Hi I am Elaine, welcome back to my blog.
Last Saturday, May 3, 2025, I attended the Ivey High School Case Competition at the London, Ontario Ivey campus location. This was my second year participating. The selection process was highly competitive - according to Ivey HBA recruitment manager Nichole Jesko, who hosted the event being super supportive, approximately 900 students applied this year with only 200 chosen, so I did the math the acceptance rate is 22.22% for this year.
The Application Process
To get invited, I had to answer two application essay questions. They are: (I will think about it I will release my answer, but one tip I will give is give your reasoning with evidence supported, such as your achievement that justify your strength and skills)
Why do you want to attend the Ivey Case Competition? (limit: 250 words)
What are three strengths or skills you would bring to the team? (limit: 250 words)
Competition Day Experience
I woke up at 6:30 AM on competition day, ready for the full day ahead. A few days before the competition, we received a sample Ivey Case to review in your mailbox. When we arrived, before the actual competition began, we went through this sample case with a TA along with all 200 participants in the BMO auditorium for 1 hour. We participate as if we are in an actual Ivey Case Lesson in University, we are so immense in it. The specific timeline of the day is like the below：
The Team member you are working with is randomly selected for you. I was assigned to room 1352 and was the first person to arrive. It was conveniently located right across from the washroom. Our team consisted of six members from across the country - one from London, one from Mississauga, two from Toronto, one from Oakville, and me from Markham. This random generator made our team very diverse.
The biggest challenge was to deliver a comprehensive solution to the case within just 3 hours, working with people you've never met before. Learning from my experience last year (where our group was dominated by one person and we rushed our deck preparation), I explain the importance of optimizing this 3 hour to my teammates and took a more structured approach this time:
Introductions and Role Assignment (15 minutes): We introduced ourselves, shared our experiences and expertise, which helped us distribute the work effectively, and to break the ice by to just simply know each other.
Case Reading (20 minutes): We dedicated time to thoroughly read and understand the case.
Strategy Alignment (15 minutes): We discussed which approach to take, knowing from my previous experience that agreeing on one direction early helps eliminate conflicts later.
Structure and Assignment (20 minutes): We agreed on a slide structure and each of us took responsibility for specific slides and content.
Individual Work (1.5 hour): We worked independently on our assigned sections.
Integration and Rehearsal (30 minutes): We came together again to ensure the deck flowed cohesively and rehearsed our presentation that will have to be under 5 minutes for 4-5 times.
Lunch (5 minutes) : simply pizza
Reflection and Lessons Learned
While we did well in our presentation, we didn't make it to the one of the finalists. I believe it is always important to learn from mistakes. Upon reflection, I think bank I identified several areas for improvement:
Wrong Focus: We spent too much time (3.5 minutes of our 5-minute presentation) on executive summary, background, and SWOT analysis, with only 1.5 minutes on alternative analysis, financials, and marketing execution plan. The finalist teams allocated more time to these critical sections.
Could structure better: Our execution plan lacked a timeline, which the judges specifically asked about. We should have used a 4P framework (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) for a more comprehensive marketing strategy instead of just focusing on target market and promotion.
Speech did not explain well: Our SWOT presentation was too list-like. A stronger approach would have been to explain how strengths could leverage opportunities and mitigate threats, and how weaknesses could be alleviated through opportunities.
Bad Q&A performance on Financial Explanation: I didn't communicate our financial analysis effectively during Q&A. Instead of diving into details immediately, I should have started with the big picture, and the Alternative Analysis page on the deck I only highlighted the recommendation and financial impact, I could give more detail: "Here's our alternative analysis examining the three options from the case. We conducted a quantitative analysis on all 3 options, and on this slide is our final recommendation to combine options 1 and 2."
Case Interpretation: We were perhaps too conservative with the case information, limiting our creativity and innovative ideas. The competition actually allows more flexibility than we exercised.
Prepare for Q&A: It is important to allocate time to think of how to answer some Q&A questions that we can imagine they will be asked like Financials
If I had a second chance, I would reorganize our presentation to allocate more time to the alternative analysis and implementation plan. For the financials, I would explain:
"Here it comes the alternative analysis analyzing the 3 options we are helping to pick from the case given to us. The 3 options we can take are first we can implement a new route software, or second, we can conduct a volunteer campaign, third is we can hire paid workers. Our recommendation is to combine choices 1 and 2, which is more sustainable. We eliminated option 3 first as it harms the nonprofit organization culture and could result in volunteers starting to ask to be paid. Of course, the volunteer campaign would cost less but that alone is not sustainable at the end of the day. And choice one by itself still shows a loss, so combining 1 and 2 gives us a positive gross margin of $5,500 to help turn around the financial deficit.
I did a quantitative analysis on all 3 options and on this page of the deck is our final choice of combining 1 and 2.
For the whole financial analysis, we did not calculate based on the common calculation of revenue and expense because in the case t's not given in the case and would require too many assumptions. So, after careful consideration, we decided to make it purely on cost and savings, with the difference being the gross margin. Let me walk you through it:
For alternative 1, starting with the cost portion, a few things I want to highlight is the software costs $28,000 but there's a 40% discount, so we arrive at $16,800. The additional subscription is the increase in price from $5,000 to $12,000, which will be $7,000 each year for 10 years, so in total 70,000. For the savings and revenue, the saved route management time represents the elimination of volunteer coordinator overtime, and other parts are self-explanatory. Both parts combined give us the total cost and savings, and the difference is the gross margin for alternative 1.
For alternative 2, a few things I want to highlight is each person costs $400 to train, and the $3,000 is based on assuming 7.5 people (the midpoint of 5-10). The savings are calculated by the proportional increase using the incremental demand increase in units measured. The gross margins of alternatives 1 and 2 combined give us the combined gross margin."
With my poor performance in Q&A I believe did result in marks deducted. I did not leverage our sound financial, I learn to next time definitely allocate enough time into also rehearsing walking through the financials to ensure I explain it holistic well.
The Case + Our Deliverables
Well, I think, due to copyright considerations and the effort that the case writer definitely put in, I’ll just share the link to purchase the case we worked on, we are just given the case on the day. I happened to find it online after the competition: Case Study: Meals on Wheels London: Operations That Matter (English version) | Ivey Publishing
Below are shared linked of our brainstorm document + excel pdf + deck (canva)
Brainstorm document shared link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RPwpTRZam0ozet1lQuMTbWuMvQC5tQZ_2aqqqn0IiYY/edit?usp=sharing
Canva Deck (if you choose to do canva, ensure you download the pdf version): -> you submit only the deck https://www.canva.com/design/DAGBqGVttow/ssCxKgwLptCRKzIoBxSHjg/view?utm_content=DAGBqGVttow&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=hfaefc15940
Observation of Finalists
I also noticed the team that advanced from our group of seven teams (out of 34 total teams, with each pair of judges selecting one team) ultimately won first place overall. Their success came from better explanations and put more time on explaining their marketing plan and the use of framework supported the overall flow behind their rationale. They have a very specific marketing plan with clear target market and execution timeline and comprehensive plan using the 4P.
My Awesome Team (tysm for being so awesome) + Some Unfiltered Thoughts
I am very glad that my team has been so collaborative this year, like we just know each other, and we are able to work so well like puzzle pieces. We have such a strong team dynamic, and even though we didn’t end up as finalists, I still think the experience was absolutely awesome and our deliverables is definitely well done overall. I feel incredibly rewarded, just like I do with every case I work on—and on top of that, I made some amazing friends.
One thing I also found awesome is that they intentionally pick business in London to also help us if we in the future become a Western student get to know the community better. The owner of the business is also there to be one of the finalist judges. There is 10 judges in the final round
Also, I found this is great is that as participants we get to seek finalist presentation, allow us to learn from them.
The sponsors also introduced us to plenty of opportunities. It was great to hear them share insights into the fields of investment banking and consulting as seasoned professionals.
As for the pizza, there were plenty of options, but the line was honestly quite long. All teams just went the same time.
Conclusion
This experience taught me valuable lessons about presentation strategy, time management, and the importance of balancing analytical rigor with clear, concise communication. These insights will not only help me in future case competitions but also in my future business career. I definitely value this experience that Ivey High School Case Competition offers to me.