UNSW Business Society 2023 Case Competition Guide

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Presidents’ Address

Editors’ Note

What is a Case Competition?

How to Excel

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As Co-Presidents, we often nd ourselves advising students on how to excel in university, and three core themes always seem to recur: extracurricular activities, job opportunities, and social life. While we, as the largest society on campus, can provide you with unparalleled insight on each of these facets of university life, ultimately the journey is yours.

Case competitions may be one of the most challenging and potentially daunting experiences in your journey. However, they concurrently o er priceless bene ts and opportunities for growth. We aren’t going to say that case competitions are for everyone, because they aren’t. However, one thing is clear – they are a key way for you to hit all three of those themes we mentioned earlier. They are a valuable extracurricular activity, serving as not only a great bonding experience, but one that is internationally recognised by recruiters.

Over the years, the UNSW Business Society’s Competitions Team have worked incredibly hard to provide such opportunities for students. This guide recognises the challenges students have faced and the bene ts reaped from competing in case competitions, and compiled the advice of competitors into this guide.

Our Case Competitions Guide is here as a one-stop shop no matter your experience level. We wish you all the best as you embark on this journey, and are so excited to see every one of your future successes.

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As the Competitions Directors of 2023, we would rst and foremost like to warmly welcome everyone as we embark on a new and exciting year with the UNSW Business Society!

The UNSW Business Society is the largest constituent society at UNSW and is a non-for-pro t organisation led by students, for students. We o er a multitude of events and initiatives tailored towards helping you make the most out of your university experience. As such, the social, professional, and technical development facilitated by the UNSW Business Society allows you to set yourself apart and land those dream jobs in an ever-competitive world.

The second edition of the Case Comp Guide, produced in conjunction with our incredible Publications team, has been thoughtfully updated and refreshed to once again equip students with valuable insights into the world of case competitions. The guide deconstructs how case competitions work and what they involve as well as their capacity to strengthen both your professional and personal pro le. Form a team with like-minded students and crack cases that tackle a diverse range of topics and issues faced by today’s business industry - we guarantee there’s a case for everyone!

There is no doubt that getting thrown into the deep end of case competitions can be a daunting and unfamiliar experience. However, our guide intends to empower you into approaching case competitions with newfound con dence, actively embracing them as foundational building blocks to your professional career. With that said, keep an eye out for upcoming events and workshops hosted by the Competitions Portfolio which have been purposefully curated to guide you through the process!

We wish you all the best as you embark on this journey, and rest assured that the BSOC community is always here to support you.

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So you have planned to enter into a case competition, now it’s time to form the right team for you!

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 nancials. To further breakdown exactly what these roles entail:

The ‘Financial Planner’ - As self-explanatory as it sounds, the nancial planner is in charge of calculating and presenting the long-term nancials for the idea. This role may also include exploring the implications for users of the product or service.

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.

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You now have your team but are unsure of how to take the rst initial steps with the team. Now is your chance to work out how each other will work best together throughout the competition.

The rst meeting the team will have is important in relaying the brickwork for the weeks that will follow during the competition. This rst 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.

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.

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.

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 nals. Goals may even involve developing speci c 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.

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 identi ed.

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 rst meeting, these 5 steps will help unify and guide the team in a direction that everyone is aware of. Once the rst meeting is conducted, your team can now move on to reading the brief.

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:

Di erent cases require di erent types of approaches and answers. So make sure you understand what type of case question you are working with, which can come in three di erent forms: problem-solving, option selection and idea generation.

Problem-solving will see the brief present you with a speci c, 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.

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 rst. 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 nancials, you can begin narrowing down on the speci c points of data you feel are most relevant to your analysis and solution to the question. Most cases will have speci c questions your team will need to respond to, so it’s often useful to nd 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.

Winning teams put time and e ort into their research! After narrowing down on the speci c 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 ndings. 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!

So you’ve read and analysed the case brie y, and have a ton of research… So what next? Let’s look at the next step, idea generation!

Coming up with an e ective and innovative solution to the case problem will be a process that di ers for each case competition. But there are some concepts that can be the building blocks that lead you to that winning idea!

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!

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.

The best-case competition solutions that lead to the prized rst 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!

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 nal 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 nal round submission.

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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.

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 justi ed in the Q&A section.

E ective persuaders modulate their voice, and by doing so, appear to be more con dent 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 in uential, persuasive, and commanding.

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.

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 ow, can assist in organising your storyline.

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 e ciency, using PowerPoint’s slide master can help create template slides with placeholders such as the tagline text box that can be easily reused.

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Doing your rst case competition can be daunting. You might nd 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 con dence.

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 pro ts and are wary of new competition in the market. They’re here today to seek your help in devising a strategy which will improve pro tability and help them regain market leadership.

Your analyses starts here when you open the brief for the rst 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 pro tability 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 pro tability and will make them competitive in the market again.

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 or service o erings are. Just remember to not get trapped and start researching for hours – prioritise what you need to know now.

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 o er some inspiration and form the backbone of your strategy.

Now that you’ve brainstormed, esh 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 e ectively 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.

By this point, your team should be working away at slides and feeling con dent 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.

Case competitions are where I have learnt the most at university - content wise and about myself. University teaches the importance of critical thinking and communication skills, however it is through the competitions where you can truly practice these abilities and learn how to improve them. Above all, working alongside like-minded and incredibly motivated teammates to solve a gruelling case is the crux of why case competitions are the most rewarding experiences. No matter your degree, age, or experience, I would highly recommend anyone to give a go at a case competition.

“ I highly recommend anyone to give case competitions a go no matter your experience or ability.

Coming into university I was actively looking for a way to balance professional, personal, and sociable development which I found through case competitions. The malleability and creativity needed for a case competition allows your intuition to ourish, providing an amazing platform to learn more about yourself. Also, being in a team setting of 3-4 individuals with di erent specialisations and striving to the same goal creates a sense of connectedness as you learn from each other. This is the beauty of case competitions and if it’s your rst one my best advice is to get creative because at the end of the day there is no set structure, it's just the team and the case question.

“Achievements Runner-up | Forex Society x Vantage Case Competition (2022) State Finalist | FMAA x Kearney Management Consulting Case Competition (2022) 3rd | Actuarial Society x Taylor Fry Joint Case Competition (2022) Finalist | Alternatives Investment Society: Stock Investment Pitch (2022) National Heats | Macquarie Capital Boardroom Pitch (2022)”

Those who have ever nished a case competition have probably signed up to many others they never submitted. Understand that case competitions take time - deconstructing the case and working and presenting with your group - but you’d surprise yourself with just how much you can put together in a limited amount of time. So don’t shy away from the opportunity - commit to trying, I’m sure you won't have any regrets.

“Achievements - 1st | Google x United Nations SDG Case Competition (2021) 2nd | Kearney Global Microfinance UNSW Case Competition (2021) Finalist | MasterCard Innovation Challenge Case Crack (2021)”

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I highly recommend anyone to give case competitions a go no matter your experience or ability.

Don’t shy away from the opportunity - commit to trying, I’m sure you won’t have any regrets.

Case competitions are the perfect way to practice problem solving and presentation skills, meet like-minded individuals, and learn about various industries and business problems. Personally, participating in case comps has improved my self-con dence and provided me with many opportunities to network with professionals in industries I aspire to work in. No matter how daunting it may seem, I highly recommend all rst-years get involved with case competitions. There are a great range of beginner-orientated competitions as well as various societies that o er programs teaching case competition fundamentals and providing students with an opportunity to apply casing to real business scenarios.

“Achievements - 1st | Bain’s Champions’ Cup (2022) 1st | Microsoft Protege National Case Competition (2022) 2nd | WPP x BSOC Case Competition (2022) 2nd | Mastercard Innovation

Challenge Case Competition (2022) Finalist | UMCG Internal Case Competition (2022)”

“ My active participation in case competitions has been driven by a passion for problem-solving.