Texas MBAs Talk

A couple of weeks ago Deloitte Consulting came to campus for their annual Consulting Case Challenge- one of the most highly anticipated challenges of the year. Twenty teams battled for the top prize, setting a new record for participation in the process. In addition to the overwhelming turnout of first-year students, Deloitte added a wrinkle to the competition by placing BBA Honors students on each team of MBA’s. This change expanded each team and added the additional dynamic of incorporating a younger team member that the vast majority of teams were meeting for the first time.

The competition also presented me with my first taste of the challenge environment. Earlier in the semester I had to back out of the Global Challenge due to a bout with the (non-swine) flu. I had high expectations entering the night and having survived 37 straight hours of academic induced adrenaline I can now confidently say that it was a tremendous experience all around.

The energy surrounding the kick-off of the challenge was palpable as representatives from Deloitte gave us the rundown of how the night and following morning would play out. Cases were distributed at 7:00 pm and the final deck outlining each team’s solution to the case was due at 7:30 am the following morning. There is no sleep. There is no rest. There is only caffeine, trail mix, battles with Powerpoint and the constant struggle to keep each other focused on putting together a coherent solution to a real business challenge. You really learn a lot about your fellow classmates by spending 12 hours together in a confined space, both good and bad. In my case the former drastically outweighed the latter as we were able to draw on each of our unique strengths in creating our presentation. We left my apartment a mess of storyboards and empty red bull containers confident that we had positioned ourselves for success once we stepped in front of the judges.

And then the waiting starts. The gap between leaving for campus and stepping into our designated cohort room for our first round presentation was nearly three hours. More than enough time to become even more fatigued, second guess your content and trip over your lines a few dozen times. I even had to walk out of our last “dry run” when, at 26 hours with no sleep, my brain and mouth refused to collaborate on an explanation of competitive forces.

But when the actual time to perform came our team came through. While we were not able to see any of the 4 other teams that we competed against in the first round, we left the room feeling as if we had presented ourselves well enough to advance. During lunch we found out that not only we had advanced to the final round, but also that team member Josh Thacker took home the Best Speaker Award for our section.

A couple of more walk-through’s and we were presenting to a now full-house of Deloitte judges and fellow students. The final presentation carried a new level of intensity as everyone knew how close to the finish we all were. We were the last group to present so unfortunately we did not get to watch any of the other, however by all accounts each team performed extremely well.

Ultimately we came up just short, finishing second in a tight vote. It was a strong finish and reinforced my desire to work in the consulting industry. It also generated a new level of respect for my classmates as I was immensely impressed with their ability to perform under such difficult conditions. Special shout out to fellow team member and McCombs blogger Kalin McKenna for her resounding performance opening and closing our arguments. And congratulations to fellow blogger, Dirk Hallen and the rest of the “After School Specials” for taking home first place. Last, but not least, thank you to Deloitte Consulting for continuing to support the McCombs School of Business and for putting on such a great event.

And if you have made it this far into this blog post, congratulations to you too, since you are probably as tired as I was after 37 hours.

Until next time.