TRP Students Take Over GMCA’s Case Competition: Featuring Mary Schmitz
TRP | August 2022
TRP Students break ground to win top spots at GMCA’s Case Competition, Healthcare: Accelerating Accessibility
The Graduate Management Consulting Association at the University of Toronto held their 11-day case competition, Healthcare: Accelerating Accessibility in April 2022 for students interested in developing and applying their problem-solving skills to tackle real-life business challenges. In this competition, participants had the opportunity to:
(1) Develop their consulting skills and gain transferrable industry experience,
(2) Learn from judges who have successfully transitioned into the industry,
(3) Tackle real-life business challenges, and
(4) Present their recommended strategies to judges from our partnering firms.
We spoke to a few members of TRP’s winning teams about their experience at this competition and key takeaways. Learn more about Carola Tuerk, Mary Schmitz, and Angus Lam’s teamwork, with a particular focus on, Mary’s learnings.
Mary Schmitz
The GMCA Business Fundamentals course this past spring was challenging (in a good way!) and insightful for those of us who had a little business background. The modules helped prepare us for the case competition at course end, but there was still a lot of work to be done within the teams to prepare our case strategies.
I had the pleasure of working with Carola Tuerk, PhD. and Angus Lam, MASc. As the TRP always teaches us: teamwork is key! A strong variety of perspectives will always make your work more robust and your strategy more likely to succeed. My team and I kept this in mind when we decided to combine our diverse backgrounds and work together on this project. Every member of the team brought a fresh perspective and complementary skills. The three of us met through the GMCA class and we had never worked on a project together before. It was an exciting whirlwind to network with Carola and Angus, form a team, and complete the case competition all in a matter of weeks!
It can be hard to jump into a project with teammates you have never met, so my team and I planned an informal virtual chat before the release of the case so that we could get to know each other as people before needing to hyper-efficiently work on the case. We knew we would only have 1 week with the case before presenting our strategy to the judges so we would need to hit the ground running. We pre-scheduled our case week meetings in advance and discussed our expectations for the experience. This pre-planning was key to reducing stress and building camaraderie early on. We also took advantage of the Coach’s Corner session to ensure our strategy was on track.
Our team was focused on personal growth and our goal was to produce a high-quality strategy while ensuring we all learned something new and improved our research and presentation skills. Coming in second place was honestly a bit of a surprise as we were not able to hear any of the other presentations. We had focused all our energy on ensuring this was a productive learning experience. Placing in the top 3 was a happy by-product of the genuine effort my teammates and I decided to put forward to learn.
Looking to the future, I am focused on finishing my M.H.Sc. in Translational Research at U of T and seeing where my capstone project takes me. I am very interested in the field of pharmacogenetics and the challenges around market access and implementation in that domain, specifically as it relates to older adults. I am not sure yet if this interest will steer me to clinical or industry work, but I am excited either way! I know that the concepts I have learned and the skills I have practised throughout this GMCA course and the TRP will help me in whatever I end up pursuing next.
Congratulations to our students on securing podium positions at this GMCA competition. We couldn’t be prouder! Check out more stories from the GMCA Case Competition
TRP Students Take Over GMCA’s Case Competition
TRP Students Take Over GMCA’s Case Competition Featuring: Alexander Moore and Siobhan Wilson