Katie Cockburn, QUT Business School
What was the biggest challenge for you at BBICC 2018?
The biggest challenge was producing our best work within the stressful timeframes. When you’ve been working for 15 hours, it can become difficult to evaluate what is a good (or bad) idea. It was a steep learning curve! Overcoming this hurdle required great teamwork, negotiation, consideration and evaluation. What made it doable was the large amount of practice cases we did in the lead up to the competition. These practices meant we knew when we were on track, how everyone in the team worked and what was going to get us to the best outcome. I learnt a lot from my experiences at BBICC that I will apply in future cases and throughout my career.
What advice would you give to someone going to their first case competition or starting to solve cases?
BBICC was my first case and you should consider yourself very lucky if it is yours too! My best advice for beginners would be to make sure you understand the core question the case is asking you and that the solution you create provides an answer to that question. If you can do that you are well on your way to cracking the case. Once you get to your answer, I think the most important thing to do is explain your solution in the most logical and clear way. A strategy with 17 sub-points cannot be explained properly in a 15 minute presentation, you need to streamline your strategy. Once you’ve done that, you need to be continually asking yourself if your presentation will convey the information you want to convey to the judges. Most importantly, have fun! If you’re enjoying doing the case your enthusiasm will shine through in the presentation and the judges will be impressed.
What is the most interesting thing you learned about Serbia?
I really enjoyed learning about the Serbian startup ecosystem and how dedicated the decision makers are to innovation. It was exciting to hear about the inventive and creative ideas being developed in Belgrade. I think Serbia’s startups will be game changers over the coming years and I look forward to following how they disrupt traditional markets.