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Episode 63: Deciphering Cases: The Problem Isn't Time. It's Focus.

"Time doesn't create clarity. Strategic choices do."

Over the past few weeks, I've been working with a team preparing for the Sydney International Business Competition. It's a demanding competition.

Teams tackle two cases:

  • A 6-hour case culminating in a 10-minute presentation and 10 minutes of Q&A.

  • A 24-hour case culminating in a 15-minute presentation and 15 minutes of Q&A.

Whenever teams hear those presentation times, the reaction is almost always the same.

"How are we supposed to fit everything in?"

Most coaches call this a time management problem. I don't. I think it's a strategic decision problem.

More Time Doesn't Solve the Problem

I've coached hundreds of case teams over the past two-plus decades, and I've noticed something interesting. Give a team twenty minutes instead of ten, and most won't become more persuasive. They'll add more content.

  • More analysis.

  • More slides.

  • More frameworks.

  • More recommendations.

The presentation gets longer, but it rarely gets clearer. That's because the real challenge isn't deciding what to include. It's deciding what to leave out.

Every Case Contains More Problems Than You Can Solve

Businesses are messy. Every organisation has dozens of challenges.

  • Falling market share.

  • Weak customer loyalty.

  • Operational inefficiencies.

  • Employee turnover.

  • Poor digital capabilities.

  • Supply chain issues.

  • Financial pressures.

The temptation is to address every one of them. After all, you've spent hours uncovering these insights. It feels wasteful to leave them out.

But judges aren't rewarding teams for identifying the largest number of problems. They're rewarding teams for solving the right one.

Find the Root Cause

One of the biggest mistakes I see is teams treating symptoms as independent problems.

Imagine a company with declining sales. The team identifies:

  • weak marketing,

  • declining customer satisfaction,

  • employee turnover,

  • outdated technology, and

  • increasing costs.

The presentation becomes five disconnected workstreams. But what if all of those stem from one underlying issue?

Perhaps the company has lost clarity about its target customer. Now everything starts to connect.

  • Marketing messages become unfocused.

  • Products no longer solve the right customer problems.

  • Employees don't understand priorities.

  • Technology investments become reactive instead of strategic.

  • Sales decline because the business is trying to be everything to everyone.

Instead of proposing five separate initiatives, the team can build one coherent strategy that addresses the root cause while naturally improving many of the downstream issues. That's a much stronger story. And judges remember stories.

Less Really Is More

One of the hardest coaching conversations I have is telling teams to remove slides. Not because the slides are bad. Because they're unnecessary.

Every slide should answer one question:

Does this help explain or solve the root cause?

If the answer is no, it probably doesn't belong in the presentation. That doesn't mean the work was wasted. It means you've done the analysis necessary to make an informed decision about what matters most.

Great presenters don't show everything they know. They demonstrate that they know what matters.

Trust the Q&A

Many teams worry that if they don't discuss every issue, judges will assume they missed it. In my experience, the opposite is often true. When judges see a clear, focused strategy, they're naturally curious about the implications.

  • "What about implementation risk?"

  • "How does this affect operations?"

  • "Did you consider employee adoption?"

  • "What happens if customer demand changes?"

These aren't signs that your presentation was incomplete. They're opportunities. You've created space for a conversation.

In competitions like the Sydney International Business Competition, the Q&A is substantial, 10 minutes for each of the cases. That's plenty of time to demonstrate the depth of your analysis.

You don't have to answer every question before it's asked.

Sometimes the best strategy is to answer the most important question exceptionally well and let the judges guide the rest of the discussion.

The Same Principle Applies in Business

This lesson extends far beyond case-solving competitions. Executives don't persuade boards by listing every challenge facing the organisation.

  • Consultants don't impress clients by presenting every analysis they completed.

  • Entrepreneurs don't convince investors by trying to solve every problem at once.

  • The best leaders make difficult choices.

  • They identify the critical issue.

  • They align people around solving it.

  • They communicate with clarity.

Because strategy is as much about deciding what not to do as it is deciding what to do.

One Final Thought

The next time you find yourself saying, "We don't have enough time," ask a different question.

What if the problem isn't time? What if we simply haven't decided what's most important?

When you have absolute clarity about the root cause, your presentation becomes simpler.

  • Your recommendations become stronger.

  • Your story becomes easier to follow.

  • And your audience is far more likely to remember it.

Sometimes, winning isn't about saying more. It's about having the confidence to say less.

Stay curious. Stay uncomfortable.

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