CASE COMPETITION

Download the Case Competition Schedule (PDF, 28KB) here.

Competitive spirit at its best!

Graduate business students from the nation’s leading business schools compete for top ranking, scholarship dollars and employment opportunities while participating in the NBMBAA Case Competition®. Students have the opportunity to analyze a real life complex business case and recommend solutions to a panel of senior level executives. This allows teams to showcase their communication skills, problem solving abilities, and proficiency in critical analysis and thinking.

Teams of up to three (3) graduate business students are given one month to analyze a business case and present their findings to a panel of judges from the leading business schools and top corporations across the United States.

The competition will take place during our 32nd Annual Conference and Exposition in Los Angeles, CA. The program will begin on Thursday, September 23rd and conclude on Friday, September 24th, finalists will be announced on Thursday evening during our Case Competition reception, and the winners will be announced during our annual Awards Program on Friday afternoon. The first place team will receive a $15,000 scholarship; second place $12,000; and third place $8,000. Competition participants are encouraged to take advantage of other conference programming such as our 2-day Career Fair on Thursday and Friday.

Take advantage of this unique opportunity to compete for scholarship dollars and interact with hiring executives, outside of the normal recruiting setting. This is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate your presentation, analytical and team building abilities by competing in this exciting and highly competitive competition.

ELIGIBILITY

The competition is open to minority graduate students who are full-time and pursuing an MBA or business related degree.

COMPETITION GUIDELINES

Teams

Teams competing in the NBMBAA Case Competition® may consist of no more than three (3) team members. Teams may select to have an alternate; however, alternates will not be considered official members of the team; one alternate may participate in case competition events as a guest of the presenting team.

All team members must be full conference registrants. Registration for a case competition student is $295.00; this registration allows students full conference access.

Teams must designate a team leader.

All students participating in the case competition must submit a current resume by August 2nd, if a team registers after August 2nd resumes must be submitted at the time of registration. Resumes should be emailed to case competition@nbmbaa.org, and should be named in the following format; Fname-Lname-School, i.e. Sarah-Thomas-Hope University.

Business Case Analysis

Competing teams will have four (4) weeks to prepare an analysis and presentation of a complex business case. The business case will be emailed to team leaders no later than Monday, August 23rd.

Teams will be given an opportunity to address the business case writers during a question and answer teleconference.

All questions regarding the case must be emailed in advance to casecompetition@nbmbaa.org by 5:00PM (CDT) on Monday, August 30th. Answers will be provided during the questions and answer teleconference; additional questions may be addressed if time permits.

The business case will focus on a critical business issue and may address multiple functional areas. Team members should present their teams analysis as if presenting to a Board of Directors.

All case analysis, writing, development, and presentation are to be done by members of the team. Teams may designate a faculty advisor, or coach to assist in the preparation of the analysis, however, only members of the team may present during the preliminary and final rounds.

Team members may use any reference sources and materials in the public domain (i.e., the university library). Use of unpublished papers and the like are strictly prohibited. This includes written sources, not people.

No team member, faculty advisor or coach should gain information on the content of the presentations being made by other competing teams.

No team member, faculty advisory or coach should contact any sponsor of the competition or any member of the judging panel, nor shall they contact the case writers.

Presentations

Each team will be have twenty (20) minutes to present the results of their analysis; followed by ten (10) minutes of questions by the competition judges. All team members must participate in the oral presentation.

Each presentation should begin with an introduction of each team member, the MBA program, and the college or university being represented.

Teams are required to document all sources. Although this documentation need not be a part of your presentation, a list of the sources used should be included as an attachment to your presentation.

Each team should be prepared to present their analysis using a laptop computer and an LCD projector. Laptops will be provided; NO OUTSIDE EQUIPMENT CAN BE USED OR ADDED TO THE RESOURCES PROVIDED.

All presentations are required to be compatible with Windows XP.

Team presentation should be saved to a USB key (jump drive) which would be submitted to the competition coordinator at the orientation. The USB key will be returned at the competition debrief.

Each team should prepare twelve (12) hard copies of their presentation.
One (1) copy to competition coordinator (Student Orientation)
Four (4) copies to present to preliminary round judges
Five (5) copies to present to final round judges, should your team move forward into the final rounds

Teams must be prepared to submit USB Keys and hard copies of presentations on Thursday, September 23rd at the student orientation.

Team members may invite faculty advisors, coaches, classmates, and alumni to their team’s presentation. Members of competing teams, nor coaches or faculty advisors may attend the presentations of other teams during the preliminary rounds. Teams competing in the final rounds may not attend the presentations of competing teams.

Once the competition begins, all faculty advisors, alumni, or other interested parties may act as spectators only. These individuals should not offer any suggestions, changes, or revisions to the content or structure of information presented during the preliminary or final round presentations, or question and answer session.

The judging panel will evaluate teams based on content and presentation skills. Each team will be asked questions at the conclusion of their presentation by the judging panel. These questions will be based on the information presented by the team. There may be no right or wrong answers to the questions posed by the judging panel, however, part of the scoring will be based on the team's ability to field the questions quickly. Teams will be judged on the viability of their strategy and the logical flow of their overall presentation.

Finalist teams will be announced on Thursday, September 23rd. The finalist teams will compete in the final rounds on Friday, September 24th.

Judges

Each team will be judged by a panel of 3-4 corporate judges.

Judges will complete a feedback sheet for each team. Teams will receive a copy of the feedback sheet at the Judges’ feedback session, Friday, September 24th.

Confidentiality and Intellectual Property Guidelines

All public sessions of the competition, including but not limited to oral presentations and question/answer sessions, are open to the public at large. Any and all of these public sessions may be broadcast to interested persons through media which may include radio, television and the internet. Any data or information discussed or divulged in public sessions by entrants should be considered information that will likely enter the public realm, and entrants should not assume any right of confidentiality in any data or information discussed, divulged or presented in these sessions

The National Black MBA Association may make photocopies, photographs, videotapes and/or audiotapes of the presentations and other documents, charts or material prepared for use in presentation at the NBMBAA Case Competition®.