In all honestly, I used to dislike case competitions. Competing was stressful and I lost several times, however, despite my suboptimal experiences in the past, I found a turning point this year with the STRIVE Conference case competition, which is among Ontario’s largest accounting-focused conferences.
Candidly speaking, I was very lucky this year, but I also want to share some strategies and the mindset that helped me, and my teammates achieve success.
The
first
thing
I
did
to
set
my
team
and
me
up
for
success
when
competing
was
prioritizing
learning
over
winning,
which
ultimately
helped
us
win
STRIVE.
Given
that
STRIVE
is
based
on
networking
with
companies,
I
researched
and
tried
to
understand
their
business
models
and
recent
events.
I
learned
some
interesting
things
and
found
it
enjoyable
for
my
learning
which
benefitted
our
team.
I was competing with Accounting and Financial Management (AFM) students that were teammates I was familiar with from previous activities and competitions. I think competing with classmates and friends is easier. It breaks down a lot of awkwardness, especially competing with strangers and going on silent Zoom calls (not recommended, unless you like cricket sounds).
Furthermore, our team prepared two days early and divided up sections to research and create slides. We also looked at previous case resources and had a call before the day of the competition to go over our game plan. Lastly, we were echoing professor Ranjini Jha’s advice; “just have fun”. I always thought it was the end of the world when I lost but it's not.
Now that I have sufficiently filled my ego barometer and flexed this blog and STRIVE Conference case competition win on my LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook, I can rest easy knowing I have fulfilled the quintessential SAF student ritual *sarcasm*. I hope you can tell I had a lot of fun writing this blog but, in all seriousness, I look forward to future competitions. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!