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Medium Operating Model Operations M&A Integration

French Beauty Co

#Retail #Beauty Products

Practice this intermediate operating model case interview question from Accenture in the Retail sector. Includes detailed problem prompt, clarifying questions, structured framework, and expert recommendation. Part of ProHub's 835+ consulting case library.

ProHub Comment

This is a classic post-M&A organizational design case that tests the candidate's ability to structure a framework comparing two opposing organizational models while incorporating quantitative revenue analysis. The case rewards candidates who can balance qualitative brainstorming about organizational trade-offs with quick financial calculations to demonstrate value creation.

Estimated Time 26 minutes
Difficulty Medium
Source Chicago Booth
32 / 100
A large French beauty products company with a revenue of $2B operates as manufacturer, seller and marketer of luxury fragrances. This company sells to high-end beauty retailers. Recently, the company has acquired a player in the ‘accessible’ beauty products industry. The acquired company manufactures, sells and markets skincare and cosmetics. Being that the two companies operate similarly along their value chains, the COO has opted to combine manufacturing, but initially keep the two sales units operating separately because the luxury sales unit and the accessible sales unit don’t have the same customers. However, the COO is interested in understanding if additional value can be realized by integrating the two sales organizations. Your goal is to help the COO determine if a leveraged or a decentralized sales organization is a valuable strategy for the company.

Clarifying Information

  1. There is an impending recession.
  2. This is a maturing industry in developed markets, but emerging markets are seeing explosive growth.
  3. A leveraged organization is the same as a centralized organization.
Mock Interview
Interviewer

A large French beauty products company with a revenue of $2B operates as manufacturer, seller and marketer of luxury fragrances. This company sells to high-end beauty retailers. Recently, the company has acquired a player in the 'accessible' beauty products industry. The acquired company manufactures, sells and markets skincare and cosmetics. Being that the two companies operate similarly along their value chains, the COO has opted to combine manufacturing, but initially keep the two sales units operating separately because the luxury sales unit and the accessible sales unit don't have the same customers. However, the COO is interested in understanding if additional value can be realized by integrating the two sales organizations. Your goal is to help the COO determine if a leveraged or a decentralized sales organization is a valuable strategy for the company.

You

Thanks. Before analyzing, I'd like to clarify a few key questions...

Interviewer

Good question. Let me provide some background information...

You

Based on this, I suggest analyzing from these dimensions...

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Structure Analysis Communication Business Sense Quantitative
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French Beauty Co must decide whether to consolidate its two sales organizations (luxury and accessible beauty products) to achieve a 5% revenue growth target set by the Board. The analysis reveals that a leveraged (centralized) structure enables selling accessible fragrances through Walmart, capturing $100M in new revenue that meets the Board’s goals.

Key Insights:

  1. Organizational structure decisions should be driven by both qualitative factors (culture, efficiency, decision-making) and quantitative value creation opportunities
  2. Post-M&A integration requires identifying untapped cross-selling opportunities between previously separate business units
  3. Leveraged organizations offer cost synergies and brand alignment but risk cultural friction and bureaucracy, while decentralized structures maintain agility and market focus but sacrifice efficiency
  4. In the context of an impending recession, the accessible beauty market represents a defensive growth strategy beyond just the Walmart opportunity

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