Series Preface

Series Preface

This series of manuals represents my attempt to capture, organise, and share more than 20 years of experience coaching case-solving teams at regional, national, and international competitions. It is also the culmination of a year-long sabbatical and the first year and a half of my retirement, a period where I have had the opportunity to step back, reflect, and bring together the materials, lessons, and experiences accumulated over two decades of coaching and teaching.

During that time, I have had the privilege of coaching hundreds of teams, working with students from a wide range of programs and backgrounds, and observing what separates teams that simply solve a case from those that solve it exceptionally well. I have also learned through teaching in the classroom, judging competitions, mentoring students, and, perhaps most importantly, watching teams succeed, struggle, recover, adapt, and improve. Much of what I learned originally existed in different forms: lecture materials, coaching notes, presentation slides, Excel models, exercises, examples, competition experiences, and countless conversations with students. These manuals bring those resources together into a more organised and accessible system.

I have also used ChatGPT as a tool to help compile, organise, refine, and structure many of the materials I developed over the years. The ideas, frameworks, approaches, examples, and experiences reflected throughout these manuals are grounded in that accumulated body of work and in the lessons I have learned through coaching and teaching. The result is a series of five manuals designed to support the development of case-solving skills, from the fundamentals of solving and presenting a case to the deeper analytical, financial, and judgment-based skills required for more complex challenges.

The First Two Manuals: Building the Foundation

The first two manuals are designed to help students and new teams build a strong foundation quickly.

• The first manual introduces the overall case-solving process: deciphering the case, understanding the problem, analysing the situation, developing alternatives, making a recommendation, and building an implementation plan.
• The second manual focuses on communication. A strong solution only creates value if the team can explain it clearly and persuasively. This manual explores how to turn good thinking into a compelling presentation through story, slide design, delivery, teamwork, and Q&A.

Together, these first two manuals are designed to answer a fundamental question: What do we need to know to start solving and presenting cases effectively? They provide the structure. The remaining manuals build the depth.

The Final Three Manuals: Going Deeper

The final three manuals take a deeper dive into the skills behind strong case solving. Rather than simply introducing the steps of the process, they explore the thinking tools, analytical techniques, financial skills, and specialised perspectives that help teams produce stronger insights and make better decisions.

The third manual is a practical toolkit for case-solving teams. It develops the thinking skills behind exceptional performance and explores a broader range of analytical tools for understanding organisations, industries, markets, customers, stakeholders, strategic choices, implementation challenges, and the communication needed to win the room. The fourth manual focuses on financial analysis and Excel mastery. It explores how financial information can be used to diagnose the current situation, evaluate opportunities, model recommendations, assess investments, test assumptions, and turn numbers into meaningful business insights. The fifth manual moves beyond the traditional business case into special topics and more complex decision environments. It examines situations where financial and strategic analysis alone may not tell the whole story, including sustainability, stakeholder considerations, not-for-profits, social enterprises, business ethics, implicit bias, and complex trade-offs.

Together, these final three manuals are intended to answer a different question: How can we develop the depth of analysis, thinking, and judgment required to solve more complex cases?

More Than a Collection of Frameworks

One of the most important lessons I have learned through coaching is that successful case solving is not about knowing the most frameworks. It is about knowing which questions need to be answered and which tools can help answer them.

• A framework is useful when it helps a team see something it might otherwise miss.
• A financial model is useful when it helps determine whether a recommendation is financially credible.
• A stakeholder analysis is useful when it reveals an important conflict, opportunity, or implementation risk.
• A valuation model is useful when the team needs to understand what an organisation, investment, or opportunity may be worth.
• A sensitivity analysis is useful when it shows whether a recommendation remains attractive when important assumptions change.

The objective is not to use every tool available. It is to develop the judgment to know which tool matters, when it matters, and what to do with the insight it produces. That principle runs throughout the entire series: The goal is not to collect tools. The goal is to develop judgment.

A Record of What I Have Learned

These manuals are also personal. They represent lessons accumulated through more than two decades of coaching and working with case-solving teams.

• Some lessons came from podium finishes and exceptional performances.
• Others came from teams that struggled.
• Some came from watching a particular approach work remarkably well.
• Others came from seeing a team make a mistake and realising there was a better way.

Over the years, the things I valued most about case competitions include:

• Every case teaches you something.
• Every team teaches you something. 
• Every judge teaches you something.
• Every competition creates another opportunity to learn.

These manuals are my attempt to capture some of those lessons and make them available to a broader group of students, competitors, coaches, and aspiring professionals. I hope they help readers avoid some of the mistakes I have seen over the years, develop stronger habits more quickly, and become more confident and capable problem solvers.

How to Use the Series

The five manuals are designed to work together, but they are not intended to be read from beginning to end every time you solve a case. Use the first two manuals to understand the overall case-solving and presentation process. Use the final three manuals as deeper learning and reference guides when you need to strengthen a particular skill, apply a specific analytical tool, improve your financial reasoning, or prepare for a more complex case. Return to individual chapters when you practise.

• Use the examples to see how concepts can be applied.
• Use the drills and reflection questions to challenge your thinking.
• Use the checklists when preparing for competition.
• Use the accompanying Masterclass videos to reinforce and extend what you learn.

Most importantly, take the ideas from the manuals and put them into your practice environment.

Test Them → Adapt Them → Make Mistakes With Them → Get Feedback → Try Again

Case solving is a skill, and like any skill, it improves through repetition, reflection, feedback, and deliberate practice. These manuals are designed to support that process, not replace it.

Finally

I have learned an enormous amount from the students and teams I have had the privilege of coaching over the past 20-plus years.

• Their questions have challenged my thinking.
• Their mistakes have shown me what needs to be explained differently.
• Their successes have demonstrated what is possible.

Their persistence has reinforced one of the most important lessons case competitions can teach: You do not become a great case solver by knowing everything. You become one by learning how to think, how to adapt, and how to make good decisions when you do not have all the answers. That is ultimately what these five manuals are designed to help you do.

Decipher the problem. Ask better questions. Use the right tools. Make better decisions. Communicate with confidence. Keep learning.

It's time to start your journey to Discovering Your MAD Skills.