Kearney Case Competition ‘22

Written by Jason Woo & Brianna Kim

Over the last month, UCC held our first domestic case competition in collaboration with Kearney, where we saw over 30 teams each present their perspectives on real-life problems found today in industry. Teams from a range of degrees and age groups worked tirelessly to create detailed, unique solutions centred around the case question, offering competitors an insight into the various complications and obstacles that companies face today.

The Case

Teams were presented with InsureCo, a fictional Australian insurance company with 50 years of experience in General Insurance. Competitors were asked:

What strategies can InsureCo implement for its revenue to exceed the insurance market growth?

Whether they were expanding into a new insurance market, or refining an existing insurance model (Or even both in some cases!), a lot of research had to be done by teams to ensure they could build the most impactful solution, whether it was into industry competitors, previous/ongoing initiatives (Such as QBE’s new drone Insurance) or consumer trends.
As a large company in an increasingly crowded market, it would be imperative for InsureCo to maintain or possibly even expand their customer base, especially so that they could capitalise on the projected growth of the insurance industry. With a total of 109 APRA registered general insurers, including companies such as IAG, Suncorp and QBE, our competitors were faced with the task of analysing/developing InsureCo’s competitive advantage to ensure that InsureCo could meet their goals of exceeding market growth.

Out of their key offerings of life, car, health, home and income insurance, our competitors had to consider which industries would be more impactful and had more room for growth, and even consider effects that external factors could have on consumer behaviours (E.g. The Covid-19 pandemic had a huge impact on the car insurance industry, with lockdowns and the rapid emergence of working from home meaning that vehicles were left unused for long periods of time).

Some teams decided to pursue industry verticals to improve InsureCo’s offerings, assessing new opportunities and evaluating their potential, while other teams chose to focus on consolidating InsureCo’s existing offerings to drive greater revenue growth. Additionally, teams had to keep their solutions feasible and realistic, with competitors having to consider the current capabilities of InsureCo as a company within a reasonable time period.

Finals

The first round took place during flexi-week, and our teams were given 1 week to develop their solutions and corresponding slide decks. After a screening process, 16 of the best teams were invited to heats, where teams were given another week to fine-tune their slides and present online to our internal judge panel.

Eliza Chew was one of our judges for the heats round, and broke down the selection criteria into 4 categories: Analysis (Into the company, its competitors, the market, etc), Solution (Balancing creativity and feasibility), Presentation and Q&A.

Overall, we were really impressed by the calibre of ideas we saw during heats - there were some great ideas pitched, ranging from entering the pet insurance industry to looking at autonomous vehicles. However, the most successful teams were the ones that not only created realistic and actionable recommendations that aligned with InsureCo’s vision; they also articulated a reasonable understanding of the company’s market position and challenges; and were able to drive it home with a convincing presentation and prepared QnA.

Eliza Chew, Vice-President of Operations at UCC

4 teams made it to finals, where our teams were able to present their solutions to Kearney representatives in person at the Kearney offices! Congratulations to our finalists:

Peak Consulting (2nd)

• Nathan Bleier

• Claire Yu

• Bronson Sutton

• Bryan Gunawan

ASLAN Consulting (3rd)

• Alethea Dutton

• Rongxuan Chong

• Kelvin Zheng

• Truc Luong

Aria Advisory (4th)

• Emily Cong

• Sarah Kim

• Varun Amin

• Christian Huang

…and our winners AM Consulting!

• Abhinav Chawla

• Matilda Rice

• Conan Liu

Our winners presented judges with a two part solution, focusing on combining Telematics (A method of Car monitoring using GPS and on-board diagnostics) with the potential of Autonomous Vehicles, using the data collected by telematic devices to accelerate the development and increase the reliability of autonomous vehicle systems. They also proposed a vertical expansion into the Cybersecurity industry, identifying the growing frequency and severity of cyberattacks and online fraud.

(From left to right) Abhinav Chawla, Conan Liu, Matilda Rice

Here’s what the winning team of Abhinav, Conan and Matilda (AM Consulting) had to say about their experience:

1) How did you develop your solution over time and were there any other potential ideas that you considered?

We think the majority of the process of developing our solution was dedicated to research. We tried to inform and educate ourselves about the insurance industry and future trends as much as possible and use this information to build a thesis of what a successful solution would look like. Using this information, we were able to rigorously assess different potential solutions and it allowed us to pick the most creative yet feasible one. 

2) How did you find the process of transitioning from an online presence in the heats to an in-person final in front of Kearney representatives?

For a few of us, it was our first case competition where we had to present in person so it was definitely a nerve-racking moment. Presenting in person without a script in front of you is definitely a different experience, we think you have to be conscious of a lot more things, where you are looking, how much you are moving, how you are presented etc. It was also nice that we could present to and watch the other teams present to see the variety of solutions crafted.

3) Looking back, would you do anything differently about how you approached and developed your solution?

While we may have spent a lot of time choosing a recommendation, I think we could’ve spent more time thinking through the implementation of our solution. We were kind of unprepared in the Q&A when we got questions on the nuances of our implementation – however, our depth of research helped us answer on the spot. Looking back, we would definitely consider thinking through potential Q&As beforehand and being able to fully articulate all parts of the solution.

Our first place team will be receiving a fast-tracked interview, a coffee catchup and resume review with Kearney, while our second and third place finalists will receive a coffee catchup and a resume review respectively.

Also a huge congratulations to the best speaker of the night, Alethea Dutton (2nd Year B. Mechanical Engineering) from ASLAN consulting!

And finally thank you to our industry representatives from Kearney who sponsored the case and judged the finals!

Missed out on registering for this case, or just hungry for more case competitions? Not to worry, UCC will be back soon with another Case Competition soon, you can found all of our media channels on our linktree: https://linktr.ee/unswconsultingclub