Question a: Where do see yourself in five years?

I want to boost my career in consulting and within 5 years of time frame I want to explore the business
world while providing my services in some of the complex business problems across the industries. By
the end of 5 years, I anticipate having so much of knowledge and skill sets to become a SME in
consulting. Apart from my own personal development, I would like to be that person to whom people
can look up for guidance and mentoring.
Question 1: Tell me something about yourself
Good morning everyone. My name is Anshul Sharma. I have born and brought up in Bhagalpur, Bihar. I
have spent 22 years of my life there. First, schooling in my hometown and then my undergrad at NIT
Patna. Post college, I joined Mu Sigma as an Associate where I worked across retail and pharma clients.
Some of the key projects which I did here was on inventory management and logistics optimization for
the retail client and product performance tracking for the pharma client. It was here when I developed
interest in the field of analytics. Post Mu Sigma, I moved to ZS as it was offering me the opportunity to
grow my client management skills along with my desire to work on data analysis. Here, I primarily
worked on solving sales and marketing business problems for pharmaceutical clients. Outside work, I
am really interested in organizing feasts with me leading the cooking area. Even at ISB, given the hectic
schedule, I have managed to organize such feasts. Apart from this, I am into teaching, playing squash
and FIFA.
Question 2: Tell me two strengths of yours
Problem Solving:
I will like to share an example of a problem that I solved in which I had no experience. This was the
problem statement by Rivigo on logistics optimization across 5 cities. These cities had multiple
constraints such as timings, truck size, amount of weight, TAT and 3 modes of supply. With these
constraints, the problem was one the toughest problem statements and I was able to break down the
problem and come with the optimized solution. The good part is that the management praised by
acknowledging the fact that our solution was scalable to 17000 cities.
Team Work & Management:
This is one quality which I am proud of. It’s the way I have worked in a team when I was an associate
and when I grew into an associate consultant. I have always treated my team as a family. This has helped
me to cultivate an environment which fosters healthy discussion, creates room to commit mistakes and
learn from them, keeps creativity alive, refrains from creating hierarchy, and promotes the growth of
everyone. On all the projects, I worked on my mentorship helped my associates to drive those projects
solely, allowing not only them to move up in the organization but also helped me to try different things.
Question 3: Tell me two weakness of yours
Can’t say no to people: I find it difficult to say no to a request which I believe is a good thing and not
so good thing. Reason being that I end up having too much on my plate that messes around with my
working hours, but the good part is that I get to learn different things and help people. In the past, my
staffing hours skyrocketed with me staying up late in the office to wrap up projects. My manager had to
intervene and did not allow me take up any more projects if there was no availability.
Detailed oriented nature in complicated analysis: I had his habit of getting into the how of the
complicated analyses say like a conjoint analysis while presenting the recommendations to the clients.
It was my nature to show the tough work that we have done but constant feedback from clients and
partners that sometime not client might be interested in knowing the how part and this methodology
unnecessarily consumes time and takes the discussion to another direction. By the time, I left ZS, I had
curbed this inclination a lot and I continually worked towards it while working on presentations at ISB
and case comps.
Question 4: Talk about a time when you had to work closely with someone whose personality was very
different from yours.

During my initial days at ZS, I was working with an Associate whose personality was exactly opposite
to mine. I believed in wrapping up the tasks as early as possible, do couple of rounds of QC-es and deliver
the report/recommendations or clients deliverables even if it is before the deadline. However, she
belonged to that school of thought that if we are done with report then keep QC-ing it until the deadline
date. This was little weird for me because we could have something more productive in that time.
However, I realized over the time even if one mistake goes from our end then she will have to face the
heat of clients and partners before that comes to us. So slowly, I molded myself to her working style, yet
finding time for myself to learn outside my projects.
Questions 5: Give me an example of a time you faced a conflict while working on a team. How did you
handle that?

During my initial days at ZS, I was working with an Associate whose personality was exactly opposite
to mine. I believed in wrapping up the tasks as early as possible, do couple of rounds of QC-es and deliver
the report/recommendations or clients deliverables even if it is before the deadline. However, she
belonged to that school of thought that if we are done with report then keep QC-ing it until the deadline
date. This was little weird for me because we could have something more productive in that time.
However, I realized over the time even if one mistake goes from our end then she will have to face the
heat of clients and partners before that comes to us. So slowly, I molded myself to her working style, yet
finding time for myself to learn outside my projects. The way I did was that I automated 3 major tasks
in the workstream. This helped everyone to free almost 2 working days and hence, by conforming to
her style and automating the work processes I was able to achieve two goals with one arrow.
Question 6: Please highlight your key achievements in your career.
I would like to highlight 3 careers achievements which I believe are very important to me.
1. In April 2017, I was given the opportunity by ZS partners to set up & manage the Research &
Development vertical. In the next one year, I expanded a 3-member team to 15 members. During
this engagement, I led 6 short-term projects and long-term projects, and worked with the
partners to generate revenues of over $15 Million. The reason why this engagement is an
achievement because of the unstructured nature of the problems that I solved here. With no
reference practice area in the firms that did similar work, I worked with partners across multiple
geographies to set up the team and develop the expertise from scratch. Guiding and
orchestrating the project teams solely from India, I learned the importance of ownership and
responsibility not only for my work but also for my associates. This entrepreneurial
environment helped me foster as a leader and provided me a steep learning curve by pushing
me out of my comfort zone.
2. In January of 2016, I worked with a top-tier pharmaceutical firm and helped them to identify key
market segments for a pipeline product and necessary targeting tactic. My recommendation led
to an initial uptake of 16% for the product post-launch. Although, this might appear to be a
normal project, but this engagement was my first stepping stone towards business development.
Post project delivery, I played a pivotal role in securing two projects worth $200K. This was the
result of the expertise which I demonstrated along with the relationship I had built with the
client.
3. The last achievement which I believe is very close to me is a contribution that I made to teams
of the Customer Insights vertical in the year 2015. In the process of delivering PowerPoint
solutions to the clients, my team had to perform 3 manual processes – Unaided Awareness
Calculation, Deck Population, and, Open Ended Text Analysis. These steps were monotonous and
consumed lot of time. I developed 3 VBA based tools that reduced man hours spent on these
processes, saving $50,000 per year, and gave more leverage to the team members to do more
deep dives, improve the recommendation provided to the client and expand their project
 commitments. This effort of mine was lauded by the Partners and I was asked to customize the
tools for 8 other teams, thus making a significant impact in the firm within such a short period.
Question 7: Describe a time when it was especially important to make a good impression on a client.
How did you go about doing so?

This was during my secondment to U.S. where I was helping one of the largest pharmaceutical
firm to launch a new product in a competitive market. During the client meeting, I was able to
convince them about robustness of the solutions by triangulating them with two different
methodologies. The clients went ahead to implement the targeting tactics accordingly and saw a
12% uptake in Quarter 1. Post this, the client had opened an RFP for tracking the growth of the
product for a year. I helped my partner in preparing the proposal deck and the presentation
which we made helped us to win that project. This was largely due to impression we had created
in our previous project and the kind of expertise I had developed about the market.

Question 8: Give me an example of a time when you did not meet a client’s expectation. What happened,
and how did you attempt to rectify the situation?

This during the first year at ZS. I was working with the client for tracking its product
performance in the market. This included

Question 9: Why Alvarez and Marsal?

There are three primary reasons why I chose Alvarez and Marsal:

• Nature of work: I am that kind of person who likes sitting over a tough problem and
breaking down. Therefore, when I left ZS for ISB, I decided, I will take up cases which are
different from what I have done to enhance my learning experience. The best example is the
Rivigo Case comp where I not won but also provided a solution which was scalable to 17000
cities. I believe that based on A&M’s ppt and my online research the kind of work which I will
find here will drive my appetite for problem solving.

• People: While researching on A&M, I was struck by Bryan Marsal’s quote – “There are two
kinds of people in the world, one who fall in love with ideas and one who fall in love with
people and at A&M we fall in love with people”. This I believe aligns with my thought process
of how I live and work with my team members. At ZS, I was leading teams for past 3 years
and during this period, I have helped several associates to progress in their career. I treated
them as my family, allowing them to space to think and work and commit errors which I
believe creates space for creativity and creates a strong bond of brotherhood amongst the
team.

• Diversity of both services and industry level people: The kind of peer group, I will get at
A&M will be a strong mix of both services and industry level people. Interacting with them
will provide me to gain industry experience and at the same time further my career in
consulting.

Question 10: Why Deloitte U.S?

There are three primary reasons why I want to Deloitte USI:

• Deloitte S&O would provide me the opportunity to work across service lines and thus
expanding my industry coverage outside pharma
 • Deloitte is one of the biggest consulting firm and after gaining the experience of a mid-tier
consulting firm, experience at Deloitte is going to boost my career in consulting

• I am also in conversations with my alums/friend, Vinayak Poddar, his experience and his
reviews regarding the nature of work and high degree of client interaction have further
strengthened my belief in why Deloitte.

Question 10: Why Deloitte India?

There are three primary reasons why I want to Deloitte USI:

• Deloitte India would provide me the opportunity to work across service lines and thus
expanding my industry coverage outside pharma

• The opportunity to work as a front-end consultant and that too with Indian clients appeals
to me as I step into the second phase of my consulting career

• I am also in conversations with my alums/friend, Ankit Agrawal, his experience and his
reviews regarding the nature of work and high degree of client interaction have further
strengthened my belief in why Deloitte India

Question 11: Why Myntra?

The nature of work at Myntra is very challenging. The reason for my interest in such a role is
majorly driven by the courses at ISB and the case comps I participated here. While courses
like Operations Management and DMOP aroused interest in me, problem statement of Rivigo
and my success in the case helped me to realise how challenging the role will and I am that
kind of a person who thrives in such a role

Question 12: Why GEP?

• The nature of work at GEP excites me about the role. Procurement consulting is something
that I have never done and am looking forward to the challenges of it. ISB offered me the
opportunities where I could explore other business functions and through the courses and
case comps, I developed interest in the operations side of business. In Rivigo’s case comp, I
came in top 3 with our solution specifically praised by the managers. This experience
provided me insight of challenges of a supply side of work and the role at GEP aligns with my
interest.

Question 13: Why PwC DIAC?

Question 14: Why should we choose you over others? Why should we hire you?

• My strong consulting and client engagement experience that I have developed by working
with several pharmaceutical clients in both US and Europe and my interest to pursue my
career in consulting

• My interest and curiosity to work outside my expertise area and ability to excel -> quote
Rivigo as an example

Question 15: Why did you leave ZS?

 During my 4 years at ZS, I got the opportunity to work across a wide range of sales and marketing
business problems along with developing client management and leadership skills. Through my
experience I realised that all the decisions that drive for the firms are dependent or drive
decisions of other divisions. This relationship I couldn’t decipher, and MBA became a necessary
step. It helped me to understand the functioning of a business entity and address problems in
those divisions through cases and case competitions. It also helped me to know about industries
outside healthcare.
Question 17: Why should we not hire you?
I am that kind of a person who likes to finish things up quick and will use technology to achieve
that. I believe in doing productive work that makes an impact and automating anything that
involves too much of manual intervention. Also, I am a person who would like to be part of
decision making and make individual contribution count to drive decisions. If these
characteristics make me unfit for your organization, then you should not hire me.
Question 18: What did you like about ISB?
• All be on your feet, never relax, never be gentle, you never know what life might throw upon
you, so always be ready.
• The kind of peers that I am surrounded by have helped me to grow as a person and made the
journey at ISB easier amidst so much of pressure
• The learning here by interacting with world class professor like Achal Bassamboo, Nagadevra
allowed me to see the technical aspects of tools that we have been using so far
• Lastly, the alum connects. Whatever be the issue you are trying to sort out, you will find an
alum who will be always there to guide you.
Question 19: What drives/motivates you?
• In the very short run, today is the day which was driving me. All my efforts and my
preparation were to put my best foot forward.
• In the bigger scheme of things, the sole motive that drives me is to get comfortable in the
situation I am and then finding out avenues which can me uncomfortable and grow me as a
person. The best example is my career. When I joined ZS, I had little knowledge about pharma
and consultancy. I excelled there grew comfortable and then chose ISB to shake me up. This
is what my driving factor is.
Question 20: Tell me about a time you were under a lot of pressure. What was going on, and how did you get
through it?
We were working on a demand estimation study for a client which involved identifying patient
segments and the uptake of the product among these patients. We conducted a conjoint study to
evaluate these business outcomes. However, a week before we supposed to get out of the
fielding, the client changed the attribute levels in the analysis. The immediate outcome was to
re-conduct the study, but the timeline was critical and could not be compromised. With this
change now in place, I re-updated my analysis plan, divided into two streams – that was
independent of the conjoint and one only for conjoint. I guided my associates to wrap the non-
conjoint parts while I organized a meeting with the conjoint experts to understand how to fix
that issue. Although, we were time crunched, my project planning helped us to sail through.

Question 21: What has been your biggest failure?

Professionally: I was working on a project which required me to track the awareness and
perception of the client’s drug amongst physician. I had sent out the key metrics report for that
quarter and prepping for the final report. I received an email from the client who pointed out an
error in the report. This scenario was bad for me as it was client who caught and not us. Although,
I sent out the correct numbers and the client was nice enough to not make a big issue, but I had
to set up a meeting with my partner to discuss the same. Post this, I put QAs in place to ensure
such error doesn’t happen in future.
Personally: I couldn’t maintain the fitness of body when I travelled to U.S. I put on lot of weight.
Before, leaving for U.S, I weighed almost 75 Kgs, and during my stay there, I put almost 15 Kgs.
While coming back, I got feedback from people on what did I do that I had put on that much of
weight. I realized that I compromised on fitness and failed my body. I underwent a strong fitness
regimen for next 2 years, wherein I got back my fitness, 5 KMs in under 30 mins. At ISB, I have
started to put on weight with currently weighing around 78 Kgs, but I plan to start on the same
routine post placements.