First date with a case

This past week, me and a couple of my classmates got together to compete in a case competition sponsored by Amazon.com.  The winner of the case would win an interview with Amazon.com and one of their newly released Kindle Fire HDs.  Although the prizes were damn sweet, I really wanted to do this for the experience of competing in a case competition. For those unfamiliar with case competitions, the sponsoring company usually has a problem or issue they are trying to tackle right now in the real world and to get some different perspectives on the issue, they will source it out to a school in the form of a case competition. This gives us students the opportunity to test our business savy while the company gets a bazillion ideas for cheaper than what they would pay a consultant for.  Typically, the competitors get the case and then have 24 hours to finish a white paper/presentation to turn in.

I have to say, my first date with a case was AWESOME!  Although my team consisted of three members outside of the LA area (SD, OC, SF), we managed to pull it together. This was the first semi-all-nighter that I've pulled since undergrad that didn't include me being in Vegas.  It was rough, but I'm glad I'm getting started early because I'm sure there's going to be many more nights like this to come.

It was amazing to watch our idea transform into an actionable recommendation and not only that, but of the 58 competing teams, our team was one of the top 7 that was called back for the semi-finals! We didn't make it to the finals, but it was still an honor to even be called back.  The two teams that did place 1st and 2nd presented their cases really well and definitely deserved the win.

This was a great learning experience. Beyond what I learned from just working on the case, it was good to watch the winning teams present and to see what we would need to work towards in the future to crack the case.  So for the reader's that are going to b-school, case competitions are pretty fun. Win or lose, you win from the free food and drinks at the reception afterwards:

Just don't drink THIS much.