The Importance of Collaboration and Curiosity
This past year and a half has been difficult for many people. The world around us is disconnected due to cancelled events and fewer opportunities for face-to-face social interactions, which created challenges that forced all of us to adapt. This includes the learning curve when transitioning to an online platform and staying connected with family and friends through virtual calls. For this study term, our team had the pleasure to compete in the Investment Research Challenge (IRC) that helped bring back some normalcy in this whirlwind of a year. Our team of AFM and Math/CPA students were able to connect with each other and work together to pitch a buy recommendation for TSX:ZZZ, Sleep Country Canada Inc. This was a fun experience where we were able to take a detour from our regular school activities and face this new challenge together. We were able to create memories, connections, and develop new skills that will be beneficial in the future.
Collaboration: The pandemic transformed the structure of the IRC by converting to an online environment, which challenged teams to collaborate differently when creating their stock recommendation. Our team was definitely impacted by this obstacle. To make sure we stayed on the same page with our storytelling of Sleep Country’s stock, we decided to conduct multiple check-ins throughout the day and hold drop-in group calls to accommodate for each team member’s schedule. We also made sure to have serious group meetings with the entire team for each progress checkpoint.
Curiosity: Our team also learned the importance of staying curious as we conducted research for our pitch. The structure of the IRC required a 5-minute presentation on our pitched stock including an overview of the company, investment thesis, risks, and valuation, as well as 10 minutes for a Q&A by the judges. We learned that it was important to research thoroughly into these topics since the judges could ask anything in the Q&A. Conducting a pointed analysis by looking into details that could back up our thesis or valuation for each topic was necessary.
We plan to leverage these lessons as we build our careers, to ensure that we’re implementing and applying our developed collaboration skills as we work with new teams, and curiosity skills as we conduct research and aim to add value during our co-op work terms.
Overall, IRC was a great experience where we were able to learn a lot about Sleep Country, each other, and ourselves.