Search Results

PART IX: Effective Speaking Under Pressure Case competitions do not reward perfect conditions. They test what happens when: time is tight; the room feels unfamiliar; a teammate makes a mistake; a judge challenges your reasoning; you f...

PART V: Developing Alternatives Once the team understands the problem and has developed meaningful insights, the next question is: What could the organisation actually do? This is where many case solutions become weaker. Teams often jump from analysis directl...

PART XI: The Close The final slide does not mean the presentation is over. Your close is the last opportunity to reinforce the problem, recommendation, and impact before the judges begin testing your thinking. Done well, it brings the presentation full circle...

PART XII: The Presentation Structure A strong case solution still needs to be understood. Once the analysis is complete, the alternatives have been evaluated, and the recommendation has been developed, your team must decide how to communicate the solution as ...

PART X: Building the Presentation A strong case solution does not automatically become a strong case presentation. Once the strategy is developed, your team must make another series of decisions: What does the audience need to understand, believe, and remembe...

PART IX: Future Considerations Strong case teams often generate more good ideas than they can—or should—recommend. Some ideas may be strategically attractive but depend on capabilities that do not yet exist. Others may require additional investment, research,...

PART VIII: Risk & Mitigation Every recommendation involves uncertainty. The goal of a strong case solution is not to pretend that risk can be eliminated. It is to demonstrate that your team understands what could prevent the recommendation from succeeding and...

PART VII: Implementation A recommendation tells the organisation what it should do. Implementation explains how it will actually happen. This is where strategy becomes execution. A strong implementation plan demonstrates that your team has thought beyond the ...

PART VI: Recommendation Strong case solving ultimately leads to a decision. After deciphering the case, analysing the situation, and evaluating alternatives, your team must determine what the organisation should actually do. A strong recommendation is more th...

PART IV: Analysis: Frameworks Are Optional One of the most important lessons for developing case-solving judgment is that you do not have to use a framework. Frameworks are tools, not requirements. Sometimes a framework will help you see something that would ...

PART X: Q&A The presentation does not end when the final slide appears. Q&A is where judges test the depth behind the presentation. They may challenge your assumptions, calculations, alternatives, recommendation, implementation plan, risk analysis, or underst...

PART III: Build The Case-Solving Architecture Once you have deciphered the case and understood the organisation, you need a structure for turning that understanding into a decision. Case solving can feel chaotic. There is information everywhere. There are...

PART II: Decipher The Case Before you can solve a case, you need to understand what you are actually trying to solve. This sounds obvious. It isn't. One of the biggest mistakes case-solving teams make is starting their analysis too quickly. They see a famili...

PART I: Discover Your Mad Skills Mindset Before learning frameworks, financial models, presentation techniques, or specific case-solving tools, there is something more fundamental to develop: the mindset of a case solver. Case competitions are not simply tes...

Emeritus Professor | Coach & Mentor to Aspiring Professionals | Helping the Next Generation Discover Their “Mad Skills” © 2026 Discover Your Mad Skills Toolkit

PART XIV: The MAD Skills Presentation Test Before you compete, ask the following: 1. Clarity: Can the judges understand our solution? 2. Relevance: Does every major piece of content matter? 3. Logic: Does the evidence lead logically to the recommendation? ...

PART XIII: Discover Your MAD Skills Presentation Checklist Decipher Do we understand the audience? Do we understand the decision? Do we understand the case characteristics? Do we know what the judges need to believe? Have we decided what does not need ...

PART XII: Practice You have built the argument. You have designed the deck. You know the story. You have prepared the delivery and anticipated the questions. Now you need to make it work under competition conditions. Practice is not simply repeating the prese...

PART XI: Building the Deck A strong deck is not built by starting at Slide 1 and working forward. It is built by making a series of communication decisions in the right order. The goal is to move from: Case → Message → Story → Evidence → Slides → Delivery T...

PART XIII: Discover Your MAD Skills Case-Solving Checklist Before submitting your presentation, work through the following. Decipher Do we understand what the case is really asking? Have we identified the central problem? Have we separated symptoms from...