With our annual Case Competition just a few days away, many of you must be busy trying to put teams together and figuring out how you can win up to $600 in prizes! We figured we would lend a hand and sat down with our winners from last year – Helen He, Angela He, Rosie Fan, and Sherry Lu – to give us an insiders perspective on how they achieved the first place title and what advice they had to pass down to this year’s participants.
Did you do any preparation beforehand?
It was actually the first time we all four met one another. Prior to the day of we made a Facebook group and just read up on some general business terms as there wasn’t much we could do without knowing the case beforehand. Some of us actually went out the night before and the morning of the event we walked there together and talked through each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
What were your initial thoughts when you got the case?
For some of us, this was the first time we had ever done a four hour case so at first, we were a bit overwhelmed, but as we read through the case, we became more confident. The company presented to us was very similar to Uber so we were able to use some of our own knowledge throughout the analysis.
What was your strategy going into the case?
We didn’t have a real strategy as such, we just kept coming up with things as went along. We divided things up based on our strengths. The biggest advantage as to why we did well was because of our presentation, we created a story in which the judges could consistently follow and it made it easier to understand.
How did you divide up the work?
We divided up tasks based on our personal strengths and weaknesses as well as our past experiences. We had two people handle the marketing decisions, one person make the powerpoint, and one person to crunch the numbers to make it feasible. You are able to be a lot faster when everyone does what they are good at.
How did you break up the time you were given?
At the beginning we came together and discussed our big overall ideas, and marketing strategies. We then broke up and did our own thing while also creating a loose timeline with goals for every hour to keep track of time. Halfway through we started building content on the slides. We then wrote the script and divided up the speaking parts based on who made what portion since they would know it the best. We did a first run through and realized we were 10 mins over time, and that is when we got in a small time crunch but we went over it again while waiting to present and made sure to manage our presentation time.
What did you do to stand out from the rest of the teams?
As everyone was given the same case, everyone’s analysis was similar, so our presentation was what made us really stand out. The powerpoint itself was visually appealing and formatted as a timeline which kept the presentation easy to follow. We started with a strong hook, which told the story of a Western student and how our marketing campaign would affect his daily life. This helped the judges understand each aspect of our campaign and we referred to the story throughout the presentation to help keep the audience connected. We understood the importance of keeping the audience engaged so we tried to keep our presentation balanced and had some funny one liners that helped to break up some of the more formal parts.
What do you think is more important: the content or presentation?
There has to definitely be a balance between the content and the presentation. Every case is different. Some cases may require more standout content and good analysis, but at the same time, you are only given 10 minutes to impress a judge. Given they only see each slide for maybe 20-30 seconds, the way you present both verbally and visually is very important. Charisma goes far, and helps to convince the judges more than if you don’t know what you’re saying. Many teams had great content but we stood out on our presentation.
If you were to do it again, what would you differently?
There are a couple of things we would work to improve upon. Firstly, we would format universally. We had some technical errors during the presentation as we created our slide deck on a MAC and had to present on a PC, which altered the format on a couple of our slides. Another issue we had was not analyzing our ideas all the way through. We would be working on a concept and then hit a roadblock and have to redirect ourselves. You don’t want to get too deep into your implementation plan and realize something doesn’t work so by coming up with more ideas and forming a detailed thesis, you can analyze problems in the brainstorming process instead of getting stuck later on like we did.
What were some challenges you faced?
The biggest challenge was our time management. Unfortunately, that is something that unavoidable because no matter how much time you are given you will always wish for more to make it better. It was also the first time for all of us doing a four hour case competition, we didn’t have much knowledge about how to do it, how to structure the powerpoint, what to address, what level of quality is our work – being completely new to this we had to test the waters. One thing we didn’t realize was we had the powerpoint made on one person’s laptop and when we all wanted to work on it we couldn’t, so use a shared platform like Google slides to avoid that.
What advice would you give to participants this year?
Have fun with it and don’t stress too much. Before going in, look at frameworks to use in terms of analytics. Make sure you get to know your team members and figure out each other’s strength and weaknesses beforehand to help divide up tasks. Draft a timeline for yourselves to help keep on task and manage your time wisely. Brush up on skills you might not be too strong in. Have lots of charisma and energy during your presentation. Go in with a humble mindset, don’t expect too much, and keep checking the clock!!
With only a few days before the big event, come sign up outside the Somerville cafeteria all week till 3pm. Brushing up on skills and knowledge will take you far, but also take care of yourself by eating healthy and resting well! Enjoy yourself and celebrate at the end whether you got that W or didn’t.