What students do
Teams get a case on a small business, weigh the numbers against the tradeoffs, and recommend a decision to a panel. Judges are not looking for one right answer; they watch how a team thinks and works together. Cases come in tiers, from numbers-provided to figure-out-what-you-even-need, drawn from a growing bank across five recurring businesses.
The skill it builds
Judgment. Turning messy, incomplete facts into one clear, defensible recommendation, naming the assumption it rests on, and standing behind it under questioning.
Find the one number that decides it.
Most beginners drown in the packet. The move is to find the single number that actually settles the call, a contribution, a loss, a break-even, do the math, and write it big where the whole team can see it. Everything else is support.
- See the real decisionWhat is actually at stake, not the surface question.
- Do the mathOne number usually decides it. Find it, then defend it.
- Name the assumptionSay plainly what would change your answer.
Fair, and the same shape every time.
Four criteria, 25% each. The clean shape every program shares.
Do you see the real decision and what is actually at stake?
Did you find the one number that decides it, and do the math?
Does everyone contribute, listen, and build on each other's ideas?
Is your recommendation clear, and do you know what would change it?