Making the case – in just five hours: Students test their mettle in Accenture Strategy MBA Case Competition

Competition might be the name of the game, but it was so much more than that. For Ivey MBA students, the 6th annual MBA Case Competition, sponsored this year by Accenture Strategy, was a chance for camaraderie, personal growth, and preparation for the real world.

“It went from something I dreaded because I didn’t know what to expect, to something I became really excited about. It was a capstone exercise that helped to drive home all the points we’ve learned in class to date, see the practicality and applicability of them, and apply them to real-life situations,” said MBA student Keji Olaleye. “Getting a peek into other people’s thought processes and work flow was a huge privilege and opportunity. It added to my learning experience and enhanced the way I think about problems.”

Tight deadlines, high expectations

The three-day competition, June 22-24, challenged the students to come up with creative ideas for real-life business problems. The students were divided into 25 teams and worked through three different cases, one each day, with just five hours to prepare their recommendations before presenting to a panel of judges. Three finalist teams were then chosen to present on the last day to their classmates and Accenture executives. There were 34 different judges made up of faculty, staff, alumni, and representatives from Accenture. Each case involved a different area. Day One was a marketing strategy case for Beyond Meat’s The Beyond Burger™, a vegan burger that mimicked real meat. Day Two dealt with whether Spin Master, a Canadian global toy and entertainment company, should go public through an initial public offering. Day Three tackled how Me to We, a social enterprise that provides socially responsible products and services, might enter the consumable goods space and increase its touch points with consumers.

Daniel Moro, MBA ’11, Strategy Senior Manager at Accenture, said the goal of the competition was to help students develop their problem-solving capabilities while working on a significant client issue, interacting with the client through formal presentations, and receiving feedback on their performance.

“We hope that, through the internal MBA Case Competition, students will get a glimpse into the work we deliver as strategy consultants. Accenture believes that the feedback and coaching provided during the case competition can help illustrate the level of expectations Ivey MBAs will encounter when working in consulting,” he said. “As alumni and recruiters, it is important that we do our part to provide Ivey students with opportunities to learn, test themselves, and ultimately hone their problem-solving capabilities.”

Just like the real world

Judges Jayme McColl and Helen He, both MBA ’16, said they were looking for students to balance creativity and a realistic solution that could actually be implemented by the organization. They wrote the Me to We case so were very familiar with the organization’s needs.

“This is a real-time situation that the client will actually use for their management decision-making so it’s a very impactful opportunity,” said McColl.

The highlight of the competition for them was hearing the ideas from the student teams.

“The wide variety of creative solutions that the students developed was outstanding,” said He. “We were so pleased to see how engaged they were in the case.”

In the end, Team 10, made up of Sasha Gerster, Shu Cha, Carter Whitehead, Scott Loveland, and Adrian MacKay, took home the trophy. Their winning idea for Me to We involved packaging in breakfast cereal an access code for online games where players could make microdonations to farms in communities that Me to We supports. Whitehead said it took about three hours before the team had their “aha” moment and could begin fleshing out details for their presentation.

Team 10 with judges, executives, and Ivey representatives

Team work matters

Whitehead said it was a valuable opportunity for students who hadn’t previously worked together to perform as a team.

“In the end, what matters is how you feed off each other on the team and how, as a collective, you can execute on a set of goals. There were people who could have shone, but if they overpowered others, the team as a whole isn’t improving and you’re not going to reach your goal,” he said. “In a condensed period of time we learned how to network, connect with other people, and work in a simulated business environment.”

He said he was impressed by the quality of all of the presentations and particularly how students worked together for a cause.

“The camaraderie was exceptional. Business school by nature is quite competitive and you especially get that with events like these. It’s built right into the name; it’s a competition. However, people were tossing ideas around, feeding off of each other and helping each other out,” he said. “There was a genuine interest in finding a solution and I found that quite eye-opening.”