How to Win a Case Competition and Still Have Fun

UNC Kenan-Flagler MBA Class of 2018 student Kelly Lynch registered herself for the Deloitte National Case Competition at the last minute on being persuaded by her teammates Luis Carrera, Brad Keller, and Kitt Wolfenden. They went on to win the competition beating 30 other teams. Here’s her account of the takeaways from the event.

Writing in the business schools blog, Kelly says none of the three knew each other all that well at the time of registration. However, Brad took a chance and rounded them up to make a team.

“I couldn’t be more grateful. Somehow, despite my admittedly low self-confidence, we advanced after the first round and went on to eventually beat Duke in the local UNC-Duke Deloitte Case Competition in 2016, essentially beating out nearly 30 other teams. After that, I was in disbelief every day and still wonder what I did to deserve such a smart, funny, genuine team,” she says.

She then goes on to list the four things that they did really well, the first being having fun. “I think it is the number one reason we did so well during the case competition. We laughed so much during each of the overnight rounds. From tossing mini muffins around our room to singing our thoughts aloud, we let a lighter note take hold of everything we did.

“Had we been stressed to the point where we couldn’t laugh things off, it would have totally frustrated us and thrown us off. The same could be said for just about anything in life,” Kelly says.

The fourth point is about keeping it real. Kelly attributes the case study win to maintaining their normal selves and not trying to act like anything they weren’t.

The second point she makes is that the team members displayed respect towards each other. While bringing different ideas to the table, everyone was given equal time to express their thoughts and defend their propositions. “We respectfully challenged assumptions and pushed each other to make our ideas even stronger. We gave credit where credit was due.

“For instance, if someone came up with an idea, we made sure to recognise how great it was at the onset, and then later on when we were feeling nervous. We’d bring ourselves back to our simple idea, acknowledge its brilliance and credit the inventor,” she says.

“We also showed respect to the judges and the other teams. These case competitions aren’t just about your internal team struggles, but about the wider experience as a whole. Taking the time to appreciate and respect other also helped us to get out of our own heads a little bit,” Kelly points out.

The third point is about keeping it simple. Having realised that for achieving success, the team just needed to have a solid idea that could be effectively conveyed through the presentation, the team refrained from making elaborate slides. “We didn’t try to expound upon the coolest or craziest of financials. We just decided on one, singular, simple idea and found ways to support that idea with data, visuals and creative storytelling,” she says.

The fourth point is about keeping it real. Kelly attributes the case study win to maintaining their normal selves and not trying to act like anything they weren’t.

“We embraced pushback from judges and acknowledged gaps in our recommendation – while also maintaining composure. We found ways to carry over some of the fun from our overnight prep sessions into our presentation and showed that we were regular, relatable people who understood the problem and had a way to try to resolve it.

“So much pomp and circumstance happens in case competitions, but you can give yourself an edge if you don’t drink too much of the Kool-Aid and show some humility,” she says.

Kelly says she did not return to business school expecting to know everything. “I came back to business school expecting to learn, to push myself and to try new things – hoping that those things would enlighten me as to which career path might suit me because I wasn’t sure what that would be.

When she joined the program, she was against the idea of pursuing consulting as a career. “I told myself that travelling an unavoidable four days each week to a town where I knew no one wasn’t worth the promise of interesting work, the variety of experience or the pay.”

However, after the case study experience, she is now more certain than ever that post-MBA, consulting is the right thing for her.(Image Source:Flicker.com)