Amidst all of the holiday hustle and bustle the SFU team is in full preparation mode for the MBA Games taking place Jan 7-10.
Of the three Games’ disciplines, the academic competitions require the most preparation in a classroom-like setting so our team recently convened for the first of several meetings to understand what we really signed up for. The academic team is comprised of 3 groups for different competitions: marketing, business case and business simulation. I’m part of the marketing group and with the help of Colleen Collins, Associate Dean and marketer extraordinaire, we are in good hands to prepare a winning case.
The case will be delivered to us at the Games and our group will have three hours to form our recommendations and create presentation slides. Then comes the exciting part where we present to company executives in their boardroom and hope they like what we have to say.
How, you ask, do you prepare for something like this?
Well, it’s impossible to fully prepare but there are a few variables we want to address before we arrive in Toronto. Teambuilding is key, especially since the four of us haven’t worked together as a group. It’s important for us to assess the group dynamics before we present so we know how to best allocate speaking roles and questions (e.g. should the group member with the biology degree be answering the financial questions? Maybe, but we don’t want to wait until the end of the presentation to sort that out.)
We can also prepare slide templates to structure our presentation and coordinate attire so we look like a cohesive, professional unit on the big day. The pivotal training piece will be a dry run with a sample case so we can see what we do well and what we need to work on.