The world's first global, virtual case

competition for high school students!

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Table of Contents

4 INTRODUCTION
What is a case competition? How is TGCC structured?

6 COMPETITION JOURNEY
What happens next?

7 KEY DATES
Calendar reminders

8 PRIZES
Information on global,regional, individual, and ELL prizes

9 DECK AND PRESENTATION CRITERIA

Deck requirements, presentation criteria, and judgng rubrics

13 APPROACHING THE CASE

Time organization and live presentation tips

16 PRE-COMPETITION PREPARATION
Advice to maximize time before the case release!
SECTION A
 Introduction
What is a case
competition?
A team of students is supplied with a
business scenario of a real company facing
challenges. Students step into the shoes of
management consultants to identify the
most prominent issues and craft a
solution. Each team has a certain amount
of time to develop a strategy to address
the key issues and present them to a team
of judges. The team that presents the best
solution wins the competition.
Here is a condensed version of the 2020
TGCC Global Round case study:
(full version available for download at:
https://www.casecomp.org/2020)
Case study
Sony is launching its highly anticipated
“Playstation 5” on 12th November 2020,
likely to much global fanfare. The Board
and Executives are seeking to develop a
strategy to ensure its successful launch
and monetization while positioning Sony
for future financial strength.
Challenge
Develop a business plan for Sony’s game &
network services segment to find new
ways to keep customers loyal and
dedicated, all while continuing to
monetize this base in between console
releases.
Winning strategies require attention to
detail, creativity, and business acumen.
While competition formats differ around
the world, the essence is for students to
emulate industry practices and apply
technical knowledge. Case teams must be
able to work as a unit to present a cohesive
recommendation to a mock board of
directors who judge their work.
Big corporations and startups alike need
skilled problem-solvers. Case competitions
are the perfect stepping stones to a career
in any industry; TGCC is the perfect
opportunity for ambitious high school
students to develop their skills and apply
their academic knowledge beyond the
classroom.
What is the structure
of TGCC?
TGCC 2021 takes place in August and
September 2021. Competitors join in
teams of 2, 3, or 4. The competition
features a regional qualifying and a
global final round.
Students are given a specific amount
of time to:
identify the most prominent
challenges or opportunities,
work as a virtual team,
craft a solution,
and submit their strategies.
04
Why enter a case
competition in high school?
TGCC offers competitors the opportunity to collaborate with other students
from around the world while representing their country and region.

Explore industries of interest and gain a head start in consulting as a high

school student

Practice overcoming theoretical challenges and develop analytical skills

Work with peers at the regional round and meet new, highly motivated
people at the global round

Compete as the representative of your region and country

Win amazing internships and opportunities in the regional and global rounds

Develop an exceptional achievement for university applications

"I think TGCC has been really life-changing for me

because it taught me that I need to do business,
and I'm suitable for it. The doors it opened for me
allowed me to accelerate my passions to a
– AHAD
professional level and I wholeheartedly
recommend every student to participate!"

– AHAD
TGCC 2020 Global Winner

05
Competition
Journey
STEP 1: REGISTER

+ Gather a team (of 2-4)

+ Choose team leader

+ Head to www.casecomp.org to register

+ The team leader registers and pays for entire team

+ Additional team members complete their registration

STEP 2: PREPARE

+ Attend world-class virtual webinars and workshops;

prepare to work as a team to present your solutions to
global business leaders

+ The webinar and workshop schedule will be released soon!

STEP 3: COMPETE - REGIONAL

+ Identify, strategize and develop solutions for the

challenges of a real business

+ Work virtually as a team to "crack the case" —

evaluate a problem, construct a solution and
create a presentation over seven days TGCC really helped me realize
that it's so much more than a
+ Submit your team's deck for evaluation, following
competition. I came here as one
a rubric
of the least experienced people
in my group, and now, I think I'm
STEP 4: PRESENT - REGIONAL at par with everyone here in
terms of what I can do.
+ The top 10 teams in each region are invited to
present virtually to a panel of industry experts
– SIDDHANT
+ The top two teams in each region qualify for the 2020 TGCC
global finals in September!
Global Winner
STEP 5: COMPETE - GLOBAL

+ Same competition requirements as the

regional round, but each team has 48 hours to
"crack the case"

+ All Global Competitors will present to a live

panel of industry experts

06
Key Dates
JUNE Early Bird Registrations

1st Early Bird Registrations open

30th Early Bird Registrations close

JULY Regular Registrations

1st Regular Registrations open

24th - 31st Global webinars (open to all students)

AUGUST Preparation and Regional Qualifying Rounds

3rd Registrations close

5th - 25th Regional workshops to prepare for the regional round

6th Case release

7th Live Q&A w/case partner

14th Regional case submissions due

21st Top 10 regional finalists announced

28th - 29th Top two teams per region will proceed to the global finals

SEPTEMBER Global Final Round

1st - 4th Global workshops (open to all students)

9th Global case released

11th Global case submissions due
12th Global case presentations
15th Winners announced

After Competition: Mentorship

Winners and finalists access exclusive
internships, mentorships, and one-on-one
meetings with industry executives 07
Competition Prizes

2021 Global Prizes

Internship at PwC

Mentorship with Mentorship with Mentorship with

Jamie Beaton, Alex Robertson, Vikas Pershad,
CEO, President, Portfolio Manager,
Crimson Education Tiger Management M&G Investments

US$1000 cash US$1500 cash US$500 cash

US$1500 Crimson US$2000 Crimson US$1000 Crimson

mentorship credit mentorship mentorship credit per
per person credit per person person

Regional Prizes
The regional prizes will vary depending on the region. The best three teams from each
region will receive a small prize to celebrate their achievements.

Best Individual Speaker

Every speaker who participates in the global round will be marked on their manner and
contributions during the Q&A. The individual determined to be the best speaker will be
recognized.
–
Best ELL Team
In addition to the above prizes, all teams from an ELL (English Language Learner)
background will be eligible to A Hwin
A D the prize for Best ELL Team.
A team may be classified as ELL if 50% or more of the speakers each meet all of the
following requirements:
They are not from a family that speaks English as a first language;
Their social interactions have not primarily been in English with individuals who speak
English as their first language; and,
They have not spent more than one year of their primary or secondary schooling in an
education system in which English is the language of instruction.

What is ELL? Click here for ELL definition.

Rising Star Team

The youngest team (by average birthyear) amongst the 10 global finalist teams will be 08
recognized with this award
 Deck &
Presentation Criteria

DECK CRITERIA

Regional Qualifying slide decks must be created in Google Slides and

submitted in PDF.

The top 10 PDF submissions from each region will submit the native Google
Slides for the live presentation round. These must be the exact same slides -
DO NOT CREATE SLIDES IN POWERPOINT OR ANOTHER PROGRAM.

Global Final slide decks must be created in Google Slides and submitted
directly in Google Slides.

Decks can be a maximum of 10 Google Slides, excluding the appendix

and title slides.

An appendix may be included in slides after the presentation and can

contain additional market research or models that can be referred to
during the presentation and Q&A. The appendix itself will not be marked.
Each team may have a maximum of five (5) appendix slides. Any slides in
the appendix after the 5th will be discarded.

PRESENTATION CRITERIA

Regional and global rounds

Each team will have 10 minutes to present their strategy and

solutions. Anything said beyond this time limit will be disregarded.

After each team’s presentation, there will be five minutes of Q&A

from the judging panel. These questions will directly relate to the
team’s proposal and test their understanding of business concepts
and the case study itself.

Each team will be given a mark for the 10-minute presentation and a
mark for responses during the five-minute Q&A session. The winning
teams will be determined by the sum of these two marks.

09
Judging Rubric

Each slide deck will be judged

on the following metrics:

Each team will receive a mark for their live presentation, if invited
to present at the regional and/ or global live presentations:

10
Therefore, in the live presentation rounds at regionals and globals,
teams will be awarded a total mark that is the sum of their slide deck
and speaking marks.

11
SECTION B
Approaching
The Case

It is possible to feel overwhelmed by the amount of information you

learn about a new case. How do you even begin? Which problem
should you solve, and what stakeholders should you consider?

When overwhelmed: Simplify

Perform a thorough diagnosis of the key challenges the

business is experiencing

Propose the most efficient strategies to solve the current

challenges

Explain how the strategies will be implemented, including

financial projections of costs and revenues

Support all points with data and evidence, and clarify

assumptions with rationale

In the regional round, each team will have approximately seven

days to accomplish all four goals. To achieve these goals in a short
time span, teams will need to allocate their time efficiently.

In the global round, teams have 48 hours from case release to

presenting, meaning there is very little room for error.

Fast and efficient work is key.

13
 Guideline for Time Organization
Step 1: Understanding the case
Generally, this time should not be used
for discussion, except to ensure that
everyone understands the case in the
beginning. Each team member analyzes
the current state of the business and its
problems. Tools such as a SWOT analysis
(Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities,
Threats) can be useful.
Step 2: Discussion time
Share initial thoughts and insights.
Ensure that every team member
understands the company's situation
and challenges.
Step 3: Diagnosis of issues
As a team, choose one or two issues to
address. In some cases pressing issues
can be identified immediately; in others,
the business in question may appear to
be doing fine. The first step is to choose
and justify which issues should be
prioritized over others. A market study
can be necessary to determine whether
growth opportunities exist or why growth
is stunted. Remember to link the issues
to tangible impact on the business.
Step 4: Strategy brainstorm
If the team has chosen more than one
issue, an option is to break into smaller
groups for more efficient use of time.
Brainstorm as many focused, results-
driven ideas for solving the problem as
possible.
Step 5: Strategy implementation
Carefully consider the difficulty of
implementation, risk involved, and short-
or long-term impacts of each strategy, to
narrow down which to develop. Keep the
strategy concise, no ‘fluffing it up’, judges
will see right through! Consider different
stages of implementation and possibly
different components that serve slightly
different purposes. Put everything on a
timeline in the presentation.
Step 6: Financial projections
Most business leaders think in financial
terms, so this is the chance to prove that
the monetary benefits of the proposed
strategies outweigh the costs. Remember
to not only consider the forecasts where
everything goes to plan – forecast the
sensitivity of outputs to changes in inputs.
Although accuracy is always good, don’t
get trapped into thinking every dollar must
be forecasted – the uncertainty of future
circumstances allows for a fair bit of
creative license.
Step 7: Putting it all together
As each aspect of the presentation comes
together, collate the information and
create a deck and script. Even though the
script will only be useful in the live
presentations, it is more efficient to write it
simultaneously with the pitch deck. We
suggest splitting the presentation up, and
then individually rehearsing. When
everyone is ready, make sure you have
time to run through it a couple of times
under timed conditions.
14
Live Presentation Tips

The presentation aspect of the competition is crucial and must not be

overlooked – judges don’t assess performance during the prepping time,
they only see the final product!

Be confident! Remember you are proposing ideas to business managers, and

cannot expect them to be confident in your ideas if you cannot sell them
yourself.

Although judging does not officially start until the presentation begins, it’s a
good idea to make a good first impression on the adjudicators by introducing
yourselves to them as you enter, in line with good consulting practice.

Simplicity is key — try and make slides visual and simple. Diagrams are
usually more effective than words.

All team members must speak at some point during the presentation. It’s a
good idea to split it up as evenly as possible. Often, teams will work with a
double speaker setup; this involves having two people speak at a time and
splitting up the sections of the presentation in a way that accommodates
this.

Ensure all team members are engaged with the presentation the entire time,
even when not speaking! This often involves smiling and maintaining a
reasonable amount of eye contact with the judges. It’s easy to let your mind
and eyes wander when it’s not your turn, but with only four people to look at,
this is often distracting for the judges!

The team member speaking will be responsible for indicating “next slide”,
ensure these transitions are rehearsed for a smooth delivery

Keep track of time! You will have a time warning at 2:00 minutes and :30
seconds as the time draws to a close, and you will be stopped after your
allotted time is up.

15
Preparing in the lead-
up to the competition

Due to the nature of TGCC, there is very

little time after the case is released to develop
a highly compelling strategy. However, reading business news and other
business-related websites before the case is released can help further
one’s understanding of how the business world works. Here are some
recommended readings and research areas:

Industry reports

Industry reports are periodical publications that discuss the current state
of individual industries. These reports are great to learn vocabulary and
identify relevant industry-specific trends. There is no guarantee that the
industry will be the industry featured in the case competition, but
learnings will be helpful across the board.

Some suggested publications: Bloomberg, Investopedia, Harvard Business

Review, McKinsey Insights, and Seeking Alpha.

Practice strategic thinking

Start by crafting solutions for everyday life challenges. Notice something

that bothers you? Pinpoint what it is and think of simple ways of solving it.
A creative, problem-solving mindset can be developed and perfected to
the point where it comes naturally in the prep room.

Current affairs

Check the news at least twice a week, especially business news.

This can be found by clicking on the business section of all major news
outlets or going to Yahoo Finance to keep up to date with mergers and
IPOS. Yahoo Finance also offers the option to follow the performance of
individual businesses, so treat these as mock case studies and analyze
their decisions!

16
 This manual is the key to
understanding the structure
of the competition.
 Best of luck with your case
competition — give it everything
you’ve got, and above all, enjoy it!

OFFICIAL SPONSOR PRINCIPAL PARTNER POWERED BY

www.casecomp.org info@casecomp.org /globalcasecomp /globalcasecomp