The Kogod School of Business will bring its case competition back to campus this winter in a new format after last year’s competition was suspended. Students previously had to enter external competitions if they still wanted to compete.
Andrew Toczydlowski, Kogod's director of student development and services, said he headed the initiative to reformat the competition with different approaches for the three divisions: graduate students, freshmen and sophomores and juniors and seniors.
“Our hope is that with this new format, students will want to participate throughout their four to five years with us here in Kogod,” Toczydlowski said. “It’s going to be a different approach and a different company that we’re working with every year, making it a little more exciting.”
The original case competition gave students a situation at a company they needed to suggest a solution for four days before their initial presentation with the final round on the same day as their presentation. Toczydlowski said the new format will allow students to submit their presentation digitally, so they only need to be present in front of the judges for the final round if they are chosen.
The new format will also have live cases from participating companies, instead of theoretical ones, and will allow non-AU students to participate, Toczydlowski said.
Toczydlowski said he attended several outside case competitions to get inspiration for the changes. He decided to create a new format to make the competition more accessible and appealing to students after some did not return after their first competition.
“I [wanted] to remove barriers for participation with the franticness of students getting a case on a Tuesday and presenting potentially twice on a Saturday,” Toczydlowski said. “It was a lot of pressure, it was a lot of time.”
Rachel Fogg, a senior in Kogod, has participated in the case competition twice before as a freshman and sophomore. Fogg said she was disappointed to see the competition suspended last year, but she is looking forward to participating in the newly-formatted competition.
“What I really love about the case competition and the initiative that Kogod is piloting is the idea of experiential learning,” Fogg said. “The fact that they’ve integrated technology with a digital submission as well as being able to encounter other schools ... there’s different skill sets that you learn at different schools that we’re now going to have exposure to.”
Toczydlowski said registration for the case competition will open on Oct. 17 and close when the cases are released in January. The final round will take place next semester on Feb. 10.
