item.
When possible, do it well in advance. It will sort out unforeseen issues.
Do the pre-work. Read the materials, Review the data. Practice the activity so that you are ready.
Preparing saves you time. It reduces errors, prevents re-work, and shortens activities.
Reduce your stress. When you are ready, you feel confident. Your stress is reduced because you have less to worry about.
Make it a habit. Make it part of your lifestyle.
Tests
~ Section to test our aptitude skills and number crunching skills!
Estimation Guess: Sales volume of BMW cars
Over six thousand BMW cars were sold across India in 2020. Year-over-year, this sales volume dropped by over 32 percent in 2020. BMW India Private Limited sold cars in India under two brands, namely BMW and MINI.
Puzzles: 5 Puzzles of the week
Try these Puzzles from George J Summers Book
41 The Vnplaced Digits
42 Identified as the Criminal
43 The Last to Row across Limpid Lake
44 Card Number Six
45 The Shortest Time
Quantitative Aptitude: Mba Rendezvous (Full Length) 6/6
Get a free aptitude test (CAT mock) from Mba Rendezvous. (Test 6) Link: https://mocktest.mbarendezvous.com/cat/set6
Practice Questions
~ Section to build our critical analysis and reasoning!
Case Questions: Growth | Software Product
7th edition of the IIM-A Case Book
Your client is an online software provider. And this company had grown fairly well on the past, but this particular year they’ve really flattened out, unable to grow beyond the particular barrier. And the company’s CEO has asked you for help to grow this business beyond the $110,000 in revenue per month.
The question and solution is Case 43: Growth | Software Product Company
Product Questions: Prioritization Question
Here are some tips for Prioritization Questions
Clarify themes that are relevant to the product: Chances are, the company will probably have a broader set of themes/goals that they will want to focus on at any given time. You’ll want to first think at a high level which themes make the most sense for the product at its current stage in its lifecycle.
Discuss your prioritization criteria: Create a quantitative scale – i.e. 1-5 so you can assign a number to each of these criteria when evaluating any item.
Impact: How impactful is this feature going to be to the users (based on the theme you have chosen to focus around)?
Urgency: How urgent is it for you to be building this feature now vs. later?
Cost: How long will it take the product team to build this feature?
Discuss your prioritization criteria inputs: Now that you’ve helped your interviewer tactically understand the criteria you use to prioritize, you want to talk through all of the possible inputs you’d take into account that helps you quantitatively score each of these criteria you’ve laid out.
HR Questions: Why should we hire you?
Remember, employers hire workers to solve a problem, whether it’s boosting sales, streamlining processes, or building a brand. Your goal when making your pitch is to show that you’re the best person to solve that problem.
First of all, try not to feel overwhelmed by the process. We’re going to start by matching your qualifications to the job requirements, brainstorming how these qualifications play out in real life, and then reviewing what makes you stand out as a candidate.
Thank you!
I would suggest you follow the method of "make slight changes while practising". Also, I would like you to have a small group (2-5 members) who would keep the check on progress.
Feel free to drop me a mail for any suggestions or ideas!