Dose of Prose
Over the last couple weeks I’ve been participating in a business case competition challenge. During this challenge, I took on the role of a “management consultant” with a team of my peers, where we were presented with information about a company – it was our job to help the company solve its problems. For those who aren’t familiar with consulting, its an area in business where organizations hire consultants to advise, provide strategies and develop business plans for them to help improve their performance. In this case competition, although I pretended to be a consultant, the company I consulted for was real and we had to provide evidence, research-based solutions.
What made this a challenge, however, was the fact that we had to produce this strategy within a span of 24 hours. Imagine if one day you were given a 80 page slide deck about an industry you were unfamiliar with, with information about a company you’ve never heard of and you had to provide a solution for how that company should expand its business to international markets the next day in front of a panel of judges who grilled you with questions afterwards. Yeah…not easy.
What a Business Case Competition Taught Me
The competition had multiple ’rounds’ where the first round we had to come up with a 5 minute presentation that answered a multitude of questions. The following round was a bit more intensive, where we had to create a 10 minute video presentation answering another slew of in-depth questions. To my pleasant surprise, not only did our team make it to the finalist round, but we ended up winning the entire competition, where we were up against other schools from across the country! I am so proud of this accomplishment and am grateful to have had this opportunity. Although I experienced a few sleepless nights, lots of stress and bouts of self-doubt, I’m glad that I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and ultimately, I feel rewarded for my hard work.
This blog post is not me bragging about my accomplishments or complaining about how hard something was that I volunteered myself to do. I felt called to share this experience because I learned and gained some invaluable skills/knowledge that I feel would be insightful to share with you. After completing this case competition and from my many years in business school (undergrad and grad), I have realized that there are a few key characteristics that I feel everyone needs to be successful, not only in the business world but also in your personal life. In today’s post, I going to highlight 4 skills that everyone, especially young professionals, needs to achieve success in their careers and managing businesses overall.
1) Efficient and Effective Teamwork
I’ve been doing group projects for the last decade, which means that I’ve worked with all types of people, personalities and cultures. It takes a special skill to be able to collaborate with and/or delegate tasks to others, especially those from diverse backgrounds who may have different ways of thinking than you do. Having the ability to create synergy among those differences and play to the strengths of others is necessary for any position. The more you know how to work well in a group, the better the group can collectively perform. It’s a win-win situation for everyone!
2) Critical Thinking
Everybody in life has or will experience a problem, big or small. How you react, adapt and solve that problem heavily depends on your ability to quickly assess situations as well as develop and apply creative solutions without significant outside influence. During this case competition, we were thrown a lot of curveballs and were forced to think on our feet, which I believe is an essential skill that everyone needs. It’s not about your answer to a question or your solution to a problem, but rather, it’s about how you arrived at that conclusion that matters the most. This process of problem solving will undoubtedly make you stand out in the business world.
3) Clear, Concise and Consistent Communication
Part of this competition involved giving presentations, communicating with my team, speaking with the client and reflecting on our experiences with all the judges and other participants. I’ve never enjoyed public speaking, but the more that I’m forced to do it, the better I get at it. In fact, my strong written and verbal communication skills is something that now others give me praise for. It can be difficult to present complex information in a way that is brief and easy to understand, yet it is a fundamental, critical factor in the workplace. Whether you work for yourself, with others or don’t work at all, communication (in all forms) will be around indefinitely, there’s no way to avoid it. Ultimately, it is imperative to say what you want to say in a clear, concise and consistent way.
4) Analytical Research
For those who may or may not know, in addition to graduate school, I also do freelance work, which consists of research, data analysis and writing for finance and legal organizations. Every aspect of business as well as any management or decision-making you do in your life will require you to find information, review that information and recognize patterns or outliers in the information. Research and analysis skills play a significant role in any position and if you ever have the opportunity to hone in on those skills, I encourage you to do so.
Practice Makes Perfect
I hope this blog post was helpful. Whether you are newly entering the workplace, pivoting in your careers or building your personal brand, I believe anyone can benefit from these skills. Some of these skills develop overtime with practice and experience, while others you have to actively seek and acquire them. Dedicating the time and effort to improve yourself in these areas, however, will maximize your chances of succeeding in whatever position you’re in (regardless of your field of interest). What are some transferable skills that you feel have helped you move forward on your career journey? Leave a comment and let me know.
