The AMBS Case Competition launched in 2016 and was introduced by the Postgraduate Careers Service team to provide our MBA students with more opportunities to prepare for case study interviews. The final took place on Friday 25 January in our newly renovated AMBS. The process began in the autumn term, where the teams were formed, preparations began and workshops were delivered by our alumni and members of the class of 2019. We caught up with the winning team to learn more about the competition.
The idea of the competition is to replicate the case interview process, with a mixture of one to one interviews and a group case study. This year a total of 21 teams registered, made up of 84 students, with the 4 highest scoring teams from the individual case interview being selected to compete in the final.
“When we formed the team, we were clear that we wanted to be diverse, both in terms of industry background and nationalities. The first stage consisted of individual case interviews; this was the most nerve-racking stage for us. After each of our interviews, we shared tips with the rest of the team to make sure we were improving as we went along. The cases were based on simple business scenarios requiring us to make recommendations on how the business should increase profitability, whether it should enter a new market or launch a new product. Each case was different, so the practice we had done together and learning from each other’s different backgrounds and experience, helped us feel fully prepared.”
The finalists were given their group case and had less than three hours to work on this. During this time each team member also underwent an individual case interview. Each group was given five minutes to deliver their presentation regarding the valuation of an acquisition of a company in the R&D area of the Oil and Gas industry in the UAE.
“For the final stage we were ready and excited. It required a lot of coordination and communication because we only had a few minutes as a whole group before the individual cases begun. We were very happy and confident about our presentation. We presented to a panel of judges, as well as other guests who were invited to watch. It was a lot of pressure and we were very nervous but felt we had delivered a good presentation. The hardest part was the questions session, but thanks to all our preparation and working together as a team supporting each other we felt we had responded well.”
The winning team consisted of MBA students, Jennifer Dingley (UK), Adriana Ingar (Peru), Margarita Montalba (Chile) and Dolores Moreira (Mexico). We would also like to congratulate the other three case study competition finalists, Team CALM, BCW Associates and Synergy.
The process is an excellent experience for the MBA students, helping them practice their case study interview skills in preparation for real interviews, develops M&A skills and exposing them to different alumni and guests to help expand their networks.
