IFAMA Student Case Study Competition

Transcription

1 IFAMA Student Case Study Competition Minneapolis St Paul June 2015 Open to eligible UNE students. Applicants must address outlined selection criteria to be considered. Application deadline 19 January 2015.

2 IFAMA Student Case Study Competition The competition is part of IFAMA s Annual World Symposium and Forum occurring June 14-18, The Student Case Competition provides students an opportunity to showcase their skills for food and agribusiness to professionals attending the conference and offers universities an opportunity to showcase their students. The competition consists of teams who simulate a fast turn-around analysis and presentation to a senior management team on an industry hot topic. Team and Competition Structure E a c h t e a m w i l l h a v e a n A d v i s o r ( e i t h e r a c a d e m i c o r an i n d u s t r y m e m b e r o f I F A M A ) w h o w i l l b e t h e k e y p o i n t o f c o n t a c t b e t w e e n I F A M A a n d t h e t e a m p r i o r t o t h e c o m p e t i t i o n. A l l t e a m s w i l l g a t h e r b e f o r e t h e preliminary competition for a m e e t i n g o n S u n d a y, J u n e 1 4. E x a c t s t a r t t i m e s a n d c o m p l e t e d e t a i l s w i l l b e provided in advance of the conference. Teams will receive the case five hours prior to their assigned presentation time. They will have four hours from the time they receive their packet, to analyze the case, prepare a solution and create a PowerPoint presentation for the oral phase of the competition. Each team will present their solutions to a panel of industry and academic judges. It is expected that each team member will have comparable speaking roles and significantly contribute to their team s presentation. The presentation will be public but participating teams may not attend the presentations of other competing teams. Approximately 25 minutes will be allocated for each presentation, five m i n u t e s f o r s e t u p, 1 5 m i n u t e s a l l o t t e d f o r t h e p r e s e n t a t i o n, a n d f i v e m i n u t e s f o r a q u e s t i o n a n d a n s w e r period with the panel of judges. The panel of judges will judge each team based on their written documents, presentation, and responses to the judges questions. The top three-four teams selected by the judges will be invited to advance to a final round of the c o m p e t i t i o n. T h e a d v a n c i n g t e a m s w i l l b e g i v e n e i t h e r a s h o r t u p d a t e t o t h e c a s e o r a n e n t i r e l y n e w c a s e for analysis. As with the preliminary round, they will be expected to analyze the case and turn in the PowerPoint presentation. The final round will take place during the last session of the second day of the Symposium, on Tuesday, June 16, Twenty minutes will be allotted for the presentation and 10 minutes for question and answers. Teams may not attend the other team s presentation until after they have presented. Judges will assign scores based on the prepared reports, presentations, and responses to the judges questions. The winners of the Student Case Competition will be awarded a cash prize and be formally recognized during a primary IFAMA event. Judging Criteria Teams have been randomly assigned to competition groups in the Preliminary Round. Each competition group will consist of four to five teams. There will be three judges per competition group with two being from industry and one academic. Teams presentations will be judged based on the following criteria: Situation analysis students appreciation of the problem and its strategic implications Pragmatism appropriateness and applicability of the solution to the problem Creativity and originality of solution Quality of PowerPoint presentation Quality and professionalism of the oral presentation Effective responses to judges questions Inclusiveness of team members in the presentation 2

3 Competition Guidelines TEAM MEMBERS CANNOT COMMUNICATE WITH THEIR ADVISOR OR ANY OTHER PERSON WHO I S N O T O N T H E I R T E A M A F T E R T H E Y P I C K U P T H E I R C O M P E T I T I O N P A C K E T O N S U N D A Y A N D ON MONDAY (FOR FINAILISTS). The team advisor s role ends as soon as students pick up their competition packet. Team members will use only the case materials given to them, a laptop computer, and information available on the Internet. Team members should bring a laptop with wireless capability. Internet access will be provided by IFAMA. The use of software, including PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and other programs to develop the presentation is permitted. All members of the team are expected to assume comparable speaking roles. N o t e a m o r t e a m m e m b e r i s a l l o w e d t o b e p r e s e n t d u r i n g t h e p r e s e n t a t i o n s o f o t h e r t e a m s i n the Preliminary Round. Teams that do not make it to the Final Round are allowed to attend the Final Round presentations. A l s o, F i n a l R o u n d t e a m s m a y attend presentations that follow their own presentations but not ones that precede it. Teams and competitors are not allowed to disclose the identity of their team through their presentations, the display of school colours, hats, t-shirts, etc. It is advisable that team members be well-informed on current world events relating to agribusiness and the food industry. Monitoring and enforcement of the guidelines will primarily be through the honour system as well as by the Case Study Competition Committee and IFAMA Staff. Presentation Each team must submit its PowerPoint Presentation to the IFAMA Staff within 4 (four) hours of picking it up on Sunday The Presentation must use PowerPoint with a 12 (twelve) slide limit. The rules are the same for Preliminary and Final round. The judges will be given copies of the student team presentations prior to the presentations. The presentation that the teams hand in will be pre-loaded on the computer in the presentation room. No other presentation may be used. Technology Each team should bring at least one laptop and a USB-compatible memory device for use in preparing the case presentation. Presentations must be turned in on a USB compatible memory device. At a minimum, Microsoft PowerPoint should be installed on the laptop computer. The IFAMA Business Office will print the presentations for the judges. Teams should be prepared to use the written copies in case there is a technology failure.2 3

4 Application Process and Timing Firstly, thanks for showing interest in participating in the IFAMA Student Case competition for next year s conference in Minneapolis on June Rimfire s role will be to essentially coordinate the team (this involves coordinating the team, organising travel etc. and all of the administration tasks) a n d a l s o a r r a n g e some sponsorship for the team. Our goal is to fund the trip through corporate sponsorship, as well as the students through their individual university industry contacts. The cost per student will likely be between $4000-$4500 and the Rimfire contribution is aimed to cover around 50% of this cost. This will cover flights, accommodation, travel insurance and conference fees. As a participant and a team, you will be required to source the other 50% either from local agribusiness sponsors as well as possibly contributing some funds individually t h i s w i l l d e p e n d o n y o u r l o c a l f u n d r a i s i n g e f f o r t s a s t o h o w m u c h t h i s w i l l b e individually. You will also be responsible for funding your own spending money w h i l s t o n t h e t r i p. You will also be required to sign an indemnity waiver on behalf of Rimfire and UNE. In regards to travel, there will be a small degree of flexibility to provide variation to the travel plans for e a c h s t u d e n t. I n o t h e r w o r d s, i f y o u w a n t t o s p e n d e x t r a t i m e i n t h e U S after the conference, it will be at your cost and we will need to know well in advance so we can book all flights at once. A condition of b e i n g p a r t o f t h e t e a m i s t h a t y o u a l l t r a v e l t o g e t h e r t o t h e c o n f e r e n c e w h a t y o u d o a f t e r w a r d s i s u p t o you. Without puttin g i t t o o b l u n t l y, w e a r e l o o k i n g f o r t e a m m e m b e r s w h o a r e c o m m i tted to doing the best they can and who are not simply looking for a trip to the US to attend a conference. The team will be selected and coached by Derek Baker from UNE; he will be solely responsible for who is selected and the coaching of the team. Rimfire will run the application procedure and participate in the interview process but Derek will make the call on team selection. Timing will be as follows: Monday 19 th January 2015 Monday 27 th January Monday 9 th Friday 13 th Feb Monday 23 rd Feb Applications Close Applicants will be notified as to whether they were unsuccessful or successful. Successful candidates will be ed a Case study to prepare for their presentation. Student Presentations at UNE Team Selected March End of May June 11 th -20 th More regular case studies for the team. Off to Minneapolis. 4

5 Application Criteria Applications are required to include the following; A cover letter of no more than three (3) pages addressing the criteria below, and a current CV. Please submit both C V a n d C o v e r l e t t e r A S 1 D O C U M E N T t o m e b y e m a i l b y M o n d a y January We want you to convince us as to why you should be chosen. I n y o u r c o v e r l e t t e r, p l e a s e p r o v i d e a s u m m a r y o f y o u r e x p e r i e n c e & s k i l l s w h i l s t a d d r e s s i n g e a c h o f t h e following 7 Criteria: 1) Agri-food & agribusiness experience (provide examples); 2) Evidence of experience / strengths in one or more of the following areas- Financial Analysis, Economics, Market Analysis, Marketing, Accounting Value Chain Management, Agribusiness Strategy; 3) Previous case study analysis experience; 4) Evidence of working in a Team; 5) Oral Presentation experience; 6) Ability to work under pressure; 7) P l e a s e p r o v i d e a b r i e f o v e r v i e w ( p a r a g r a p h ) o f t h e k e y i s sues that agribusinesses (including production agriculture, consumers, retailer s a n d o t h er chain participants and think globally, not just locally) will face in the next 20 years. We are looking forward to potentially working with you on this exciting opportunity and wish you the best of luck in the selection process and thanks for wanting to be part of this process. If you have any queries or questions, please Nigel Crawley at ncrawley@rimfireresources.com.au o r c o n t a c t D e r e k directly. 5