What was your most memorable experience during your case competition journey?

My most memorable experience was the Q&A in the final round of the NMCC 2019. Every team before us had been grilled heavily for their ideas but we actually received nods of approvals from the judges and received cheers from the audience. A huge concern raised by the judges to most of our competitors’ proposed solutions was about labour being replaced by automation. We knew that this topic had to be approached carefully so we constructed our solution and presented it in a way that was valuable, yet sensitive, to stakeholders. This taught me a lesson on the significance of change management. This is a concept that our professor always drives into us. As systems engineers, people are also part of the system and oftentimes, the critical cog in the wheel. Hence, it is critical to consider every stakeholder when proposing a solution.

What are your key takeaways from participating in case competitions?

I have a lot of takeaways and they are all really important lessons to me, but I guess if I have to talk about one, it's to work with multi-disciplinary teams as much as possible. These are the ones I struggle the most in, but they are a really great way to learn about your strengths and weaknesses as a student with an ISE background. Also, perhaps understanding who your target audience is and what their needs are. Defining the problem and knowing the size of the problem from the very start helps to structure my thoughts better too.

What was the greatest challenge you faced?

It would probably be the PSA Box Challenge 2019. Our proposal was a drone with a catch mechanism and the greatest challenge was to design and build it. Fortunately, we had mechanical engineers who used computer-aided design (CAD) to help us bring our ideas to life and I took on the more “business-ey” roles like developing use cases, supporting with numbers and pitching.

How did ISE prepare you for case competitions?

ISE has equipped me with a variety of skills and it really depends on how much you make out of it. I’ve used simulation, financial modelling, data analysis, supply chain models and operations research to bolster the team’s proposition in my past experiences. These are all taught in our curriculum and the key is really to understand what skills you can apply in each competition.

What are the most important skills for case competitions?

The most important skill is usually related to the subject matter knowledge of the competition. So, if you’re a finance student, you’re obviously going to have an advantage in a stock pitch. However, the skill that I find to be more important, but usually missing in many teams, is being able to work well in a diverse team. Getting a team of different disciplines to flow well can be considered to be the job of an ISE, and on the occasions that I manage to do this (I still fail, a lot), we usually come up with brilliant and unique solutions.

Can you elaborate on how an ISE student can help multidisciplinary teams work and flow well?

There are 2 facets to this — communication and management.

The first problem we face in many things, including group dynamics, is interoperating. Each discipline has their own views and their own “language” or jargon. So as an ISE student, we serve as the one that helps different disciplines communicate with each other by being diverse enough to understand what each of them is offering, translate it into easy to understand points and then find a way to put them all together. If I had to put it in simpler terms, ISE utilizes each person’s strengths efficiently and minimizes their weaknesses.

The second part would be management. In this case, ISE is well versed in project management, which is applicable in case competitions that are very time sensitive. You want to make sure that every team member is working close to full capacity on meaningful tasks and reduce bottlenecks.

The theory is simple but applying it practically is more challenging, and that’s what makes it more fun.

What is one advice that you would give to students who are contemplating joining case competitions? 

Join it! You get to learn more about yourself. Remember that you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. In fact, ISE Club organizes a Business Analytics Case Competition yearly. That’s a great place to start off and you can join with your course mates first!