MT - Business case - Toolbox for case solving

Table of contents 03 CBS Case Club 04 CBS Case Competition GLOBAL 2020 05 How to set your team and manage your time 06 Problem Solving Methodology 11 Structured and Effective Communication 14 Fundamentals of Slide Production 16 Presentation Techniques 17 A few tips on productive team work 18 Seven guiding principles on how to win a case competition The case competition environment at CBS There are plenty of opportunities to compete in case competitions at CBS. However, there are few opportunities to learn how to actually become good at case competitions. This is one of the reasons why CBS Case Club was founded. In this toolbox, we give you a taste of what we have to offer. Case Competition training Case Competitions CBS Student organizations + 2-3 competitions Companies + 30 competitions 2 CBS Case Club The official CBS Case Club The purpose of the club is to educate and train students primarily from Copenhagen Business School (CBS) in case solving with the overarching goal of elevating the general case solving level at CBS. CBS Case Club offers a place for students to meet and learn from like minded case solvers as well as share knowledge and find peers to form teams for case competitions. The club facilitates an Academy training program each semester, where students learn about all the essential parts of case solving together with the leading management consulting company, BCG. CBS Case Club is run by current and previous CBS students with case solving experience from a range of different competitions including CBS International Case Teams. Official Case Academy partner Apply for our Academy training program The Case Academy is a training program within the various disciplines of case solving, which is offered to a selected number of motivated and ambitious students over the course of a semester. Executed through a series of workshops, the program is tailored to provide students – having no or minor experience – with the basic tools to excel in case competitions. The workshops, entailing both theoretical content and practical exercises, will be conducted in cooperation with BCG – and will elevate your case solving and presentation skills to the next level. 1 3 Intro to Case Academy 27th of Sep. 5 Midway Case Competition 11th of Oct. September 2 Structured Problem Solving 4th of Oct. 7 PowerPoint Skills 8th of Nov. October 4 Structured Communication st 1 of Nov. Final Case Preparation 22th of Nov.7 November Final Case Competition 29-30th of Nov. 6 Presentation Techniques 15th of Nov. Read more and apply at: cbscaseclub.dk/academy 3 GLOBAL 2020 Input from CBS Case Competition What is CBS Case Competition GLOBAL 2020? GLOBAL 2020 is your chance to compete against top students from around the world in a solving a real-life business challenge. Comprising of 3 rounds starting in week 7, after a thorough screening and semi-finals, 3 teams are invited to Copenhagen to compete in the Final during week 8. You will be by competing in teams of 4 students, with the first evaluation based upon power-point solutions of 15 slides. The initial rounds of the competition takes place on our digital platform and anyone around the world can join. Timeline for GLOBAL 2020 Week 7 & Week 8 2020 11.2.2020 Case Solving Launch 24 hours to solve 20.2.2018 13.2.2020 14.2.2018 Screening Semi-finals Final in Copenhagen Choosing teams to continue to semi-finals Live stream presentation with jury Q&A Judged by a panel of leading professionals How does the toolbox relate to GLOBAL 2020? The principles included throughout the toolbox are relevant for GLOBAL 2020 as it is a traditional case competition. However, due to a high number of participants, you do not present your solution in the first round and will be evaluated purely on the basis of the deck of slides you hand-in. Here are a few tips that are specific for GLOBAL 2020: • Make sure that your story and arguments are clear and detailed in your slide deck as you don’t get to • present your solution in the first round Research previous hand-ins to have a clear idea of the format and required level of output. Make • sure to have a master template with prebuild slides to ease the slide production Tell a story about your strategy framework and use catchy titles to make your solution stand out from the crowd and be memorable to the screeners Get inspiration for PowerPoints, case-cracking and presentation techniques on the CBS Case Competition website: CCC Case Library casecompetition.com/case-library/ 4 How to set your team and manage your time Setting your team It helps the productivity of the team to give each team member an area of responsibility. We have outlined the roles that a team typically has below. In addition to these, it is advisable to have a slidemaster and a time manager. The slidemaster is responsible for the team’s PowerPoint template and for fixing and aligning the slide deck in the final hours of case cracking. This is typically the person most comfortable with slide building and PowerPoint. The time manager has an overview of what everybody is doing and makes sure that the team in on track with its schedule at all times. Solution • Focus on solution slides, especially the strategy umbrella that outlines the solution Marketing • Focus on the marketing aspect of the solution Insights • Focus area is find key insights • Usually conducts quantitative analyses Financials • Responsible for finding financial impact of solution • Usually also takes key risks and implementation Managing your time In this case competition, you have 24 hours - make sure that every hour counts. While a rigid and inflexible plan is not recommended, it is however recommended that broad lines for the 24 hours are established. Based on our experience, we consider the following setup as a comprehensive framework for managing the time using the backward case cracking approach*, but you should employ the approach that you find the most optimal. The concepts described below will be elaborated throughout the toolbox. Read the case Brainstorm solutions** 1 2 3 4 5 Do the SCQ first individually and then as a team Create the Dot-Dash 6 7 8 Build your slide deck. This is the core of the process, and it is important that delegation of work is combined with regular check-ins to ensure that everyone are aligned. Create the storyboard 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Narrow down and settle on solution** * Concept is introduced on page 10. ** Note that the “Disney Dreamer” method on p. 9 covers these two stages 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Rehearse, proofread/align slides and build back-up slides 5 Problem Solving Methodology SCQA The SCQA is frequently used tool for case competitions. It works well both as a tool to understand the context, challenges and key question of the case, but also as a communication tool to make a good executive summary. We recommend that the team does the SCQA right after reading the case. A good tip is to first do it individually and then as a group to ensure independent thinking and maximize chances of getting it right. Make sure that you have a short and crisp SCQ that you are completely aligned on before moving on the finding the right answer. 1 Situation – Set the scene Must be indisputable & relevant to create buy-in among judges 2 Complication – Describe the problem Must be biggest tension in your storyline 3 Question – Make it clear what you solve Must arise logically from complication & be SMART* 4 Answer – Present your recommendation Must release tension from complication and arise logically from question The importance of the SCQA cannot be overstated: having the right understanding of the company and solving the right problem is a must in order to win a case competition. Example of SCQA • We possess a number strongholds today which have been the backbone of our performance, namely –… • However, lately performance has been declining … due to –… – …, having resulted in unsatisfactory sales and profit performance, as well as … • Therefore, the key question we have to answer is… Situation Complication Question Focus on XYZ will be essential to our future success • Several possible directions have been considered and matched with current business strengths –… • Given our current business strengths, our future goal should be –… • We will, therefore, build up our business model around … Recommen dation * See SMART explanation on page 15 6