Rules & Guidelines

Congratulations on your choice to compete in this year’s Russell Investments International Case Competition. We hope you have fun and learn a lot, and we wish all of you good luck! 

Basic Questions 

• What did I get myself involved in? What is a case competition? 

A case competition is an opportunity for teams to apply their business school knowledge to a real-life business situation. The case will ask you to analyze the situation and make recommendations about the best course of action for the company involved. A panel of corporate and academic judges will evaluate your analysis and recommendations. There is no one right answer to the case. The judges will be looking at your ability to diagnose the problem, your application of theory and classroom concepts, and your ability to communicate your ideas, your teamwork, and your creativity. You will be asked to play specific roles, such as firm managers or outside consultants (this information will be given when you receive the case). 

RULES AND GUIDELINES 

Structure of Presentations 

• The top team of each of the Undergraduate preliminary rooms, as determined by a panel of corporate and academic judges, will advance onto the final round of the competition.  

• Freshman, Masters, and NWR Tracks do not have a final round - one winning team will be selected based on judges deliberation in the preliminary round. Winners will also be announced at lunch on Competition Day.  

• All preliminary round classrooms will have a 10-minute presentation, 10-minue question-and-answer period, and a 5-minute feedback from judges (one-way) 

Case Content 

You may assume that it is a Harvard-style case about a real-life business situation. The case will have an international component, and the analysis will require a multi-functional approach (marketing, finance, accounting, information systems, human resource management, etc.). A lot of information for your analysis will be provided in the case, but you are encouraged to supplement it with outside research. No student will know anything more about the case prior to the competition.  

Presentations

Presentations can be formatted as MS PowerPoint, and must be uploaded to the Competition Website by 6:00 pm on Friday, November 3rd. Late submissions will be marked down or disqualified.  

It is a good idea to do a practice run-through and time yourself before you present, as you will be cut off after 10 minutes, and cut off after 10 minutes’ Q&A with the judges.  

Tips

The following are general tips and suggestions compiled from previous participants. You do not have to use them, but they are meant to help you prepare and work well as a team.  

• Remember, you are a team. Collaborate to work towards the same goal and value the unique talents of each member.  

• Dress professionally for your presentations; first impressions are huge. It is helpful to get into the role asked of you in the charge (e.g. if you are told that you are consultants, BECOME those consultants).  

• Business professional attire can include: suits, nice pants like khakis, suit skirts, non-casual or overly formal dresses, button-up/collared shirts, and sometimes neckties.  

• Think about what will make your slides readable in an online setting – colors, font sizes, etc.  

• Try to anticipate possible judges’ questions and have supplementary (appendix) slides prepared to answer them. Do this by placing yourselves in the role of the decision-maker in the case when you are trying to come up with your strategy.  

• Try to divide the answers to the judges’ questions evenly among team members. This will show that it was a team effort and that everyone understands the case.  

• Avoid speaking too softly and/or too fast.  

• Avoid slides that are too detailed or busy. 

• Be sure to address the questions asked of you in the charge letter.  

• Avoid topics that do not pertain directly to the question in the case.  

• Designate a different person to change the slides for each speaker.  

Case Competition Rules  

CASE: 

• In addition to the case, you will be given a student charge.  This charge is basically – the problem. It will give you the problem you are asked to address.  It’s not always clear in the case.  If anything is required – examples: you must use a SWOT analysis, you must give us three country analysis – you will be told in the charge. 

• You may not consult any person outside your team regarding the case analysis, nor may you ask anyone to watch you practice presenting. This includes faculty, other students, the library consulting service, case company specialists, friends, relatives, or co-workers. You may consult inanimate sources, such as on-line databases, reference books, textbooks, periodicals, or websites.  

• Librarians can also be consulted on non-substantive questions. You may ask the librarian how to find a particular resource (ABC Periodical), but not how to do a country analysis. We will discuss a few Foster Library resources and databases later in this presentation for your reference! 

• All of the work must be done by the team. You are not allowed to ask for help from your friends, professors, people that work at the company, family friends in the industry, etc. 

PRESENTATIONS:  

• Each team member should have a part of the presentation to give, and no members can only do background research, designs slides, etc. Public speaking is an important part of this competition. 

• You must submit your slides via the online form by 6:00 PM on Friday, November 3. No changes to PPTs are allowed after this. After this, you can practice your presentation, sleep, etc.  

• Teams are not permitted to submit any handouts or supplementary materials to the judges. You are also not allowed to use props- just the clicker to advance through slides. 

• A clicker for advancing slides will be available for you.

• You will be given 5 minutes to set up, 10 minutes to present, and 10 minutes for Q&A. You will also get 5 minutes of one-way feedback, in which you are welcome to take notes.  

• Do not listen outside your room’s round, only come 5 minutes before it is time for your set-up time slot. 

• Audience members are allowed to take pictures and video, but you can request they stop if distracting, except for the Final Preliminary round classroom for the Undergraduate Track which will include some photography, including with flash, and recording via Panopto.  

• Audience can watch presentations, unless they are a competing team, but cannot leave/enter the room during the presentations, Q&A, and feedback periods.  

• Teams that do not progress to Finals are encouraged to watch Finals and should only leave if they have work/class/family to take care of.  

• Final teams may watch presentations only after their turn.   

• DO NOT drop out of the competition. It’s not okay if you do not submit a solution/presentation at the deadline. Members of the local business community are volunteering their time to judge and will be inconvenienced by teams not showing up. 

Good luck to your team! 

Caroline Zeiher

Program Manager, Undergraduate Global Programs Global Business Center