Earlier this month, I was asked by some 2nd year FEMBAs if I wanted to join their team for the Kelley Women's Business Case Invitational. It was a unique women-only event at Indiana University, aimed at encouraging more women towards business, specifically consulting. I jumped at the opportunity since I figured this would be a good way to find out if this is something that I'd be interested in pursuing in the future. (And also because I'll try anything once.)
What is a business case competition and how is it different from a business plan competition?
A business plan competition is one where teams come up with a proposal for a future business and compete to win funding for the proposed venture. On the other hand, in a case competition, teams are provided with details about an existing business and asked to come up with solutions for problems or strategies for growth, profitability, etc. Business plan winners will likely go on to become entrepreneurs, business case winners have the makings of successful management consultants.
A business case competition is typically a couple of weeks or more long because the case is sent to the teams those many weeks in advance. The teams would then analyse, research, put together a PowerPoint presentation by the due date, and then present their analysis on the final day. As you can imagine, full-time MBA students will have a vast advantage in this regard given the additional time and resources they can get their hands on in that much time.
The Kelley competition was different in that we were asked to check in on Thursday, handed the case on Friday morning, asked to submit our slides by midnight and present the case on Saturday morning. Since each team was equally time-constrained, I figured we were on even ground competing with the other teams who were all full-time MBA students.
In the interest of not boring you, I'll be writing down my experience in installments. How we fared and what I learned will be posted in Parts 2 and 3.
What is a business case competition and how is it different from a business plan competition?
A business plan competition is one where teams come up with a proposal for a future business and compete to win funding for the proposed venture. On the other hand, in a case competition, teams are provided with details about an existing business and asked to come up with solutions for problems or strategies for growth, profitability, etc. Business plan winners will likely go on to become entrepreneurs, business case winners have the makings of successful management consultants.
A business case competition is typically a couple of weeks or more long because the case is sent to the teams those many weeks in advance. The teams would then analyse, research, put together a PowerPoint presentation by the due date, and then present their analysis on the final day. As you can imagine, full-time MBA students will have a vast advantage in this regard given the additional time and resources they can get their hands on in that much time.
The Kelley competition was different in that we were asked to check in on Thursday, handed the case on Friday morning, asked to submit our slides by midnight and present the case on Saturday morning. Since each team was equally time-constrained, I figured we were on even ground competing with the other teams who were all full-time MBA students.
In the interest of not boring you, I'll be writing down my experience in installments. How we fared and what I learned will be posted in Parts 2 and 3.
Indiana University
We left the 75 degree weather in SoCal and landed in 3 degree weather. This is how the university looked when we got there. Quite pretty, although this pic makes it look ominous..
The picture does look ominous...kinda like Hogwarts when they land at night... :P
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the next installments...
Haha you're right! Too bad I couldn't fly in and out of the school and hotel - we had to walk around in biting cold!
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