Who Needs Sleep? Fall Marketing Case Competition

You know how as kids you play cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians? Well, in b-school you have the opportunity to play consultants. That’s what a case competition is, and as a first year, this was my first opportunity to participate in one.

It might not sound fun, but it is. At least it is to me. I’m weird. I know.

Typically you’re presented with a real life company and real life problem. Your job is to presentation recommendations addressing those issues. In this particular case competition the Foster Marketing Association and the Strategy Club partnered with Callison, an architecture firm based out of Seattle, on a challenge they’re facing in their Dallas office. The prize money was $3,000 to split amongst your team of four.

We had a week to analyze, research and formulate recommendations for the case. Unfortunately, for first year full-time students, this case competition coincided with a mid-term in Statistics and another case deliverable for Marketing – both counting as 20% of our overall grade in the respective classes. When do you sleep? Well, the answer was: “you don’t.”

The sleep deprivation is not as big of a problem when you enjoy working with your team. We came from a diverse background in finance, technology, non-profit and me in sales and marketing. For many of us this is our first encounter with case competition. Although we didn’t win, we received valuable lessons on how to present complicated issues in a simple and actionable manner. These are skills to take forward anywhere we go.