Most candidates prepare for Roland Berger with consumer profitability cases and then freeze when the prompt is a cash-constrained industrial turnaround. That mismatch is the real problem: the firm scores structure, missing-data judgment, and communication, but it also runs a heavy restructuring and turnaround franchise, and its published case videos sit in auto-adjacent and infrastructure settings. Practicing eight retail trees does not train the move the interviewer is listening for.
After this page you will know exactly what Roland Berger itself publishes for case prep (and how to use it without spoiling the answers), what the public prep language implies about scoring, and how to drive one original automotive restructuring mini-case from prompt through exhibit math to a sequenced recommendation.
What Roland Berger itself publishes
Start on the firm's case study preparation page. As of September 2026 it does three useful things in public:
- Names the skills the case is meant to surface: analytical, conceptual, and communication.
- Links video walkthroughs in which experienced interviewers share dos and don'ts and take you through cases. The page currently surfaces a two-part series on 3D printed hip implants (parts 1/2 and 2/2). Candidate folklore and older firm materials also point to a second video case on transit-oriented development; treat that as supplementary if you can still find a durable firm link, and treat the hip-implants series on the current prep page as the primary assigned material.
- Gives preparation advice that is effectively a scoring rubric in plain language: build a structure, estimate with realistic ballpark figures, ask when information is missing, listen for interviewer hints, and share your thinking out loud.
I will not reproduce the video exhibits, intermediate calculations, or recommended answers. Watch them on Roland Berger's site (and the linked video players). A third-party transcript of their solution is worse than useless: it teaches you their answer instead of their interview behavior.
The adjacent tips and tricks page places case interviews on recruiting day alongside personal-fit interviews, after an online analytics test for many permanent-role candidates. The FAQ restates that selection-day cases are drawn from real-life consultancy practice. Exact round counts vary by office and role; treat "always three cases" claims as folklore unless your recruiter says otherwise.
How to use the official videos. Blind first pass: pause after the prompt, write a structure, name the clarifying question you would ask, and pick which branch you would test first. Only then resume. After the full walkthrough, score yourself on three questions: Did I restate the decision and the binding constraint? Did I ask for missing data instead of inventing it? Did I close with a decision plus a number? If you fail the arithmetic, drill that math type for fifteen minutes and retry from a blank sheet before rewatching.
Why the sector bias is not folklore
Roland Berger is not "MBB with a German accent." It is a partner-owned strategy firm founded in Munich in 1967 that reported roughly EUR 1.0 billion of 2023 revenue across more than 50 offices and 3,500 colleagues, and later reported EUR 1.01 billion for 2025 with growth called out in industrials and automotive among other sectors.
That footprint shows up in how cases feel. Automotive consulting and operations work for manufacturers and suppliers are core offerings. Restructuring is not a niche: the firm positions itself as a market leader for restructuring services in the German-speaking world and publishes extensively on transformational turnarounds. In a June 2024 Civey survey commissioned by the firm, 73% of 500 C-level executives said their companies were threatened by structural upheaval (42% seriously), and 56% said conventional cost-driven restructuring was no longer enough. Digitalization and AI led stated priorities at 40%, ahead of conventional cost-cutting at 34%.
Practice implication: a pure cost answer is the answer the firm's own clients say they have outgrown. The structure that scores has a sequence, not only a MECE tree.
| Practice diet | What it trains | What it misses for Roland Berger |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer profitability only | Margin trees, price vs. volume | Cash runway, plant absorption, works-council timelines |
| Interviewer-led McKinsey drills | Following a scripted path | Naming the next exhibit yourself |
| Generic market sizing | Driver chains | Industrial units (tonnes, capacity, contribution per platform) |
| Official RB videos + one industrial mini-case | Structure under missing data + sector arithmetic | Nothing critical for a first-round case skill check |
What the interviewer is actually scoring
From the firm's own prep copy, three competencies are in the open: analytical skill, conceptual ability, and communication. In the room that maps to concrete asks.
| Ask inside the case | What I listen for | Common leak |
|---|---|---|
| Structure | Two or three peer branches plus a stated first test | Retrieving a template without naming the constraint |
| Clarifying questions | Cash, covenant, time, capacity, regulation | Diving into numbers with no runway |
| Exhibit or estimate | Units kept attached; ballpark that survives pushback | Mixing months with years, or inventing precision |
| Recommendation | Decision, number, main risk, next test | A vignette that never chooses |
I stop listening when a candidate opens "profit equals revenue minus cost" while the prompt says the bank syndicate wants a plan in six weeks. That opening is not wrong in a textbook sense. It is wrong for the constraint. Conceptual ability, in this firm's language, is whether you can tell which facts matter first.
Ned's rule. Before you draw a profitability tree, write the binding constraint in one line at the top of the page (cash runway, covenant date, capacity, or political fares). Your first branch must buy time against that constraint or explain why the constraint is not real.
Worked mini-case: NordWerke powertrain margin collapse (original)
This case is invented for practice. Every figure is fictional and internally consistent. It is built for a Roland Berger-heavy setting: a European automotive supplier under a restructuring clock, where automotive and restructuring work collide.
Prompt
NordWerke GmbH is a German tier-one supplier of combustion and early-electric powertrain components. Revenue has been flat at EUR 840 million for three years, while EBIT margin has fallen from 7% to -1%. The bank syndicate has given management eight weeks to present a plan that restores a positive 3% EBIT margin within 24 months without a new equity injection. Combustion still carries 68% of revenue; electric programs carry 32%. Cash on hand covers about five months of current burn. How would you approach it, and what do you recommend?
Structure I would propose out loud
- Stabilize — working capital, non-critical capex freeze, loss-making contract exits that free cash inside one quarter.
- Restructure the cost base — plant footprint, machining utilization, headcount timing under German notice rules, procurement.
- Rebuild the earnings model — electric program pricing at renegotiation points, portfolio exits of sub-scale families, mix shift.
I would test branch 1 first because five months of cash and an eight-week bank deadline mean branches 2 and 3 need runway. Saying that sequence out loud is the conceptual signal.
Exhibit (given when you ask for plant-level economics)
| Platform | Revenue (EURm) | Contribution margin | Contribution (EURm) | Fixed cost allocated (EURm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Combustion | 571 | 34% | 194 | 168 |
| Electric | 269 | 14% | 38 | 72 |
| Total | 840 | 27.6% blended | 232 | 240 |
Implied EBIT is contribution minus fixed cost: 232 − 240 = −EUR 8 million, or about −1.0% of revenue, matching the prompt.
Math the interviewer expects you to show
Step 1 — Size the absorption gap on combustion. Combustion volumes have fallen in recent years while the plant footprint was sized for the old book. Suppose combustion volume is down 25% versus the year the margin was 7%, and fixed cost on that footprint is broadly unchanged. Lost contribution on the missing volume is roughly 0.25 × 571 × 0.34 ≈ EUR 49 million. That single gap more than explains a swing from +7% to −1% on EUR 840 million (about EUR 67 million of EBIT), once you also allow for electric dilution.
Step 2 — Separate "young" electric from "dilutive" electric. Electric contributes EUR 38 million against EUR 72 million of allocated fixed cost: −EUR 34 million of platform EBIT. Ask whether launch pricing steps up at a contracted volume threshold. If yes, the programs are young and the fix is volume plus renegotiation. If no, they were mispriced and should be exited or repriced before you pour more fixed cost into them.
Step 3 — Build a 24-month bridge to +3% EBIT. Target EBIT is 0.03 × 840 ≈ EUR 25 million, so you need roughly EUR 33 million of EBIT improvement from today's −8.
| Lever (illustrative) | Timing | EBIT impact (EURm) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stretch payables + freeze non-program capex | Weeks 1–8 | Cash only | Buys runway; little P&L |
| Exit two loss-making combustion contracts | Quarters 1–2 | +6 | Revenue down ~EUR 40m; contribution was negative |
| Consolidate combustion machining into two plants | Quarters 2–6 | +14 | Fixed cost out ~EUR 18m; keep EUR 4m stranded cost buffer |
| Reprice electric book at renegotiation gates | Months 6–18 | +9 | Assumes 3-point CM lift on EUR 269m |
| Exit one sub-scale electric family | Months 9–18 | +5 | Removes −EUR 5m platform drag |
| Total toward target | ~+34 | Clears the +3% floor with a thin cushion |
Recommendation
Present a three-horizon plan to the syndicate: stabilize cash in eight weeks, take about EUR 20 million of structural cost and contract actions in the first year, and recover the remaining EUR 14 million from electric repricing and portfolio exits by month 24. Lead with the decision: yes, a path to roughly +3% EBIT exists without new equity, contingent on starting works-council consultation on plant consolidation in week one, not after the banks approve the deck. Principal risk is timeline slippage on consolidation; secondary risk is OEM pushback on electric repricing. Next test: a 13-week cash forecast and a plant-level utilization file before any closure announcement.
The arithmetic is not hard. The weighting is. Candidates who say "cut costs 10%" without showing the EUR 33 million bridge look decisive and still fail the sheet.
How to rehearse without eight generic cases
You do not need a library of eight RB-branded prompts. You need one official video pair used properly, one industrial mini-case worked end to end, and deliberate drills on the moves that leak points.
- Run the firm's hip-implants videos blind, then score yourself on constraint, first branch, and recommendation.
- Cover the NordWerke numbers above and rebuild the bridge from the exhibit alone.
- Drill multi-step margin and absorption math until the units stay attached without thinking.
Group exercises appear in some offices at later stages. You cannot fully solo-practice facilitation, but you can practice the case content: arrive with a structure, invite evidence, and close with a number. Pair work on a shared industrial prompt is enough for the content skill; the facilitation skill is office-specific folklore until your recruiter confirms the format.
For process, rounds, and the online test, use the Roland Berger case interview guide. For ownership stories that sit beside the case, use the behavioral question set.
Practice this today
Spend 45 minutes as follows:
- Open Roland Berger's case study preparation page and run one hip-implants video part blind (structure on paper before you unpause).
- Rebuild the NordWerke EBIT bridge from the exhibit with the answers covered.
- Take a scored math or structure rep on CoachNed so you get feedback on the move, not just a feeling.
On CoachNed, everything is open for seven days with no card; then $120 for a recruiting season or $49 a month. Start with a five-minute typed case at /start, drive a live voice case at /interview, or grind math and structure drills. The case library has original candidate-led prompts if you want a second industrial-shaped rep after NordWerke.
Frequently asked questions
Does Roland Berger publish free practice cases?
Yes. The careers case study preparation page links video walkthroughs (including the two-part 3D printed hip implants series) with dos and don'ts. Use them as timed drills; do not start with someone else's write-up of the solution.
Are Roland Berger cases candidate-led?
In most offices they behave like candidate-led or hybrid cases: you propose the structure and ask for data. The firm also says interviewers will help and often leave details out on purpose. Exact format can vary by office and role, so confirm with your recruiter rather than trusting forum absolutes.
What industries show up most in Roland Berger cases?
Public firm materials and practice areas lean toward automotive, industrials, operations, energy-adjacent work, and restructuring. The published video cases sit in medical-device manufacturing and (in older firm materials) transit and property. Consumer-tech-only practice leaves a gap.
How many practice cases do I need before recruiting day?
Fewer than most candidates run, if each one is diagnosed. One official video pair used blind, one full industrial mini-case with a written EBIT bridge, and a week of scored structure and math drills beats twenty unread case PDFs. Quality of debrief matters more than count.
Is CoachNed affiliated with Roland Berger?
No. CoachNed is an independent practice product and is not affiliated with Roland Berger or any other consulting firm named in this article.
Sources
- Case study preparation | Roland Berger — official case skills language and linked video walkthroughs. Checked 2026-09-24.
- Tips & Tricks | Roland Berger — recruiting-day sequence, analytics test, personal-fit and case interviews. Checked 2026-09-24.
- FAQ | Roland Berger — selection-day cases drawn from real consultancy practice. Checked 2026-09-24.
- ESG Report 2023 (PDF) | Roland Berger — ~EUR 1.0bn 2023 revenue, partner ownership, office and headcount figures. Checked 2026-09-24.
- Roland Berger surpasses €1bn in revenue (2025 results) | Roland Berger — EUR 1.01bn 2025 revenue and sector growth callouts. Checked 2026-09-24.
- Transformational restructuring | Roland Berger — Civey survey of 500 executives (73% / 42% / 56% / 40%). Checked 2026-09-24.
- Restructuring & Turnaround | Roland Berger — firm positioning of the restructuring practice. Checked 2026-09-24.
- Automotive Consulting Services | Roland Berger — automotive OEM and supplier practice scope. Checked 2026-09-24.