November is one of the busiest months for students seeking transfer to four-year universities because the application deadline and midterm exams are around the corner.
Despite this, business administration major students participated in the finance case study competition at the 2024 Fall Business Leadership Conference at the Hilton Garden Inn San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge in Emeryville on Nov. 16 and 17 and won first place.
“I did not think we would win,” Alan Dang, 19, business administration major and vice president of finance at Phi Beta Lambda FBLA said.
Dang said because he saw a lot of their competitors from colleges and universities all over California, he was skeptical of whether they could win.
Van Loc Nguyen, 21, business administration major and vice president at Phi Beta Lambda FBLA, said he thought the team would place high in the competition, although he wasn’t sure if they would be able to win first place.
“(There are) 15 teams, and 16 including us, so the chance to get first place is really low,” Nguyen said. “But after we prepared and practiced together, I think we (had a) chance.”
In this finance case study competition, the organizer sent cases to the participants about one week before the conference. After receiving the information, participants review the case, analyze the real companies’ situation, including financial concepts, and prepare the slides for the presentation by the conference day on Nov. 16.
Zain Darwish, 20, business administration major and vice president of internal affairs at Phi Beta Lambda FBLA, said each team had only seven minutes to make a presentation in front of judges, then three minutes to answer the questions from the judges.
“Getting that down in seven minutes was very difficult since we had so much information,” Darwish said. “And for a while, I was struggling with that, but we ended up pulling it off in the end.”
Nguyen said the organizer sent the case on Nov. 11, so the team got together for two hours each day during their five-day preparation period.
Dang said during that week, he had midterms and had to prepare for college applications, too.
“The hardest part was managing all the other stuff other than the case, because it was very time consuming,” Dang said. “But then I set that aside and really focused on the case. And it was very hard to manage all that time.”
Dang is not only the member who struggled with the time conflict.
“(Getting together two hours each day was) very difficult,” Darwish said. “We’re all very stressed about that.”
Nguyen said the team got a 12-page prompt, so developing the case within five days was especially hard.
“We need(ed) to make sure every meeting is effective because (of) the time conflict,” Nguyen said. “That’s why I (was) trying to organize and coordinate to improve efficiency of the team, so we (could) go through the 12 pages of information and then develop the solutions.”
Jeffrey West, adjunct instructor in the accounting department, provided coaching to the entire club members by showing his presentation slides about what the students need to focus on when they are in a business competition. For example, he gave some tips for how to put together a case study and specific coaching about making a presentation.
West said the reason why Dang, Darwish and Nguyen’s team won first place was “great content and the presentation” because the winning team’s slides were less busy than the others and already had a nice presentation style.
In multiple categories, several teams from De Anza College placed high at the 2024 Fall Business Leadership Conference. The Phi Beta Lambda FBLA members will participate in the State Business Leadership Conference again in March 2025 in San Diego.
West said De Anza College students should be the “Stephen Curry” of business competitions.
“When Steph Curry is on the floor, (other players think) ‘Oh no, he’s here. We’re in trouble,’” West said. “When we go to the state (Business Leadership Conference), I want other teams to go, ‘Oh, De Anza is here. We’re in trouble.’ That’s what I want.”
