UTS will be hosting its first Global Case Competition from November 12 – 14. The event will see 16 international universities compete against each other to solve a real-world Australian business case presented by Stockland.
The inaugural UTS Global Case Competition comes off the back of strong international results, with UTS taking home five wins in case competitions during Spring session 2021 alone.
The competition, hosted by the UTS Case Team from the UTS Business School, will now be one of three Australian invitational case competitions to host international competitors. The others are the Australian Undergraduate Business Case Competition (AUBCC) run by the Queensland University of Technology and UNSW, and the University of Melbourne’s International Case Competition.
What is a case?
A 'case' is where a business provides a problem brief for a team to solve, just like they would do if hiring in a consulting firm. Case competitions can include a varying number of cases to be solved and require the practical application of knowledge from all business disciplines like marketing, finance and accounting. And, for each case, competing teams of four have three to 24 hours to solve a case and pitch a solution to a judging panel of industry professionals for evaluation, critique and feedback, all while competing against other teams.
Why do students love them so much? “These competitions give competitors graduate-ready skills and attributes to prepare for the consulting industry,” explains 2021 UTS Case Team President Jasmine Wong.
UTS Case Team members pitching a training case
Jasmine has been involved in case competitions for just over two years. And she’s not alone. “We’re pretty much one of, if not the youngest case team in Australia and even globally,” says the Bachelor of Business and a Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation student. “We’re up against teams like The Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands who have been around for 45 years.
“It’s really cool to be able to put UTS and Australia on the map through the UTS Case Team. And I think finally we’re in a position where we can host our own competition and do really well in other competitions. We’re only, officially, in our third year of competing, so it’s a really big step.”
What is the UTS Case Team?
The UTS Case Team, founded in August 2018, is a student-led organisation funded by the UTS Business School. It has 38 members who compete in different teams of four in domestic and international case competitions. The competing teams are decided through the team’s internal selection process based on a criteria of skill fit, team dynamic and competition format.
Some of UTS Case Team’s recent accolades in 2021 Spring session include:
Overall winner in the Canadian Lazaridis Competition.
National winner of KPMG Strategy’s Australian national finals.
First in the third case of the Rotterdam Carleton International Case Competition.
First in the three-hour case of the AUBCC.
Runners-up in the Norwegian School of Economics’ International Case Competition.
UTS Case Team members undertaking training online via Zoom
The 2021 UTS Global Case Competition
Unlike all pre-COVID case competitions, the inaugural UTS Global Case Competition will be held virtually. According to Jasmine, the move online is a positive one for her team.
“For us, particularly being in Australia, we’re always competing in other people’s time zones,” Jasmine affirms.
“Normally that’s ok. We get to fly there, stay in a hotel for a few days and get a feel for what the culture is like, but in light of COVID, we’ve pretty much been online for nearly two years now.
“And so for UTS, it gave us a perfect little window to start our own competition in a really feasible way where, on our first attempt at hosting the competition, we could invite a lot of people across the world without having to fly everyone to Australia.”
UTS Case Team members Fahid Ifthekhar and Tiger Le preparing their solution for an AstraZeneca practice case
The format of the competition will involve the 16 teams being placed into four pools where they all will have 12 hours to solve the case. The winner from each pool will progress to the finals, where the overall winner will be crowned.
The judges will be from organisations such as Stockland, Boston Consulting Group, PwC, Macquarie Bank, QBE insurance, Canva, EY, L.E.K. Consulting, Bank of America, Capgemini and Indiana Toll Road.
The UTS Case Team executive team having fun at an escape room
For Jasmine, the experience of being involved in the UTS Case Team has been beyond rewarding.
“Being able to be pushed, having time pressures, coping with stress, managing expectations, and delivering something in a short window of time – so many of the situations I’ve been in during cases are going to happen in the workplace, and some of them have already,” she says.
“Being able to do all that alongside amazing people who I’m going to be friends with forever is just so invaluable, and I’m going to miss it when I do graduate. I probably won’t miss the uni assignments,” she laughs, “but I will miss the case team and everything this experience is teaching me.”
Find out more about the UTS Case Team at utscaseteam.com.