2nd Year Case Comp - My Turn

Last year, I went to the 2nd Year Management Consulting Association (MCA) Case Comp as an observer to see the upper year students duke it out. Just like last year, there were a few first year students who came to observe. This year, I put together a team to give it a try. While we didn't place, the experience was well worthwhile. It certainly served as a good primer to get back into "the right frame of mind" for school.

I'm incredibly impressed with the quality of the presentations. One of my buddies came out with a truly unique solution to the problem presented and had an equally incredibly pitch to sell the idea.

One interesting lesson was why companies focus on top line revenue at the expense of bottom line income. While a short term focused company will need to produce results in the form of profits, a firm with a more long term outlook will often focus on top line revenue as a metric reflecting product and volume growth (with operational margins improving over time and producing future profits).

The first place team was a group of part time students, and I'm starting to notice a trend when it comes to part time students and their performance in case comps.