Graduate Natural & Organic Case Competition

How it works

This is a multi-school competition with the final round taking place in a single day in-person live event during which two teams from each participating school have the opportunity to present their solution to this year's case to an audience of judges and other industry professionals. Between four and eight teams will advance to the final round, depending on the total number of teams competing.

Each participating school will select two teams to send to the finals, which will be held in person at the Leeds School of Business in Boulder, CO. Participating schools can hold their own internal preliminary round or use another method to select teams to send to the finals. If hosting a preliminary round, Leeds will supply a case for that purpose. The preliminary round case will not be related to the final round case and work done to present for the preliminary round will not be directly applicable to the finals. 

The final round case will be a new case, and will be made available to competing teams two weeks prior to the event. The final round will take place in person at a live event at the Leeds School of Business in Boulder, CO on January 21, 2022 with a panel of 3-5 judges and an audience.

To ensure fairness, teams must not include their school name or any other identifying information either verbally or on the slides in their presentations for the final round.

Teams

• Teams consist of three to four graduate students all of whom attend the same participating school.
• Teams should make every effort to include 1st and 2nd year students and have gender diversity. We encourage students to prioritize diversity across all aspects when building their teams.
• All team members must speak during presentations, and solutions should reflect contributions from all team members.
• Contestants from CU Boulder can sign up individually (and be matched with others) or with others. Teams that sign up together should have the understanding that the N&OCC organizers may assign additional teammates.

Read all Rules and Guidelines

Presentation Action Items

Preliminary Round presentations are allotted 22 minutes total:

• Presentations no longer than 12 minutes
• 7 mins judges Q/A
• 3 mins transition

Final Round presentations are allotted 25 minutes total:

• Presentations no longer than 14 minutes
• 8 mins judges Q/A
• 3 mins transition

Scoring Criteria

Judges will evaluate the teams based on a variety of factors, including the following:

• Delivery
• Depth and breadth of analysis of the financial, operational, environmental, social and ethical issues
• Persuasiveness
• Creativity
• Recommendations that are both mission-aligned and practical in a business context
• Responses to questions

Prizes are as follows:

• 1st place team $7,500
• 2nd place team $4,000
• 3rd place team $2,500
• Runner Up: $1,000

Participating Schools

We are pleased to welcome the following schools to compete in the 2021 Natural & Organic Case Competition:

University of Denver, Daniels College of Business

Colorado State University, College of Business