Business & Society Institute

John R. Lewis Case Competition Student Information

24-25 Interest Form

#JLCC24

Competition Details

Application Dates

November 1, 2023 - Application opens
November 17, 2023 at 11:59PM EST - Application deadline

Semifinals

December 11, 2023 - Semifinalist teams announced
February 22, 2024 - Semifinal competition in Atlanta

Finals

February 23, 2024 - Final competition and JLCC Summit in Atlanta

The Competition

Emory University Goizueta Business School will serve as the overall competition organizer as well as the host school.
The school will host a total of three (3) company-specific prompts for the semifinal and final rounds of the competition. The companies are to be announced.
All semifinalists will present their findings in person in Atlanta, expenses to be covered by JLCC.
Only the top three semifinalists - the best team representing one of the three companies - will present live at the JLCC Summit.

Preliminary Round (November 1, 2023 - November 17, 2023)

Teams of three (3) to four (4) students from a university will submit an application to an industry of their choosing, consisting of applicant information and a PowerPoint statement of intention (maximum 7 slides) that responds in detail to the following questions:
- What role does your team believe business should play in addressing issues of racial inequality and injustice in your selected industry? (50%)
- How would your team structure your problem-solving approach to this project? This includes primary and/or secondary research methods and the team's problem-solving approach (20%)
- Half of prize money awarded to each team will be donated to an organization advancing racial justice of the winner's choosing. How would your team propose to invest the prize money? Explain how the team would invest the money, the expected impact, and the rationale (10%)
- Demonstrate why your team represents diversity. Racial injustice is an issue for all, regardless of race/ethnicity (20%)
Student teams will be able to submit one (1) application to only one (1) company, while providing a primary backup and secondary backup company, should they not be selected for their primary company
Multiple teams from the same university may apply, but only one (1) team per university may advance to each company-specific semifinal. Further, no more than two (2) teams per university may advance to the entire semifinal round

Semifinal Round (January 8, 2024 - February 22, 2024)

Following a review by the screening committee (see "judges and prizes" tab for details), advancing teams will move on to the semifinal round where they will have the opportunity to solve unique problems for a specific sponsoring client and present to a panel of judges
Teams will have six (6) weeks before their presentation to connect with the sponsor, conduct primary research, and develop a presentation that explores and answers the sponsor's case prompt
On the day of the semifinals, each team will have 20 minutes to present, followed by 10 minutes of Q&A

Final Round (February 23, 2024)

Winning teams from each industry will then present at the final in-person event
The live final round will be in person followed by a conference complete with panelists and guest speakers
Teams will not have the opportunity to change their presentation content following the semifinal round feedback, but may change their presentation delivery; However, it is highly recommended that the presentation aligns with the content to keep the audience engaged
During the round, an esteemed panel of judges will again review each presentation using the same semifinal rubric to determine the overall champion ($20,000), runner-up ($7,000), and second runner-up ($3,000).

Preliminary Round

Each application will be reviewed by an initial screening committee comprised of university faculty, corporate partners, and racial justice/equality experts. The initial screening committee will score the PowerPoint statement of intention by utilizing a detailed rubric and evaluating each team's responses to the 4 questions. Submissions are reviewed and teams will be selected to advance to the semifinal round.

Semifinal & Final Rounds

Judges consist of corporate partners, racial justice NGO partners, faculty, and elected officials who will use a numerical scoring system across the following criteria:

Potential for impact
Feasibility of recommendations
Creativity of solution
Boldness
Research quality and evidential support for recommendations
Story structure and narrative
Slide craft
Presentation delivery

Prizes

All prizes are a 1 to 1 split with 50% going to the team and 50% to be donated to an organization advancing racial justice of the winner’s choosing
Final Round:
- Overall Winner: $20,000
- 2nd Place Winner: $7,000
- 3rd Place Winner: $3,000

Preliminary Round

Applications must be submitted by 11:59PM EST on November 17th, 2023.
The format is a PowerPoint statement of intention, along with basic application information.
Maximum of seven (7) slides, excluding the cover/title slide. Please no appendices.
University name, logo or colors should not be included in your presentation. However, team member names can be used.
Teams must consist of three (3) to four (4) students from the same university. All graduate and undergraduate students may apply, and teams may consist of students from multiple programs.
No changes to team composition are allowed between rounds.
Check out our official preliminary application rulebook here.

Semifinal & Final Rounds

The semifinal round will consist of a 20-minute PowerPoint presentation and 10 minutes of judge Q&A. A 2-minute and a 30-second warning will be given for the presentation portion. Teams going over the 20-minute presentation mark will be penalized.
The semifinal and final rounds will be in-person.
The three teams (one per corporate partner) advancing to the final round will have 20 minutes to present the same PowerPoint presentation from the semifinal round. However, there will be no judge Q&A in the final round.
All secondary research sources must be cited, and all primary research methods must be described in detail in the presentation appendix.
Up to two hours of faculty advising/coaching is permitted and must be documented in the presentation appendix
University name, logo, or colors should not be included in your presentation. However, team member names can be used
Video and other media ARE allowed
Semifinal teams must submit a final PowerPoint presentation (PPT or PDF file) to their competition liaison by 5 pm EST on the day before the semifinal competition. No changes may be made to the presentation after this submission
Business formal attire is expected

Case Competition Questions

Yes. All undergraduate and graduate students are invited to apply, regardless of major or concentration.

No, we encourage all students interested in these issues to apply. However, all students on a team must attend the same university.

Yes. However, there is a maximum of two teams from any given university that can be promoted to the semifinals.

Corporate partners will be announced by December 11, 2023.

No.

No. PowerPoint Statement of Intention will be separated from other application materials that include university name. The screening committee members will only receive the PowerPoint Statement of Intention.

Please email us for anything not discussed here.

Our Goals

Education

Educate students on the history of systemic racism in the United States and how they can address systemic issues through innovative and strategic thinking and development of actionable solutions.
Action

Provide corporations with actionable and impactful strategies for addressing racial inequality through targeted initiatives, philanthropy and education.
Reflection

Through the Making the Case for Change weekend, we hope to create a space for students and sponsors alike to connect and gain perspective on racial equity.