A unique case competition with a trick up its sleeve
Unlike traditional case competitions, where each university is represented by a team of students and compete against other schools, this competition has a unique twist. Of the two cases we compete in, one is mixed teams made up of randomly drawn team members. Everyone ends up working with three people they have never met.
What happens when you put four strangers in a room together and pile on the pressure to crack a case in 5 hours? It’s either utter chaos or a beautiful harmony. It’s situations like these where true leaders emerge – and that’s exactly what East Meets West is all about. Not only solving a case with a leadership dilemma but also identifying the future leaders in the room.
Day 1
We were all quite nervous about how we would perform in our randomly assigned teams. We were confident in our abilities to deliver, but unsure of how well we would be able to work with strangers. At the end of the day, we all were quite proud of our efforts. We also bonded with the people we worked with. We each presented good solutions to the ethical leadership case and were excited at the end of the day to see who the two winning teams were. We hoped to have performed well enough to have at least one SFU Beedie member on the winning side, but lo and behold, both the winning teams had SFU Beedie representation – the only school to be a part of both winning teams. What a fantastic first day!
Day 2
Day 2 was all about school pride, with each team competing for the top spot. We were presented with an exciting leadership case focused on disruptive technologies. We doubled down and gave everything we had for the next 5 hours and finished off with a strong performance. While we didn’t win in the end, we congratulated the winning team from the University of Manitoba – Asper School of Business, and unanimously agreed that their win was well-deserved.
Competitions such as this aren’t just about competing or winning – it’s about the whole experience. This was one of the best learning experiences for us so far, and the interactions with students from different schools with diverse backgrounds was a tremendous opportunity in itself. At the end of it all, this proved to be a productive training ground where we delivered high-level performances and made great friendships along the way.
Arjun Batta is an SFU Beedie MBA candidate in the full-time program, and the 2018-2019 Team Captain for the SFU Beedie BC MBA Games and national MBA Games. Arjun is also a current Beedie Ambassador. You can connect with Arjun on LinkedIn here.