The global team that won Foster’s 2014 Global Business Case Competition. Photo courtesy of Foster School of Business
GROWTH THROUGH THE PROCESS
Even students who fail to make the team gain. While there’s no junior varsity squad in these tournaments, there is great value in being put in a high-stress, high-stakes competition arena and getting evaluated. Fieldler says a lot of the students who don’t make the team the first time at Carlson take the feedback, improve and make the team the next year.
“Even the tryouts are such a great opportunity to put yourself into a pressure situation,” says Charles Henke who was a member of Carlson’s 2011 international team. “The process will tell you a lot about yourself. It is definitely a great way to evaluate your ability and interests and what you want to do in the future.”
Matthew Hashim, a professor at the University of Arizona’s Eller School of Management regularly sends competitive teams to Carlson’s student-run CoMIS competition, says feedback from the trial process can also help with classroom presentation experiences.
INTEGRATION FROM THE CLASSROOM TO A REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE
The classroom is not the meeting room. It is an obvious but often overlooked fact. Case competitions force students to think with a problem-solving brain.
“Students focus in their specific areas like accounting or marketing and that is how it can be in the real world sometimes as well,” Glassman says. “Teams are put together with students from different disciplines and are forced to learn how to interact with each other.”
Fielder says she watches students transform from “blabbering about MIS stuff” to speaking and presenting like professionals. And it is the feedback and coaching from outside of the classroom that gets the students there.
Jane Hershman, who organizes the teams and trips for case competitions at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, says participating students truly have an opportunity to engage in messy business problems that they would probably not otherwise see.
RECRUITING AND JOBS
Perhaps the greatest value of competing in one of these case challenges is the chance to be in front of senior leaders from large corporations. There are, after all, few opportunities for undergraduate students to do a presentation in front of senior execs from Starbucks or other highly influential companies.
Foster’s Aoyama says she often asks corporate executives to followup to ask for resumes of presenting students. Glassman notes that the value of being able to speak about a competition in a job interview is unmatched. The tournaments not only open the eyes of students to other employers, but also opens they eyes of employers to new talent. And it doesn’t hurt to strike connections with peers that often are used for traveling as well as global jobs.
IT DOESN’T TAKE ROCKET SCIENCE—JUST PRACTICE
Coaches and students say the best way to make a team at your school is to practice. Aspiring case competitors can gain a lot by doing online searches for previous cases. Many are published or at least presentations are placed on YouTube. Most case competitions are relatively similar.
Being able to communicate and think strategically are also pieces of advice from former participants. Practicing presentation and research skills will vastly improve the likelihood of success.
“Talk to people who have done it before,” advises Rudisel. “You can find really good examples of what a top-notch presentation should look like online and can model those. Being able to learn quickly and efficiently is essential.”
Try it. That was the advice given by Deme Xenos who was on Foster’s team at the 2014 Global Business Case Competition. “Even if you think it is not for you,” says Xenos. “Get a team together and just go for it. Even if you don’t win the case, you’ll win by learning about yourself. It as an opportunity to meet and work with people you would have never met before.”
PROMINENT CASE COMPETITIONS
| Case Competition | Host school | Recent Participating Schools | Date |
| CaseIT MIS Case Competition | Beedi School of Business (Canada) | Concordia University, Indiana University, University of Minnesota, University of Vermont, San Diego State University | Feb. 11-14, 2015 |
| CBS Case Competition | Copenhagen Business School (Denmark) | University of Pennsylvania, University of North Carolina, Georgetown University, University of California-Berkeley, University of Southern California | Feb. 2015 |
| CITI Case Competition | HKUST Business School (Hong Kong) | University of California-Berkeley, University of Florida, University of South Carolina, University of Southern California | Oct. 26-31, 2014 |
| Global Business Case Competition | University of Washington (Foster) | Florida State University, Western Washington University, University of North Carolina, Seattle University, University of Pennsylvania | April, 2015 |
| McGill Management Case Competition | McGill University (Canada) | University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, University of Washington, University of South Carolina, University of Flordia | March, 2015 |
| CoMIS Case Competition | University of Minnesota (Carlson) | University of Texas-Austin, University of Arizona, Emory University, Georgia Tech University, Michigan State University | April, 2015 |
| The Champions Trophy | University of Auckland (New Zealand) | University of Pennsylvania, University of Washington, University of Southern California, University of California-Berkeley | Jan., 2015 |
| APEX Biz-IT Global Case Challenge | Singapore Management University (Singapore) | University of Minnesota, Colorado State University, Simon Frasier University, University of Florida, Texas A&M University | May, 2015 |
| John Molson Undergraduate Case Competition | Concordia University (Canada) | Georgetown University, University of Florida, University of South Carolina, University of Southern Indiana, University of Vermont | Feb. 22-28, 2015 |
| Midwest Diversity Case Competition | Indiana University (Kelley) | University of Illinois, Ohio State University, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Iowa, Purdue University | Jan., 2015 |
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