Our team, Jaiden, Thamirah, and John recently competed in the ACHIEVE Case Competition for the first time. The three of us were a bit nervous about what to expect since we have never competed at this particular competition before, but after two amazing days, we can confidently say that it was an incredible experience.
Jaiden, Thamirah, and John
Immediately after check-in, we headed over to the conference centre in downtown Toronto and spent the afternoon attending workshops and getting to know the other delegates. We ended the night off with a networking event where we all had the chance to speak with industry professionals. And of course, we can’t forget the amazing food that we had throughout the day; from Scotty Bons Caribbean cuisine to a table of cupcakes, we were well fed and very happy!
ACHIEVE is an accounting-based competition that focuses on current trends and challenges that are reflected within the industry. On the day of the competition, we all headed over to the conference centre, where we had breakfast (more great food!) and spent the morning in a workshop with an industry professional who walked us through the case competition topic — this year’s was Banking Crisis. This theme highlighted key areas surrounding financial stability, risk management, regulatory compliance and ethical considerations. It provided us with the unique opportunity to present a solution to a real-world problem by applying our experiences with assurance, tax and finance.
Then it came time for the moment we had all been waiting for – we had an hour for case cutting and 15 minutes to practice our speech and then it was time to present our work to the judges! The case and our solution were heavily centered around governance, which is the process of decision-making within a business. Thus, we suggested the implementation of an internal audit committee as our solution. The judges asked probing questions that allowed us to explain our solution with depth and adequately address any challenges that could potentially arise.
We were happy to progress to the finals, allowing us to present once more. This gave us the opportunity to incorporate feedback from our first pitch and ensure that we were presenting our solution in a way that addressed all the case facts. In fact, that was our biggest take-away: to make sure that we incorporate ALL the key facts in our solution. Even under a time crunch, it’s important to make sure that the case is thoroughly read-through and all aspects have been considered. After we finished our second presentation, we spent the rest of our evening at a gala, where we had more incredible food, extremely fun dance performances and the awards ceremony — where we won second place! Overall, this was an incredible weekend with so many amazing opportunities to meet new people, expand our skills and push ourselves beyond our comfort zone!