DAY THREE: HEARTBREAK HOTEL (HILTON)
Ryan Rowe
Wednesday, January 5th, 2005, 11:45pm
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

We are not doing as well here as we had hoped we would.  We had two more cases today and lost both by a big margin.  The judges seem to be looking for something different from what we've been giving them.  Strangely, we came out of both cases feeling strong and confident.  This morning's case was about the global supply chain management industry and we went up against the University of Düsseldorf.  This afternoon was an analysis of Ireland's national airline Aer Lingus and how it's restructured itself to deal with a highly competitive and changing environment.

We may be feeling down as we have been practicing for a long time and we completely believe in the strategy we are using to tackle cases...  We know we have the formula for success and we still have faith in Ashwin (Joshi).  He is our Oracle.

Tomorrow is the live case.  At 8am we will enter a large conference room where all 30 MBA teams will perform an analysis of a company's financial statements and industry at the same time.  This should make for a highly intense and charged atmosphere.  After 45 minutes we will listen to a presentation by a senior executive officer of the company (which remains anonymous) and he/she will pose us a strategic question on the future of the firm.  Our task then is to decide over the course of 90 minutes how company strategy can be adapted in light of our analysis.  We'll then have to deliver the presentation to the judges and take questions.

Winning this case is imperative for staying within sight of a semi-final position.  Wish us luck and I will update more later (sorry haven't had time to update with photos)....

By the way, on a lighter note, Rotman dropped out at the last minute 'cause they couldn't put a team together!  Hope that makes you chuckle!

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