• Case preparation and rehearsals of the Pre-Arrival competition case must only be done by the student competitors registered for the competition.
• Competitors must not seek guidance or feedback from any individual beyond their team (including their coach etc.).
• Competitors are welcome to use practice cases with their coach or others.
• Professional videographers or designers (or any hired help) is not permitted.
• No contact must be made with anyone from the focal company or authors of the case.
• Infraction of any of these rules will lead to disqualification of the team from SG-FECC.

Coaches play a critical role in SG-FECC. Their role is similar to that of a teacher with their students, that is, to guide and coach students until the moment of the exam (SG-FECC case in this instance). But, once the exam starts (case is received), they must perform on their own.

Then, when we hand out the graded results (feedback from judges), the coach helps them to interpret the feedback and strategize how to improve, as appropriate, and train and motivate them for the next exam.

Rationale – In first couple of years of SG-FECC, we did not ask the coaches to refrain from helping students with the case. Everyone tried their best. But, the teams are ranked by judges and inevitably someone comes in last or 3^rd out of 4 teams in a division. If a coach and the students have given their all, this causes an awkward conversation which sometimes leads to finger-pointing toward the judging panels/organizers etc. placing the team in a negative non-learning spirit.

Thus, upon consultation with the coaches, we have since released coaches of working with the students for the competition cases. But, coaches are free to continue to train students using other cases.

Some experienced coaches don’t read the SG-FECC case until their team has submitted their presentations – so as to not answer any related questions inadvertently.

Yes, teams are encouraged to use the internet and other secondary resources for their Pre-Arrival case preparation and presentation.

Teams will not have access to the internet or reference material for the closed case presentations on Thursday, Friday and the Finalist round on Saturday.

This is for the team to decide. Taking a specific role for yourselves or assigning a role for the judging panel is team’s decision to make and clarify at the start of their presentation.

In the opening power point slide, teams should identify themselves, their school and country of their university.

Yes, you are allowed supplemental/appendix slides that can be included in the full slide deck.

You are not required to explicitly state the name of the model but it is generally a good idea to do so.

For the pre-arrival case, teams are encouraged to do their research using secondary sources for such questions. Where unsure, it is often helpful to indicate assumptions made.

For the closed/controlled cases, most of all relevant information should be provided in the case materials.

No, only the registered competing students are permitted to work on their case analysis and recommendations for all three rounds. No assistance is allowed from anyone beyond the registered student competitors.

Yes, coaches and others may answer questions or guide students unrelated to the competition case in hand.

The lengths of cases vary. Links to a few cases uses in previous editions of SG-FECC is here.

There will be a live stream of the final round of presentations on Saturday. This will be on YouTube.

Teams are NOT allowed to bring paper notes into the preparation room for controlled cases (2nd, 3rd, Final Rounds). However, blank note cards and paper, pens, etc. will be available in all preparation rooms. Judges are given no prior instruction on whether to dock points for students using note cards during the presentation.

Competitors are allowed to bring a template PowerPoint file into their preparation rooms for the Thursday, Friday and Saturday (Final Round) case. Teams are permitted to use ONE presentation-template file that may contain school/other logos and graphic designs, such as background, color set-up, arrows, boxes, organization charts, etc. NO TEXT (including letters or numbers/formulas) other than the names of the competitors, logo embedded text or their institution is allowed. This file must be stored on a single memory stick with no other files on it.  Prior to each case preparation, the team ambassador will inspect the memory stick to ensure that the template file described above is the only file on the memory stick.

Yes, competitors must be registered full time at the competing school for at least one semester of the academic year of the competition (e.g. a student graduating in December 2022 is eligible to compete in the January 2023).

• Teams competing in the undergraduate or bachelor’s league can only have undergraduate or bachelor students.
• Teams competing in the graduate league may have a mix of undergraduate and graduate students.

Yes, with one team at the Graduate level and one at the Undergraduate level. 

Yes, each team incurs the registration fee.

No, both could succeed being that they are in different leagues (Undergraduate and Graduate).

• Yes, teams may switch competing students until the SG-FECC Pre-Arrival case is distributed.
• NO switching of competitors is permitted once the competition begins.
• Any illness or other impediment to a competitor will result in their team competing without them.
• If a registered competitor is unable to participate in one case/round of the event, they are permitted to rejoin the team for any remaining cases/rounds of the SG-FECC event.

The judging panel will submit their written feedback and evaluations for each team to the organizers, who will then relay the results to the coaches at a pre-announced time. Coaches relay the results and feedback to their teams.

Each team presentation will be evaluated by a panel of 3-5 judges. Each panel is composed of family business educators, owners/managers, and advisors/service providers.

No, a team will have different judging panels in each round.

The Judges Profile Booklet will be released in late December. About 60 judges from seven countries are confirmed for this event.

For an idea of the types of judges who serve at SG-FECC, please see the 2020 Judges Profile Booklet here.