The Marshall Case Competition Program helps you connect what you've learned through your coursework and apply it to real business situations. Concepts and material learned in your core and elective curriculum come to life through participation in case competitions.
Skills and Abilities Needed to Successfully Compete:
Research skills – Prepare and gather information on the company and industry's background.
Teamwork/Leadership skills – Ability to successfully work with others, assign roles, monitor group progress andprovide leadership.
Analytical/Problem Solving skills - Ability to analyze complex problems with limited information, structure thinking and draw meaningful, impactful conclusions from the data.
Strategic Thinking skills – Ability to think strategically with regard to functional aspects of the competition including time management, utilizing team members' strengths, approach to the case questions and conclusions drawn.
Presentation skills – Ability to clearly present and articulate recommendations and the rationale behind them. Ability to answer questions from judges.
Developing Critical Skills
The USC Marshall MBA Case Competition Program helps you develop the skills necessary to be successful in case competitions through a variety of ways:
Training Sessions - Offered once a month, these sessions are facilitated by student coaches, faculty and staff. Sessions focus on specific skills and give students the opportunity to ask questions.
Individualized Coaching - Students selected to compete are given one-on-one coaching and feedback by student and faculty coaches.
Practice Cases - Students are provided with practice cases when they are selected for a case competition team. Practice cases are also used during training sessions.
Library Resources - Crocker Library staff are available to assist student teams with industry and company research in preparation for competitions.