Case Type: improve profit/bottom line.
Consulting Firm: LEK Consulting 1st round job interview.
Industry Coverage: Agriculture, Farming, Aquaculture; Industrial Equipment.
Case Interview Questions #00051: Your client Deere & Company, usually known by its brand name John Deere (NYSE: DE), is a large agricultural equipment manufacturer headquartered in Moline, Illinois. As a leading manufacturer of agricultural machinery in the world, Deere and Company’s agricultural 
products include tractors, combine harvesters, balers, planters/seeders, ATVs and forestry equipment.
John Deere’s primary product line, farming tractors, is losing money recently. The CEO of John Deere has hired you to find out why his company is losing money on farming tractors. What questions would you ask of your client to help them solve their profitability problem?
Possible Solution:
It is unlikely that there are too many players in this market. You might want to start off by asking how many competitors there are. Suppose the answer is that there are two direct competitors.
A few things come to mind immediately.
#1 Client seems to have had no clue about price elasticity and had never surveyed his customers to determine their needs or willingness to pay premiums for improved quality. NEEDS TO BE ON THE STREET TALKING TO HIS CUSTOMERS.
#2 There appears to be no current way client has communicated the VALUE of the improvements. If the product is better why not give a longer guarantee than all the competitors since their products will experience more breakdowns in a shorter period of time. Every product is made to last so long as a part of the specifications of manufacture and durability. If client is specifying and Paying for better and more long lasting materials they should be able to sell it. Example the Toyota ads that say the car will be there for the kids clearly communicates the value of the quality. Unfortunately, for Toyota every part is dependent on the other and mistakes in software certainly can negate all the right decisions regarding hardware.
Advise client to either reduce quality or get buy in from customers that it is worth it. Doing a cost benefit analysis assumes you are talking and surveying customers constantly. Losing 20% market share is significant but the client still has a dominant position in the marketplace and must take advantage of it.
Well said.