CAROLINA CASE CHALLENGE

April 13th-15th, 2023 | Chapel Hill, NC

Competition Rulebook

CONTENTS

• About the Challenge
• Team Application Guidelines
• Team Selection Process
• Team Anonymity
• Case Preparation Materials
• Case Challenge Format
• Case Submission & Deliverables
• Case Presentation Logistics
• Judges Evaluations
• Finalist Round
• Consequences for Rule Violation

About the Challenge

The Carolina Case Challenge (CCC) is hosted by the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The 2023 event will see teams from all across the nation competing in a full-day case competition. The organization and execution of the challenge is a joint effort between a student committee and the UNC Kenan-Flagler Undergraduate Business Program, with the Undergraduate Consulting Club as a sponsor. CCC presents an opportunity for students to showcase their problem-solving talents and to learn how students at other schools tackle real-world business challenges. The 2023 client sponsor is LoopHQ and firm sponsor is PwC.

1. Team Application Guidelines

• Applicants must be full-time undergraduate students of a participating school.
• Teams may have a maximum of two seniors or 4th year students.
• Student participants can be of any major or field of study.
• All team members must be available for full participation in the event. However, in the case that a team member is unable to participate due to an unexpected complication (e.g. illness), the team can compete with the remaining members. Substitutions or alternates may be considered by the executive committee.
• In the event that an entire team has to pull out of the event, a waitlist team will take their place in the competition.
• Participating schools are welcome to utilize campus resources (i.e. faculty members, staff advisors, or other students) to prepare for the event prior to competition day, but no communication will be permitted with the teams during the challenge itself. Once the case has been distributed, there is to be no external communication with individuals outside of the case team, student delegates, or CCC committee.

2. Team Anonymity

• To ensure anonymity of the teams and the impartiality of the judges, teams will not be known by their school name. Instead, teams will be referred to by their chosen team name. The team name should not have any reference to the team’s school, location, or other distinguishing characteristics.
• Team presentations and slide decks should not reference the team’s school, location, or other distinguishing characteristics.
• Team members should dress neutrally, with no indication of university affiliation in their outward appearance.

3. Case Preparation Materials  

Upon case release, students may use the following resources:

Materials Allowed & Provided:

• Four Copies of the Case
• Wi-Fi (see connection instructions)
• Flip Chart / Whiteboard with Markers

Materials Allowed, Not Provided:

• Calculators
• Four Laptops
• Pre-Prepared Research/Notes
• PowerPoint Deck Templates
• Accessing Password Protected Websites/Databases (Ex. Simply Analytics, Thomson Reuters, etc.)
• Access to File-Sharing Services (e.g. Google Drive, Dropbox) only permitted to share files between team members. External help or communication with persons outside of the team (about any topic, excepting emergencies), student delegate and CCC committee is strictly forbidden and will result in automatic disqualification.

4. Case Challenge Format

• The case will be distributed to every team at 9AM. Please see the event schedule for additional details.
• Each team will be assigned a study room for the 9-hour case challenge.  
• Teams will have 9 hours to prepare their solution to the case and submit their PowerPoint Deck in PDF format.
• Executive committee members will be available throughout the case preparation period for logistical questions only.

5. Case Submission & Deliverables

• Teams are expected to submit their slide decks by 6PM in PDF format to dishita_sen@kenan-flagler.unc.edu, and angelina_bayrak@kenan-flagler.unc.edu. 
• Remember to keep in mind fonts and transitions as you will be presenting through PDF format.  
• Presentations and materials must be prepared in English.
• Presentations may not indicate your university affiliation in any way.
• Teams are expected to produce slides, using Microsoft Office PowerPoint or similar software, in a 16:9 or 4:3 ratio, which outline their recommendation and supporting information. Teams should submit these slides in PDF format.

• Teams should also create a PDF copy of their slide deck, not including the appendix, for printing.
• Deliverables should follow the naming convention:

                        Slides (for presentation): “TeamName_Presentation_Deck.pdf”

                        Slides (for print): “TeamName_Print_Deck.pdf”

6. Case Presentation Logistics: First Round

• The presentation deck will be loaded before the team’s arrival at the presentation room and copies (not including the Appendix) will be printed for the judges.
• The print deck will be in black and white with 2 slides per page.
• The order in which teams will present is determined during the Welcome Event on Thursday night.
• Each team member must actively participate and speak during the team’s presentation.
• Visitors and faculty advisors are welcome to attend the team presentations.
• Team presentations should be 12 minutes long, followed by a 3 minute question and answer session, and a 5 minute judge feedback session. Should presentations finish early, the Q&A and feedback may fill the remaining time, but the 12 minute cutoff will be enforced, and total time per team will not exceed 20 minutes.
• There will be a timekeeper in each presentation room, alerting teams when there are 5 minutes remaining in the presentation and 1 minute remaining.

7. Judges Evaluations

• Case presentations will be made to a panel of judges composed of PwC representatives and the Loop HQ representative.
• All teams will participate in the first round of presentations, spread across five presentation rooms.
• The judges will evaluate teams based on the criteria outlined in the grading rubric. Please see grading rubric for additional information.
• One team will be selected from each presentation room to advance to the final round, for a total of 5 finalists.
• Judges will have the opportunity to provide the team and individual members feedback following the presentation.

8. Finalist Round

• Five teams will advance to the final round, one from each presentation room.
• Teams that advance to the final round will not be able to make any changes to their slide decks, though they are permitted to make adjustments to their verbal presentation based on judge feedback if desired.
• The order of presentations will be determined by a blind drawing when the finalists are announced.
• All other teams, visitors, and faculty advisors will attend the final round presentations. The presentations will last 12 minutes, followed by a 3 minute question and answer session.
• A timekeeper will alert teams when there are 5 minutes remaining in the presentation and 1 minute remaining.

Consequences for Rule Violation 

The Carolina Case Challenge Executive Committee reserves the right to disqualify any team that violates the rules outlined in this rulebook or for other inappropriate conduct.