Mentorship Strategies for Winning Case Competition Teams

Abstract

Case competitions provide a unique opportunity for students at all academic levels to amalgamate and synthesize everything they learn in the classroom into an applied real-world context utilizing the case construct. Most of these contests are ungraded, thereby allowing students, mentors, and faculty on both sides of the proverbial desk to be highly candid in their feedback without creating an uncomfortable situation, allowing it to be more constructive, affecting the culture of a traditional classroom or their grade point average, or impacting teaching evaluations. The result is often an analytically rigorous paper or PowerPoint presentation where students can adroitly demonstrate their knowledge of the concepts, effectively defend their recommendations, engage in meaningful Q&A, and follow best practices related to teamwork. This study aims to explore the mentorship and coaching strategies for case competition teams in undergraduate and graduate academic programs. The two most significant factors affecting case competition rank are “Mentor Hours” and “Effort Invested as a Team.”