Case Competition Perspectives
|
Joseph W. Kelly is a Principal in Deloitte Consulting LLP's Human Capital practice and is the Regional Managing Director for Consulting for the Mid-America region. With over 20 years of experience, he has helped clients design, implement and administer benefits, compensation and other human resource programs. In addition, he has helped organizations review their current HR and benefits administration processes to identify opportunities for improvement and cost savings. |
 |
My interest in serving as a judge
Serving as a judge for this competition was a great opportunity to match wits with schools and raise the profile of the human capital profession. The case competition has really helped create awareness among students, faculty, and companies about the level of talent that is focused on the human capital area.
The case competition vs. real client projects
The winning teams in the competition demonstrate the ability to expand their scope beyond quick tasks, identify the bigger business issue, and then craft solutions based on those issues. These are exactly the types of skills that consultants need to succeed on client engagements and talk human capital in the C-suite. How we challenge our case competition participants is thus very similar to how we challenge our practitioners.
Traits of a successful team
A successful team should actually think like a team, and build off the strengths that each teammate brings to the table. Most successful teams realize that individual glory will not lead to a win in the overall competition. Through harnessing each teammate's talents, the team will truly come together in the presentation.
My favorite part of the competition
We judges did not know which school each team was from. Therefore, we were able to come up with our own, completely unbiased perspectives on each team. When the winner was announced, we found out which school they were affiliated with. The year that I was a judge, the winning school was a dark horse in the competition. Their success opened a lot of eyes and showed the importance of maintaining a blind judging process.
