Competition Overview and Rules - Annual Business Case Competition
Alberta Deans of Business
Teams Each team will be represented by a maximum of six persons. The six persons may be made up of either: - Four students, one student alternate and one faculty advisor; OR
- Four students and two faculty advisors
- A student alternate may participate fully in the case preparation, but only four students per team are allowed to participate in the presentation phase of the competition
- No more than two team members can be registered in a four year degree program or in a university transfer program
- Each team member must be registered as a full-time business student at the institution he or she represents
- The team is defined as the four competing students
- Although presentation from both genders is encouraged, there is no gender requirement
Prizes Prize monies will be split between team members 1ST PLACE: $4,000
2ND PLACE: $2,500
3RD PLACE: $1,500
Registration Please have your registration forms in by the end of February. Also, please indicate on the form if there are any dietary concerns for any of your team members. Click here to download the following registration forms:
Case Selection The case selected for the competition - Shall be one not previously published
- Shall contain elements from business stream courses, including Management, Marketing, Finance, Accounting and Human Resources
- Shall have a degree of difficulty on par with a 2nd year business term project
Role of Faculty Advisors In the months preceding the competition, advisors are responsible for providing adequate training and preparation so that: - Students are familiar with the case study analysis approach to complex problems solving
- Students are comfortable presenting their solutions and answering questions about their analysis and recommendation
Friday of the competition - From 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM, faculty advisors are to have no contact with their team
- Faculty advisors will however, be provided with a copy of the case that their teams are working on
- Friday afternoon, advisors will be free to read, research and discuss the case. A room equipped with a number of computers will be provided for this purpose
- Friday evening, after teams have electronically submitted their PowerPoint presentations, advisors are free to help their teams prepare for the oral presentation and question period on Saturday
Competition Rules Friday – Analysis Day: - The case will be released to the teams Friday morning at 8:30 AM
- Once students have received the case, there is to be no contact with Faculty Advisors or outside experts until the team’s presentation has been submitted at 6:00 PM that evening
- Each team will be provided with a separate break-out room in which to conduct its case analysis
- Each team’s break-out room will be equipped with:
- One internet accessed computer loaded with MS Office applications, and
- A flipchart for use in preparation (not allowed as part of official presentation)
- Teams may perform case-related research on the web, but are not allowed to Email or engage in any other outside communication during this period
- Other than the case hand-out, teams are not allowed to bring books, cellular phones, documents or other materials of any kind into their break-out room
- Once teams have submitted their case solution, the content is fixed, and no further changes can be made to the submission
- After 6:00 PM on Friday, advisors and their teams (including alternate) are free to discuss the team’s submission and prepare for Saturday’s presentation
Saturday – Presentation Day: - Presentations will be given in a digitally equipped audio-visual room
- PowerPoint presentations developed and submitted upon close of competition on Friday will be downloaded into a central podium PC according to the pre-determined order
- Presentations should be based solely on the contents of the solution submitted Friday at 6:00 PM. In short, the emphasis for this phase of the presentation is on delivery
- In Saturday’s presentations, judges will disregard any new content not contained in Friday’s submission
- No audio will be allowed in the PowerPoint presentations
- Presentations are in order as determined by random draw on day one – Thursday evening
- Each team member must present a part of the overall case
- Presentations will be given between 7:30 AM and 12:00 PM before a panel of judges, comprising of no fewer than three external business leaders
- Spectators will be allowed during team presentations; this includes participating teams that have completed their presentations
- Members of the audience and coaches (faculty advisors) may not communicate with the teams in any way during the presentation
- Each team has a maximum of 12 minutes to present their case
- Upon completion of each case presentation, judges will have a period of five minutes to ask questions and clarify their understanding of the team’s solution
- During each presentation, the moderator for the contest will raise the notification signs to the team when they have five minutes remaining and then again when one minute remains
- At the end of the 12 minute period, the moderator will stop the presentation, whether the team has finished or not. At that point, the teams question period will begin for the stated five minutes
- The moderator will then advise the judges and the teams when one minute remains in the question period and again when time has expired
- All presentations will be videotaped. A copy will be provided to all participating institutions
Team Hosts One host shall be assigned to each team. Duties of the host are as follows: Thursday - Hosts attend the opening social and banquet at which time they meet their guest teams
Friday - After cases are released 8:30 AM Friday, hosts escort their teams to their assigned breakout rooms
- Hosts ensure laptop computers and all necessary supplies are in place in break-out rooms
- Hosts supervise the teams during the preparation period of 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM. During this time, no communication is permitted between the team members and anyone else outside the team
- Hosts ensure that teams’ Power Point case solutions are submitted electronically, per the case instructions, no later than the 6:00 PM deadline
- At the end of the preparation period (6:00 PM Friday), hosts collect the laptop computers and all materials used by the teams in their break-out rooms during the preparation period
Note: each team’s PowerPoint presentation is submitted electronically per instructions provided with the case. After the case has been submitted, and the laptop and other materials returned to the team hosts, each team will be given a copy of their PowerPoint submission so they can work on their presentation for the next day. Saturday - During oral presentations, hosts will wait with their teams outside the main room until the current team’s presentation and question period has concluded. If the current team’s presentation is audible, the host ensures that the waiting team does not discuss the case.
Judging Selection - The formation of the judging panel is the sole responsibility of the case competition organizers and cannot be contested
- The judging panel shall consist of not less than three external business leaders
Criteria - Each team will be judged based on the content of its presentation, as well as its ability to convincingly present arguments and recommendations to the judges
- The panel of judges will assess each of the team’s electronic submissions and oral presentations, then submit their comments and evaluation sheet to the competition organizers
Procedures In order to ensure anonymity of the teams and impartiality of the competition: - Teams will not be known by their school names during their presentations
- Each team will be assigned a fictitious name
- All teams will analyze the same case
- Each team will have the same time to prepare their case and to present their solutions and recommendations to a panel of judges from the business community
- The order of presentations will be determined by a random draw
- Judges will not be informed, nor can any team inform judges during the presentation, which school the team represents
- Teams will present using the fictitious team name assigned in the Thursday night’s random draw. However, individuals are free to use their real personal names in the presentation
- The judges’ decision of the top three place finishers will be announced during the closing luncheon on Saturday
The scoring form is available for download as a PDF.
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