Persistent Illumination

I spent the bulk of yesterday judging a business case study competition for the University of Waterloo DEX. (I also helped out when they hosted a provincial high school business conference earlier this summer.) A full day at UW, I was one of a dozen or so judges who oversaw presentations from somewhere in the neighbourhood of 100 participants. The case studies covered many sectors - B2B, financial, retail, ethics - and I used my old restaurant experience to judge that particular sector.

A larger case study of the day was solving the problem of Fed Hall, currently losing plenty of money every year. Sad to say that one of the groups couldn't dredge up anything more than the same-old, same-old (ie, sure to be unsuccessful). Not very many great ideas hoping to turn the tide of some heavy financial losses --- and not having the numbers to back it up.

Another of the groups painted a more cohesive picture that sounded a bit more promising. Expanding the catering business, focus on venue rental (hello Google!), some improved branding, as well as expanding into some interesting theme nights. Interesting were my co-judges for that section: current Feds VPAF Carmen Lam (the exec currently overseeing Fed Hall) and accounting professor Bob Sproule, who was the Feds' General Manager for five years back in the 90's!

All in all, it was great to see the enthusiasm and expertise of some of UW's young business hopefuls. I'd love to judge some other, similar competitions.