welcome to bcg's case study competition! - warwick su

LCSC - Tablets and e-books - 2012 v1.ppt

Welcome to BCG's case study competition!

This year, we're partnering with Warwick Consulting Society to give you an insight

into the interesting and impactful work we do at BCG

To show you what consulting is really like, we want to see your best and most

creative answers to a "case" just like the real problems we work on every day

The Case The Ask and The Prize

You're working for PlayX, a UK based gaming

company, who want your help to answer

some critical questions including:

• What does the video gaming market look

like?

• What is the most attractive segment?

• How can they enter the segment and

grow their share?

In teams of two to three, we want to hear

the recommendation you would give to

PlayX – the more creative, insightful and

interesting, the better!

The best teams will be invited to present

their answers at our offices in London – and

the winners will be fast-tracked the first

stage of our interview process!


PlayX is video gaming company looking for growth

opportunities

Company

• Your client is PlayX, a medium sized UK-

based gaming company which own by a

large conglomerate

• The company has two major divisions –

Retail and Video Games

• Retail – a set of high street game

shops – faces slowly declining long

term profitability

• Video Games used to make a popular

handheld console but the market has

moved towards static consoles and

mobile gaming

• Video Games also had success five

years ago with two very profitable PC

game releases, but recent releases

have been disappointing

Video

gaming

Retail

Hardware,

software

and digital


PlayX wants to build a business that can

grow quickly over the next five years

Concern

Given advances in technology, like the rise in digital distribution, the client

thinks there are many growth opportunities in video gaming

The CEO is looking to make a strategic investment to achieve strong growth over

the next 5 years

BCG has been asked to investigate the gaming industry to identify the high

growth segments and the winning business models over the next 5 years

Key questions

• What is the structure of the video games market?

• What is the most attractive segment for PlayX to move in to?

• How can they successfully enter this segment and win a bigger share of the

market?


Your project leader has sent you a photo from a working

session he had with the PlayX team


The consultant who worked on the proposal has sent you some

notes from an expert interview and some initial data

Notes from phone interview with Head

of Strategy at leading games publisher

"Digital distribution has changed the gaming

industry. Your revenue isn't just a large upfront

fee anymore. Downloadable content is becoming

more and more important. You need a different

approach to the customer.

Mobile is growing very fast but is also

challenging. There are so many free apps and it's

not clear where the revenue comes from… Pay

for premium version? In-game purchases and

micro transactions? Advertising? These can

sometimes frustrate customers as well."

Data from previous consultant

Source: Euromonitor

Note from previous consultant:Here is the data the research team pulled for me. I haven't sense checked it and it

might not even be useful, but I thought I would sent it over just in case

UK Population 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Video Gaming Total

Population (UK)

28,669 31,558 35,032 37,372 39,299 40,232

Children (up to 6) 1,361 1,583 1,706 1,910 2,071 2,164

Boys 753 882 955 1,033 1,085 1,130

Girls 608 700 751 877 986 1,034

Pre-Teen (7–12) 3,685 3,863 3,931 3,983 4,162 4,284

Boys 1,957 2,035 2,080 2,093 2,179 2,232

Girls 1,728 1,829 1,851 1,890 1,983 2,052

Teenagers (13–19) 4,369 4,606 4,963 5,008 5,064 5,018

Boys 2,364 2,494 2,581 2,569 2,563 2,535

Girls 2,005 2,111 2,382 2,440 2,501 2,483

Adults (over 20) 19,254 21,506 24,432 26,471 28,002 28,767


Three key questions to be addressed

Your understanding of the video games market

1. What is the structure of the video games market?

–How big is each segment? How fast will they grow?

–Who are the main players in the market in terms of revenues, profits and

market shares?

–What are the competitive advantages for smaller vs larger companies?

Your view on the key issues at hand and recommendation going forward

2. What is the most attractive segment for PlayX to move in to?

3. How can they successfully enter this segment and win market share?

?


Some things to keep in mind

The video games sector is a huge, complex and quickly evolving environment

• The study will focus on the global market for video-gaming content

• This broad scope means you will need to effectively focus your thinking and slide

submission on the aspects which really matter

• You can use latest press releases, and should take into account the recent moves by

key players (e.g. King, Nintendo, Microsoft, Activision Blizzard etc.)

Consider that the client is owned by a large conglomerate which is able to invest in growth

• Funding is not unlimited, but a sensible proposal that generates returns would be

accepted (e.g. ~£50-250M funding would be reasonable)

For some questions, you will have to use information from outside this pack

and make some additional assumptions

• Make sure to clearly identify them in your presentation


Entering the competition is simple To enter, send in a 3-4 slide answer, along with your teams' CVs

Send in your submissions and your CVs

To enter, in teams of 2-3, please submit the

following:

• Your CV

• Your answers to the questions which PlayX is

currently facing

– 3 to 4 powerpoint slides / pages (in A4)

– in PowerPoint (.ppt) or PDF format

All entries should be sent to

[email protected]

The deadline for entry is the 14th of October – get

working!

What a good answer looks like

A good submission will be...

Logical

Quantitative and qualitative

Creative

Insightful

Well-structured


For more details, including how to apply

Visit bcg.com/careers

Email [email protected] or

[email protected]

Deadline Full Time: 27 October

Deadline Summer Internship: 28 January

welcome to bcg's case study competition! - warwick su

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