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‘Breaking ground, beating competition’
Chartered Institute of Management Accountants
Business case awards 2013
The CIMA Business Case Awards is a competition that recognises organisational success and turnarounds, whilst identifying what drove such outcomes. This year, we invite ‘corporate warriors’ to compete in the business arena, submitting business cases on ‘ground breaking’ initiatives which have built and sustained success, whilst beating competition.
Participants will identify and narrate a specific real-life occurrence in their own organisation, presenting the case and findings, and indicating the learning to the wider community.
The key objectives of the competition are:
To enhance knowledge on how success is achieved and sustained in an organisation, and the ability to effectively communicate such knowledge.To facilitate cross-company knowledge sharing by giving exposure to cases that depict organisational success stories.
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Business case awards 2013‘Breaking ground, beating competition’
Chartered Institute of Management Accountants
1. Benefits to participants and their employers
Intellectual benefits
Material benefits
Recognition
i. Deepen knowledge about management concepts and its application to businesses.
ii. Deepen understanding about one's own workplace (company) strategies, value chain, processes, competitive environment etc.
iii. Contribute to organisation's learning and growth beyond one's area of responsibility.
iv. Participants will be provided guidance and training on narrating an interesting and insightful case study.
I. The winners placed in the first three positions will be awarded the titles 'winner', 'first runner-up' and 'second runner-up' of the CIMA Business Case Awards 2013, respectively; team members and their employers will be awarded trophies and certificates.
ii. The teams placed first, second and third will be awarded 200,000, 150,000 and 100,000 respectively
I. The winners, along with their employers will be announced and recognised in local print media.
ii. The winner will be provided the opportunity to present the key learning from their case at the CIMA Business Case Awards Night 2013.
iii. The CEOs of the top 3 teams will be interviewed on the case content and the video recording will be aired at the CIMA Business Case Awards Night 2013.
iv. The winning team will be provided the opportunity to present an adaptation of their case at the CIMA Management Accountants' Conference 2013 to an audience of over 150 CFOs, CEOs, finance managers, accountants & business managers.
v. Shorter narration of the winning case will be incorporated into a relevant global/local CIMA publication subject to meeting required standard of quality.
vi. Publications showcasing the best cases will be jointly formulated by CIMA and Postgraduate Institute of Management.
vii. The top 5 business cases will be published in the business section of a local newspaper.
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2. Entry requirementsŸ
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3. Submitting your business case Ÿ
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Teams of two to three participants from any organisation incorporated in Sri Lanka may register for the competition.
All participants must be Sri Lankan resident employees of the organisation.
Each team should include at least one participant who is an active CIMA Sri Lankan resident member or student as of 1 June 2013.
The team leader will be the primary point of contact with the CIMA Sri Lanka Division.
One organisation may have more than one team participating for the competition provided each team submits a case based on a different theme, addressing a different situation or occurrence within the organisation.
A team can include participants (including team leaders) from external organisations, subject to submitting written consent from the organisation on which the case is based.
Permission from the external participant's employer will have to be obtained if required. All external parties should disclose this to CIMA at the registration stage of the competition.
A non refundable registration fee of Rs. 3000/= is payable with submission of the registration form.
Deadline for registrations is 5 July 2013.
All completed cases must reach CIMA Sri Lanka division by post and e-mail on or before 6 September 2013 by 4.30pm, and should be addressed to:
Dharshan CoorayManager - Member Development & Thought LeadershipCIMA Sri Lanka Division, 356, Elvitigala Mawatha, Colombo 05
Case-studies submitted via e-mail should be sent as Microsoft Word documents. If the soft copy cannot be emailed, it may be submitted on a CD along with the hard copy of the case.
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4. Rules of the competitionŸ
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The business case should consist of 4000 words excluding appendices and references. A deviation greater than +/- 5% from this word limit will be penalised.
The participant should identify and narrate a specific real-life occurrence within the organisation in which they are employed, under a preferred theme relating to one of the topics given by CIMA Sri Lanka. These topics, along with examples of possible themes are given in the next section. (The possible themes given alongside the topics are only examples, and participants should not limit themselves to these).
The case should be based on data and information extracted within the last 5 years of the submission date (approximately between June 2008 and June 2013).
Data provided must be relevant to the overall objectives of the case.
It is the applicant's responsibility to obtain prior approval from the company in which they are employed for usage of company information (if required). An endorsement letter from the company concerned is required, confirming that information submitted through the case is not sensitive and may be published.
Submissions cannot state that information relevant to analysis and communication of a business case is withheld due to sensitivity of such information, as this will not allow judges to evaluate cases based on the assessment criteria used.
The teams placed within the top 3 in previous competitions cannot submit the same case. However, other participants may re-submit their case for consideration.
Please follow the format given in section 6.3 as a guideline to narrate and present the case.
Business cases will be screened to check whether the format and guidelines specified have been followed at the point of submission. Deviation from the required format and/or submission of reports or documents which have been formulated for different purposes will result in rejection upon submission and these cases will not be marked by the judging panel. Only cases that are in line with basic requirements will be marked by the judges.
The narration of the case should be based on sound concepts/principles underpinned by a thorough literature review (usage of concepts/principles synonymous with CIMA curriculum will work to the participants' advantage).
CIMA strongly recommends that a mentor to support the team is appointed within the company or externally.
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Successful system rollover, organisational restructure
Sustainability project such as new compliance to UNGC principles, conversion to green manufacturing, carbon neutral project, strategic changes addressing climate change, using sustainability as a competitive strategy, access to new value networks and markets through sustainable strategy
BSC, optimizing potential of human capital and benchmarking exercise
Managing the risk of changing customer needs/demand, competitive pressure, product related risk, reputation risk
Conversion to a shared services model, BPO project undertaken, successful business partnering activity
Use of governance framework to enhance reputation and performance
Backward and forward integration for effectiveness and efficiency
Transformational leadership within the organisation driving higher levels of performance, emergent leadership in organisations during a time of crisis
Branding as a strategy to create greater value and access new market segments, enhance existing market share
BPR, Kaizen, 5S for cost efficiency
Micro financing project, successful SME start-up, a SME successfully launching a new product/service
Case on an existing private and public sector partnership for economic growth
Formulation and implementation of effective competitive strategy resulting in improved market share, entering and gaining a significant share in a new competitive market. Strategies and processes to effectively manage competition in the long run.
Continuous innovation through new products/ markets, external, internal innovation, encouraging innovation in processes, innovation through new technology and people
Cases of how effective stakeholder management strategies have resulted in value maximization, stakeholder management systems for improved performance
Cases of effectively managed projects delivering value to the organisation
Effective use of an organisation's value chain/ value network to create/maintain sustainable competitive advantage
* Examples of possible themes that can be covered under the topic
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5. Topics for the business caseNo. Topic
Change management
Sustainability
Performance management
Enterprise risk management
Business transformation
Enterprise governance
Supply chain management
Leadership
Branding
Process excellence
SME economy
Private and public sector partnership
Strategic management of competitive environment
Innovation
Stakeholder management
Project management
Value chain
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Human resource value optimization, human resource planning and development for driving business strategy
Sustainable business models, innovating/ creating new business models, creation/ enhancement of value through a business model
Strategic management of information for better decision making, the use of big data to drive value enhancement, information use for sustainable competitive advantage
Creating a knowledge management culture that drives improved performance, setting up a knowledge management system, evaluating the success of a knowledge management drive
Successful transition to/ implementation of e-commerce platforms, social media marketing, new retail solutions
Increased efficiency through systems overhaul, performance improvement through process optimization in the public sector
Intrapreneurship – the entrepreneurial employee that drives improved performance, maintaining an entrepreneurial mindset for continuous improvement, successful new ventures
Human Capital
Business models
Information intelligence/ big data
Knowledge management
Modern trade/ retail business performance excellence
Public sector performance improvement
Entrepreneurship/new ventures
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* The possible themes given alongside the topics are only examples, and participants need not limit themselves to those examples
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6.Assessment of the business case6.1 Panel of judgesŸ
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6.2 Assessment criteria Criterion Weightage
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Professor Uditha Liyanage (moderator and chairman)
Dr. Travis Perera | Mr. Ravi Edirisinghe | Dr Arul Sivagananathan | Mr. Manil Jayesinghe
Clarity and relevance of theme 10%Methodology 20%Analysis and findings 30%Structure and presentation of case 15%Recommendations 15%Practicality/ Applicability of findings 10%
General presentation requirements
ŸBusiness case should be accompanied by a cover page indicating the name of competition (CIMA Business Case Awards 2013), title/theme of case study, name of the organisation, names of the participants, CIMA reference number of the member or student, and date of submission.
6.3. Presentation of the business case
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¬ Non-periodical:
¬ Periodicals:
¬ Web sources:
Format of the business case study
Introduction (case background)
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Theoretical description
Case framework
It should be printed on A4 size paper, and typing should be single sided.
Twelve point Arial-font with 1.5 line spacing should be used throughout the narration.
A margin of 1-inch should be kept on all sides of the sheet with the exception of left-side
where 1.25 inches should be kept.,
Text should be justified on left-side and right-side margins.
Bibliography and references should be clearly stated to avoid plagiarism.
Plagiarism will result in disqualification from the competition. Usage of another's ideas,
work or other material without providing due credit to the source will be considered as
'plagiarism' for the purposes of this competition.
References and bibliographic material should be listed in the following manner:
Author surname, Author initials. (Year). Title of work. Location: Publisher.
Author surname, Author initials. (Year). Title of article. Title of periodical, vol. (issue number/month(s),pages.
Author surname, Author initials. (Year month date). Title of work. Retrieved date, from URL
In a case study, the writer identifies and describes in narrative form, an underlying organization-specific theme. The format of the case study is given below:
Provide organizational information as a backdrop to the case.
Identify and briefly describe a particular theme with respect to the selected organization. For example, sustaining market leadership through innovation; turnaround strategies; enhancing productivity, etc.
State the purpose/objectives of the case study: what do you want to achieve/highlight?
State the scope and limitations of the case: what are the confines of the narrative?
The identified theme should be described and contextualised by a review of literature with regard to key terms that underpin the theme. For example, if your theme is about turnaround strategies, then what does the literature say about turnaround strategies, and what are their drivers? A case study must rest on a sound theoretical foundation. At least five articles must be used for the study, including articles from CIMA research, available on the CIMA/CGMA websites (www.cimaglobal.com and www.cgma.org).
Based on the above, your theme must now be conceptualised. A case framework must be developed. For example, you may identify key determinants (independent variables) of successful turnaround strategies (the dependent variable). You should clearly define the variables and show
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the linkages between variables. This will lead to the formulation of clearly stated propositions(s).
Specify and justify the type of data to be collected, instruments of data collection, population and samples of study, and data-analysis techniques. The choice of the various elements of methodology will have to be guided by the objectives and proposition of the study.
While the data can be primary, secondary, quantitative or qualitative, analysis should be logically consistent, convincing and triangulated. In the case study, a minimum of five in-depth interviews and one focus group should be used to gather data. In addition, company performance data should be presented as quantitative data. Further, data can be gathered based on observations, newspaper reports, correspondence, etc
The case study includes the four sub-headings above. The completed report, in addition to the preceding sub-headings, will include the following:
Once the data has been gathered, you will begin to write the case in narrative form. All writing must be in relation to the specific theme selected and the case must be written in a style that would engage and sustain the interest of the reader. Focus on the critical challenges faced by the company ,strategies adopted and internal business processes supporting the strategy, points of departure, competitor actions etc. the sequential unfolding of events around the developed thematic framework will provide interesting reading and lead up to an understanding of the connections between performance drivers and outcomes; actions and results of the organization. There will, of course, be ‘gaps’ in the story you narrate. In this regard, the reader will attempt to find answers to specific questions (say, five) that you will pose at the end of the case.
The case narrative must be self-contained and a ‘stand alone’ chapter which could be published separately.
As in a research paper, discuss the key findings of the study. Findings must be derived from the data analysis and should not be based on your own impressions and assumptions.
The discussion must relate to the framework that was formulated. It should be a descriptive account of the implications of the findings, and their relevance and usefulness in particular organizational/market settings.
Conclusion and recommendations must flow directly from the discussion of the findings. At the end, the writer must set out questions in order that the reader can make reasonable assumptions and offer solutions, and fill the ‘gaps’ in the case. The writer should also recommend a continuity plan or a way forward useful in sustaining the positive outcomes of the case and minimising negative effects.
(Adapted from PIM Presentation Guidelines, Postgraduate Institute of Management,2013)
Methodology
Case narrative
Discussion of findings
Conclusions and recommendation
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7. Additional support provided by CIMA Sri LankaŸ
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8. Register now
A workshop will be held on developing the case framework and narrating the case at the CIMA auditorium.
Last years' winning case will be presented at the launch of the CIMA Business Case Awards 2013 and the CIMA Management Accountants’ Conference 2013
Several issues of Sri Lanka Journal of Management carrying case narrations will be available in the CIMA library. Copies of cases from previous competitions are also available. These cases can be used for guidance only and may not be consistent with the CIMA Business Case Awards 2013 format.
For detailed clarification as regards the competition, please contact Dinasha Stephen by email [email protected] or by telephone on 2503880 ext. 222
To register for the competition please download and email the completed form to [email protected] post/ hand deliver the original form with the non refundable fee of Rs. 3000 by cash/ cheque in favor of CIMA Sri Lanka by 5 July 2013.
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