Advanced concepts & frameworks
MBAs and other candidates with business backgrounds, take note - interviewers will expect you to
have a more detailed take on your case than an undergraduate would have. Here are some
commonly used case concepts.
Net present value
Perhaps the most important type of decision company managers must make on a daily basis is
whether to undertake a proposed investment. For example, should the company buy a certain piece
of equipment? Build a particular factory? Invest in a new project? These types of decisions are
called capital budgeting decisions. The consultant makes such decisions by calculating the net
present value of each proposed investment and making only those investments that have positive
net present values.
Example: Hernandez is the CFO of Western Manufacturing Corp., an automobile manufacturer.
The company is considering opening a new factory in Ohio that will require an initial investment
of $1 million. The company forecasts that the factory will generate after-tax cash flows of
$100,000 in Year 1, $200,000 in Year 2, $400,000 in Year 3, and $400,000 in Year 4. At the end of
Year 4, the company would then sell the factory for $200,000. The company uses a discount rate
of 12 percent. Hernandez must determine whether the company should go ahead and build the
factory. To make this decision, Hernandez must calculate the net present value of the investment.
The cash flows associated with the factory are as follows:
Hernandez then calculates the NPV of the factory as follows:
Since the factory has a negative net present value, Hernandez correctly decides that the factory
should not be built.
The net present value rule
Note from the example above that once the consultant has figured out the NPV of a proposed
investment, she then decides whether to undertake the investment by applying the net present
value rule:
Make only those investments that have a positive net present value.
As long as the consultant follows this rule, she can be confident that each investment is making a
positive net contribution to the company.
The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)
In the above example, we assumed a given discount rate. However, part of a consultant's job is to
determine an appropriate discount rate (r) to use when calculating net present values. The discount
rate may vary depending on the investment.
Beta
The first step in arriving at an appropriate discount rate for a given investment is determining the
investments riskiness. The market risk of an investment is measured by its "beta" (?), which
measures riskiness when compared to the market as a whole. An investment with a beta of 1 has
the same riskiness as the market as a whole (so, for example, when the market moves down 10