The Notre Dame MBA

NOTRE DAME DIVERSITY CONFERENCE CASE COMPETITION

MARCH 22, 2013

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CASE COMPETITION GUIDELINES AND REQUIREMENTS

Overview

This year, Ernst & Young and the University of Notre Dame are excited to bring you the 6th Annual Diversity Conference Case Competition. The case will ask students to examine diversity and inclusion in business and come up with solutions to a related business challenge. Hosted at the Mendoza College of Business on the University of Notre Dame’s campus, this case competition will take place on March 22nd. Please see below for more competition details.

Rules and Logistics

Teams and Registration

  • Participants must be currently enrolled in a Master’s in Business Administration program in either their first or second year.
  • Each team must be composed of 4 or 5 members.
  • Due to the nature of this event, it is expected that each team will have a diverse representation.
  • Interested teams should email Dana Twomey at dtwomey@nd.edu no later than MONDAY, MARCH 18th with your registration information including: a team name, the name of each member and his/her email address. Please highlight the team lead.
  • If a registered team member is unable to participate in the case competition, a substitution of team members is allowed before 12:00pm EST on March 20th. Please communicate this change, including new member’s name and email address, to Dana.

Case Distribution and Logistics

  • Case distribution will take place via email on Wednesday, March 20th at 12pm CST. The case study and supplemental material will be issued to the team lead for each team; it will be the responsibility of the team lead to distribute materials to the remainder of the team members.
  • Presentation time will be assigned randomly. Dana Tworney will provide teams with a copy of the entire competition presentation schedule by Thursday, March 21st at 12pm CST. Timeslots may not be traded.
  • We ask that you arrive at the Mendoza College of Business no later than 1 hour before your presentation time.
  • Your team will be assigned a room where you may prepare for your presentation. This room will be available to your team for the full day.

Work Products

  • We will provide each team with a PowerPoint template, which every team is required to use. Please do not include anything such as a logo that may give away your school identity.
  • Each team member should participate in the preparation and delivery of the presentation
  • Each team will prepare an oral and visual presentation (PowerPoint), addressed to the executive leadership of the client.
  • The visual presentation in its FINAL version must be emailed to amy.mait@ey.com by midnight on March 21st. Teams are NOT allowed to modify their presentations after the midnight submission. Ernst & Young will download presentations to a flash drive and will upload prior to the presentation.
  • Please also bring your presentation on a flash drive in the case that there are technical difficulties with the electronic submission.
  • PLEASE ALSO BRING 15 COPIES OF YOUR PRESENTATIONAND ADDITIONAL ANY HANDOUTS TO PROVIDE TO THE JUDGES.
  • Your team is free to use any information available including outside parties. Please be sure to document all information sources.

Presentations

  • BECAUSE WE HAD SO MUCH INTEREST, WE WILL NOW HAVE TWO ROUNDS OF PRESENTATIONS AND WILL USE TWO DIFFERENT ROOMS – MENDOZA 160 AND 162. ALL TEAMS WILL PARTICIPATE IN ROUND ONE AND THE TOP TWO TEAMS FROM EACH ROOM WILL PRESENT IN THE FINALS.
  • Presentations will be 15 minutes with an additional 10 minutes to respond to questions by the judges. Please make sure you adhere to the 15 minute rule.
  • To maintain our tight schedule, you will be cut off if you go over the allotted time. We will have someone to call out time as your stop-times approach.
  • Business attire is appropriate for all presentations.
  • After you have presented, please go back to your team room or relax elsewhere on campus.
  • Even though you have presented you are not allowed to watch other presentations.
  • All teams must be at the Diversity Conference Opening Reception at 5:00 PM for the awards ceremony. The winning team will be announced as well as best speaker and best Q&A.

Judging

  • At a high level, the judges will be responsible for judging the teams on the soundness of their analysis and related recommendations, the quality of their presentation and the response to questions.
  • The competition will be judged by professors from the University of Notre Dame and professionals across a variety of service lines from Ernst & Young.

Prizes & Awards

Cash prizes will be awarded to the teams winning first, second and third place.
Award amounts are representative of the total provided to each team:
- 1st Place: $5,000
- 2nd Place: $2,500
- 3rd place: $1,000


Contact Information

Ernst & Young Case Competition

Please contact Dana Twomey at dtwomey@nd.edu with any questions/issues related to the case teams or competition structure.