How to best prepare for Commercial case studies as an IB Analyst?

Everything is in the title. Currently recruiting for Asso, I usually ace the LBO models (rep helps) but I suck at commercial case studies where you are presented with a CIM and asked questions like:

What would be the key diligence items to look at?
Come up with 10 relevant KPI to assess that are not already in the CIM
What would be your value creation plan?

Usually I can come up with the standard answers to the above but I am not brilliant - I don't have outstanding ideas. What should I do to improve please?

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Class of '18 Nov 2026 Cohort

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“Rachel helped me through the very beginning and we had several iterations that were crucial to the development of a better and great CV for applications. I appreciate her patience and puntual feedback every single time. Also the response time was very short and kept me aware of any delay. It kept me on line for what I had to do and some areas to focus that I didn't knowe before, and some of them honestly I didn't have any idea. Very well all around work”

Class of '24 Dec 2025 Cohort

5.00/5

Private Equity Mock Coffee Chat

“Julius was extremely helpful in breaking down the accounting concepts, especially allowing me the opportunity to walk through a question step by step on how the three financial statements are impacted across income, cash flow and balance sheet along with figuring out the mental math for it all. The concept for Equity Value to Enterprise value and bridging between the two were fairly straight forward. Along with the networking advice on reaching out to potential recruiters for Investment banking roles and how lateral recruitement is happening year end vs going into Q1 next year.”

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How to best prepare for Commercial case studies as an IB Analyst?

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How to best prepare for Commercial case studies as an IB Analyst?

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