Contents: 2
Building Your Case Comp House Let’s have a look at how you can approach a case competition, through an example of building a house
Floor Plan 03
Acknowledgements
04 Addresses
Foundation 06
What are Case Competitions?
Framework 07
How to Excel
12
Breaking down a Question
14
Resource Guide
Acknowledgements: Authors: Akash Birader, Polytra Liufalani Competitions Directors 2022
Jessica Mackay pg. 11 ‘The Final Construction’
Michelle Li Sponsorships Director 2021 pg. 12-13 ‘Breaking down a Question’
Designed & Edited by: Joshua Chek, Vinamra Gulati, Angela Nguyen Publications Directors 2022
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President’s Address
As Co-Presidents, we often find ourselves giving advice to students about the best ways to excel in university. Other than academics, three key themes always come up in such conversations – extracurricular activities, job opportunities, and social life. And while we can provide you with more in-depth advice on each of these facets of university life, ultimately your journey is shaped by yourself. We aren’t going to say that case competitions are for everyone, because they aren’t. Although there are so many competitions available that cater to most people, it’s completely understandable if you experience some apprehensiveness before committing to one. However, one thing is clear – case competitions are a key way for you to hit all three of those themes we mentioned earlier. It is a valuable extracurricular activity, recruiters recognise this leading to job opportunities, and cracking a case with a team is a great way for you to bond with your university friends. The UNSW Business Society’s Competitions teams over the years have been working hard to provide such opportunities for students. From the many years of experience, the team recognised some of the challenges students had faced as beginners, and compiled them with great advice into this guide. Our first version of the Case Competitions Guide is here as a one-stop shop no matter your experience level. We will be expanding this over the years to provide more value for you, and so that you can grow along with the guide. We wish you all the best as you embark on this journey, and hope that you gain some valuable insights from the guide. If you have any feedback, feel free to message our UNSW Business Society messenger chat found via our Facebook Page, and we will make sure to pass it on to relevant teams. All the best, Sarah Kim and William Tu UNSW Business Society Co-Presidents 4
Competitions Director’s Foreward We would like to warmly welcome you to a new year with the UNSW Business Society! Whether you’re a new first-year or a seasoned student coming back for another year, we are excited to be your constituent society in partnership with the UNSW Business School. The UNSW Business Society is the largest constituent society at UNSW, and is led by students, for students. We are a not-for-profit organisation that strives to empower you to make the most of university life, through running events and initiatives which can contribute to your social, professional and technical development. In an ever-competitive world, anything you can do to set yourself apart and land those dream jobs can be facilitated by the UNSW Business Society. The Competitions guide brings this goal to life. Created in conjunction with our fantastic Publications team, the guide explores what are case competitions and how you can use them as an opportunity to strengthen your professional profile and progress onto bigger and greater endeavours. Case competitions can address a diverse range of topics and issues across the business industry and can be done with a team of friends, so there’s bound to be one for you! For students new to university life, we understand getting involved in case competitions can be daunting and put you out of your comfort zone. But that’s what this guide is for! It breaks down what a competition looks like, how to approach all types of competitions and tips and tricks from experienced competition winners. We hope this helps you embrace case competitions as a key part of strengthening your resume, empowering you to face the challenges of competing for your dream job and making the most of your time at university. We’re excited to see where the road will take you and the learnings you come across, and know that the BSOC community will always be here to support you.
Akash Biradar and Polytra Liufalani UNSW Business Society Competitions Directors 55
Case Competition is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Teams ranging from 3 - 4 students are presented with a case brief problem and the goal is to ideate, design and present the most innovative solution to that problem. There are many different types of competitions such as typical business management competitions, hackathons, environmental competitions and much more - you are bound to find something for you! In terms of structure - usually, the initial judging is based on the quality of the case deck submitted in order to make it to the first round of heats. Following this, presentations are given either in the form of a video or live pitch in order to select successful teams that will proceed into semi-finals and then consequently finals. The art to case competition success unifies a combination of aspects including good team culture, extensive research, innovative ideation and well pitched presentations. These can thus be broken down into 4 main components, the first being team formation, understanding working styles and setting expectations and goals.
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How to Excel at Case Comps 01. Building the Foundations So you have planned to enter into a case competition, now it’s time to form the right team for you!
The ‘Financial Planner’ - As self-explanatory as it sounds, the financial planner is in charge of calculating and presenting the long-term financials for the idea. This role may also include exploring the implications for users of the product or service.
When forming a case competition team it is important to have a diverse range of strengths amongst teammates. Teams typically have 1 person applying analysis, 2 brainstorming solution strategies and another working on implications and financials. To further breakdown exactly what these roles entail:
The ‘Strategist‘ - These individuals seek to decide how to best solve the issue at hand using innovative solutions that can be applied in the real world.
The ‘Analyst’ - This person further analyses the issue to gain insights through studying analytical data and reviewing articles/reports.
Although each role is highly important in turning the wheels for a successful competing team, they are not constrained to these 3 personas. Successful teams will also have a leader/visionary who organises the logistics, a good communicator to keep the team on track and a perfectionist who will seek to beautify the slide deck and presentation. All in all, formulating a great team sets up a strong foundation upon which a good case solution can be built. Once the team is formed, understanding each other's working styles and setting goals/expectations is the next step in getting the team to work harmoniously. 77
02. Relaying the Brickwork You now have your team but are unsure of how to take the first initial steps with the team. Now is your chance to work out how each other will work best together throughout the competition. The first meeting the team will have is important in relaying the brickwork for the weeks that will follow during the competition. This first meeting can be conducted in a number of ways, but here lies a simple set structure that your team can undergo to set the tone.
Getting to know your team
Setting goals
Whether you have teamed up with your friends or have entered as an individual with a team of new faces, having that initial conversation to break the ice is always a good way to start.
Once the team has gotten comfortable it is important to set goals to achieve throughout the competition. This could be in the form of deadlines and wanting to push to get tasks done at certain times or may involve ranking well in the finals. Goals may even involve developing specific skills such as presentation, ideating or even working with a team. Whatever your goals may be, make sure to write them down for everyone to refer back to.
Setting expectations
Your team may also want to set a few expectations to set the standard for a quality submission. These expectations can take any form and are up to your team.
When2Meet
Delegating roles
This is a simple website that can be used to plan weekly meetings. Everyone inputs their availability for a given time period and a time that best suits the most people is identified.
Using the roles previously mentioned to delegate, gives everyone a greater insight into what their role entails and who to approach when seeking assistance for a particular task.
Although this is not a set structure for your first meeting, these 5 steps will help unify and guide the team in a direction that everyone is aware of. Once the first meeting is conducted, your team can now move on to reading the brief. 8
03. Framing the Build It’s now time to analyse the all-important case question with your teammates, but where do you even start? To successfully analyse and understand a case problem, you can break the process down into 3 key steps:
1. Understand the type of case: Different cases require different types of approaches and answers. So make sure you understand what type of case question you are working with, which can come in three different forms: problem-solving, option selection and idea generation. Problem-solving will see the brief present you with a specific, overarching issue within a business or across society, which needs to be solved or improved for the future. With option selection, you’re given several options that could be possible solutions to the brief and decide which one is best suited to the problem at hand. Finally, idea generation usually requires more creativity as the case asks you to ideate your own innovative idea to tackle the case problem.
2. Focusing and extracting the key information: Reading a case takes a planned and strategic approach, and is vital if you want to ace the case! It’s best to read the case in its entirety first. This is generally a scan read, noting the important facts and statistics, which will help you start to think about the key issues and challenges in the case. Overall, once you get a sense of the brief which will usually detail information about the company and its financials, you can begin narrowing down on the specific points of data you feel are most relevant to your analysis and solution to the question. Most cases will have specific questions your team will need to respond to, so it’s often useful to find these questions as part of your initial read. Sometimes the questions will be set out clearly at the end, while other times the questions are embedded within the case.
3. Research: Winning teams put time and effort into their research! After narrowing down on the specific issues you want to focus on within the case, develop a plan for research and allocate research across team members to maximise the use of your time and draw on the skills of various team members. When the research is completed, come back together as a team and share your findings. It’s likely you’ll continue to research across the case-solving period. Refer to our resource guide on page 14 for excellent places to start your research so you can walk into any case feeling prepared and ready!
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04. Installing the Utilities So you’ve read and analysed the case briefly, and have a ton of research… So what next? Let’s look at the next step, idea generation! Coming up with an effective and innovative solution to the case problem will be a process that differs for each case competition. But there are some concepts that can be the building blocks that lead you to that winning idea!
Ask the right questions to lead to the right answers: Be prepared to challenge the assumptions that have been made to-date and ponder some key questions with your team. Ultimately, judges are looking for solutions and recommendations that work, that deliver real return on investment, and that has value. Find the heart of the case problem and ask yourself; How can you make the product or service desirable to potential customers? Looking at the market as a whole, are there future shifts that could prove game-changing? How does the situation appear when viewed from multiple stakeholder perspectives? Starting these conversations can lead to some innovative answers!
SWOT analysis: A SWOT analysis considers the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats relevant to the case company and the industry. This can be an excellent starting point to understand the pain points for a business by conceptualising i’s weaknesses and ideating with your team the potential opportunities that could solve or reduce this weakness. You may observe a company that has poor quality products and low customer retention when reading the brief, and understand it has opportunities to become more globalised and create new distribution channels which can open up access to greater quality products and boost customer satisfaction. A SWOT analysis can tie your ideas together and begin the process of ideating a winning solution.
Creativity will help you go above and beyond: The best-case competition solutions that lead to the prized first place, are the creative ones! Showing the judges a solution that is not obvious and immediate and presenting an innovative idea they haven't seen before is a fantastic way to distinguish yourself from the crowd and rise above the competition! So don't be afraid to think outside of the box and go above and beyond!
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05. 05. The The Final Final Construction Construction Your team has done the hard yards to get an awesome case submission-ready. Now it's time to get into how to present it. The final key to a great case solution is having an engaging pitch and slide deck to complement it. Various pieces of advice can be provided to better your slide deck and speech, but below we have hand-crafted a comprehensive list of tips that will very much get you to a final round submission. Tips on Presenting Facts tell, stories sell. An audience gets bored very quickly. Try integrating a relatable and emotional story that can engage and convince your audience. An emotional pull is important and ensures your presentation remains top of mind.
Be interesting. Effective persuaders modulate their voice, and by doing so, appear to be more confident in their argument. By raising and lowering the volume of your voice, and alternating between a high pitch and low pitch while delivering key messages, your presentation will be more influential, persuasive, and commanding.
Research your audience. Predict the questions or concerns that your audience may have by looking at their experience and thinking in their shoes. This will help in determining what content should be heard during the main presentation versus being justified in the Q&A section.
Tips on Slide Design Create a ghost deck: A ghost deck acts as a work plan that allows your team members to align on the approach and direction before you populate your slides. Focus on creating meaningful headlines that develop a strong storyline before delving into the aesthetics of slide design.
Persuasive: To capture your viewer’s attention you must consider what message or emotion you want to evoke through your slides. Visually presenting your analysis either with a vertical or horizontal flow, can assist in organising your storyline.
Decoration is not design: Less is more! Limit slides to 2-3 colours with 1 accent colour, consistently use 1 font, ensure textboxes are aligned correctly and maximise each slide’s white space. Cleaner slides will improve your audience’s focus on the core message. For efficiency, using PowerPoint’s slide master can help create template slides with 11 placeholders such as the tagline text box that can be easily reused.
Breaking Down A Question Doing your first case competition can be daunting. You might find yourself with a big brief and little idea of how to approach it. For this reason, I’ve written up a few points to guide you on how to get you started so that you can tackle the case with confidence. Let’s begin with an example. Company X is a top player in the retail industry but has been struggling lately. They’re facing declining profits and are wary of new competition in the market. They’re here today to seek your help in devising a strategy which will improve profitability and help them regain market leadership.
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Read and Analyse the Brief
Your analyses starts here when you open the brief for the first time. Note down the most important points – you can synthesise this by using a “SCQ” structure: Situation, Complication and Question. The situation is all the facts about the company – they are a top retail player The complication is the problem or opportunity they’re facing. In this scenario, Company X has declining profitability and are threatened by new competitors.
Lastly, the question is what the case is asking you to solve for i.e. a solution that will improve profitability and will make them competitive in the market again. 12
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Research for Additional Information
There may be gaps in your knowledge that you’re still questioning after reading the brief. This is where you start to search online. Questions might include what Company X is known for and what their product/service offerings are. Just remember to not get trapped and start researching for hours – prioritise what you need to know now.
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Brainstorm those Rocketship Ideas
Get the team together and begin brainstorming your strategy. Try and go wild with this. Even if you think it’s unrealistic, note it down and discuss it as a team. Although those “rocketship” ideas might not be feasible, they could offer some inspiration and form the backbone of your strategy.
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Finalise your Strategy and Start Forming your Story
Now that you’ve brainstormed, flesh out your strategy and add those extra details you were missing before to give it some “wow” factor. Then, start thinking about your storyline – how are you going to explain the situation and your strategy all in your allocated time, and translate the messaging effectively onto slides. This will help structure your slide deck so that you are able to sell and convince the judges that your strategy is the best.
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By this point, your team should be working away at slides and feeling confident about the strategy. If you discover any concerns and or questions about your strategy at this stage, ask yourself whether it is something you can resolve with a mitigation strategy in place.
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Resource Guide Resources for your Slide Deck 01 Freepik
05 Coolors
02 Flaticon
06 Canva
Vectors and Images
Downloadable Icons
03 Pixabay HD Images for professional slides
04 Unsplash HD Images for professional slides 14 14
Colour Scheme Generator
Find Inspiration for Colour schemes layouts and more
07 Vecteezy
Downloadable Vectors
Resources on International Case Competitions
01 02 03 04 05
Australian Undergraduate Case Competition http://www.aubcc.com.au/past-cases.html
John Molson Undergraduate Case Competition https://www.jmucc.ca/
BI International Case Competition https://www.bi.edu/about-bi/calendar/2020/february/bi-international-case-competition-2020/biicc-cases/
HKust International Case Competition http://hkicc.ust.hk/past_competitions.html
Munster International Case Competition https://umcaseclub.com/
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Tips from Case Comp Competitors
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Raymond Liu 16
I highly recommend anyone to give case competitions a go no matter your experience or ability. AUBCC was a very rewarding ICC which opened my eyes more to the world of case competitions. Competing in this competition and just in general, helps you develop crucial problem-solving & presentation skills, highly sought-after by employers. Outside of our serious casing, I really got to banter and develop genuine connections with my team to the point we are good friends now.
“Achievements - Winner | Australian Undergraduate Business Case Competition (2021), Semi-Finalist | Asian Business Case Competition (2021), National 3rd | KPMG Intervasity Case Competition (2021), UNSW Finalist | FMAA & L’Oreal Consulting Case Competition (2021), 3rd | PWC x WIT Case Competition (2021), 2nd | GCG x UNSDG Case Competition (2020)”
“ Verdi Diroy
I’ve seen many students come out of a case comp with a greater sense of confidence and self-appreciation. Aside from the well-known benefits of case comps such as problem solving, critical thinking and communication, I believe there is so much more to gain – whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned veteran. Having organised case competitions myself, I’ve seen many students come out of a case comp with a greater sense of confidence and self-appreciation. You will also find that this will permeate in other areas of your life such as academics, establishing relationships and networking. “2021 Case Competition Director”
My active participation in case competitions has been driven by a passion for problem-solving. The dynamic nature of casing has granted me the opportunity to explore a range of industries and enhance my skillset - whether that be analysis or presentation skills - which has been highly rewarding. More importantly, being able to work with a team of super motivated and like-minded individuals to solve a difficult case is one of the most gratifying experiences. I would highly recommend case competitions no matter your experience. The skills you develop are invaluable and the opportunities are simply endless. “Achievements - 1st | Google x United Nations SDG Case Competition (2021), 2nd | UCC x Macquarie Capital Boardroom Pitch (2022), 2nd | UMCG x Global Microfinance Case Competition (2021), 2nd | UCC x Simon-Kucher Partners Internal Case Competition (2022), Finalist | GCG x Capgemini Case Competition (2021), Best Female Speaker | UNSW BusinessOne Shark Tank (2021)”
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Bao Qi Deng 17
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