Format
The competition consists of three stages; two preliminary stages and one final stage. Each round offers its own unique challenges, format, and scoring.
For the preliminary stages, teams will be divided into six divisions, each comprised of four universities. Teams will receive points for their performance relative to the other teams in their respective division. The universities with the highest cumulative scores (in their respective division) in the preliminary stages (stage 1 & 2), will advance to the final stage.
Stage 1
In this stage, teams will face-off in head-to-head presentations with other universities from their division in a “round-robin” format. For instance; Team A1 will present against A2, while team A3 will present against A4. The match-ups will alternate over a period of three days, such that each university presents three (3) times; once against each of their divisional opponents. The highest possible score will be 9 and the minimum score will be 6.
Stage 2
The second stage will focus on the teams’ research abilities. All teams will be given a real-world business problem and will have 24 hours to prepare a heavily detailed solution. Little information will be provided with the actual case itself, instead students will use the various research tools (i.e. the internet, textbooks, etc.) at their disposal. Following the 24 hour deadline, teams will present their solutions to a panel of business executives.
The panel of executives will reward teams’ performances relative to others in their division. Similarly, all judging will be done using a holistic approach; in particular the executives will be looking for: logical, actionable, realistic, creative, and well thought-out recommendations.
Final Stage
The results from the first two preliminary rounds will be tallied. The team with the highest cumulative score from each division will advance to the final round.
The six finalists will present their strategic solutions from the twenty-four hour research case to a new panel of business executives.
Each team will start with a clean slate whereby “the winner takes all”. The first, second, and third place winners will be announced later that evening at the Awards Ceremony Gala.
| STAGE ONE | + | STAGE TWO | = | PRELIMINARY STAGES | ||
| Case 1 | Case 2 | Case 3 | 24-hourResearch Case | Winners of Each DivisionAdvance to Final Stage | ||
