When we decided to participate in the Cornell Sloan x MD Anderson Healthcare Case Competition, we knew it would be a challenge to balance alongside our Executive MBA coursework and full-time roles. What drew us in was the opportunity to tackle a complex, real-world healthcare problem and present our ideas directly to industry leaders. Through two intense rounds of analysis and collaboration, we developed a strategy we were proud of — and ultimately placed third among 40+ teams from across the country.

Reflecting on the experience, we’re excited to share more about what we learned and what it was like behind the scenes.

What motivated you to participate in this case competition, and how did it align with your personal or professional interests in healthcare?

Claire: There are a surprising number of healthcare case competitions available to graduate students, so before we committed, I spent some time researching which ones would challenge us in the right ways. The Cornell Sloan x MD Anderson competition immediately stood out because it was built around a real strategic problem from one of the world’s leading cancer centers. The case asked us to develop a recommendation that balanced patient impact, operational feasibility, and financial sustainability, then defend it before an executive panel. That combination made it feel less like an academic exercise and more like the kind of decisions healthcare leaders wrestle with every day.

Just as importantly, I was intentional about the team. Garrett, Elizabeth, and I each brought different professional experiences and ways of thinking, but we shared the same level of curiosity, accountability, and respect for one another’s ideas. Looking back, choosing the right teammates was probably the most important decision we made. The recommendation we presented was stronger because it reflected three perspectives rather than one.

Elizabeth: I was eager to strengthen relationships with my fellow healthcare classmates and excited that Garrett and Claire pulled me in because I admire them both so much. Beyond the opportunity to collaborate, the case itself held a much deeper meaning for me. I lost my mom to cancer in 2009, and that experience has profoundly shaped both my life and my career. Since then, I’ve remained involved in the cancer community through volunteer work, making the opportunity to contribute to a case for MD Anderson especially meaningful.

This competition was a chance to leverage my professional skills with a mission that is deeply personal to me while working alongside an incredible team of classmates. More than a competition, the experience reaffirmed why I chose a career in healthcare to help improve the lives of patients and families navigating some of life’s most difficult moments.

Garrett: All three of us work in healthcare — across both the provider and payer sides of the industry — and we were looking for a way to challenge ourselves outside the classroom and our day jobs. This competition checked every box: a chance to stretch our thinking, network with talented students from across the country, and partner with two organizations we deeply respect. Cornell’s reputation speaks for itself, and MD Anderson is a global leader in oncology care, serving patients not just across Texas and the U.S., but worldwide. Working on a real case tied to that mission was an easy yes.

The case required balancing strategy, operations, and financial considerations. How did your team approach integrating these different perspectives into one cohesive recommendation? Were there any specific classes, frameworks, or faculty insights that directly influenced your approach?

Elizabeth: We started by aligning around the patient and the core problem we were trying to solve, then pressure-tested our recommendations through strategic, operational, and financial lenses. Fuqua’s Health Sector Management (HSM) program, particularly the foundational HSM boot camp, gave us a strong framework for understanding the complexities of the healthcare ecosystem and approaching the case from multiple stakeholder perspectives. Combined with the strategy, finance, and operations skills we developed throughout WEMBA, it helped us turn a complex challenge into a cohesive and actionable recommendation.

Claire: I’ve found that teams often rush towards solutions before they’ve agreed on the problems they’re actually trying to solve. Our team intentionally slowed ourselves down at the beginning. Before building models or designing slides, we spent significant time debating the assumptions hidden inside the case, the incentives shaping each stakeholder’s decisions, and what success would actually look like across both immediate and long-term horizons.

That critical upfront work gave us a common foundation.  Instead of treating strategy, operations, and finance as separate analyses, we used each to pressure-test the others. Our Weekend Executive MBA coursework gave us the vocabulary and frameworks to approach the problem from multiple angles, but just as valuable was learning to ask better questions before searching for answers. By the end, the recommendation felt less like a collection of ideas and more like one cohesive story.

Garrett: There’s an old saying in healthcare: no mission without margin. It sounds like a punchline, but it’s a real operating principle. You can’t expand access, improve patient volume, or invest in your people — physicians, nurses, biomedical and facilities teams alike — without a financially sound foundation. At the same time, a brilliant financial model means nothing if it isn’t operationally realistic.

We leaned on our collective industry experience to bridge these often-competing incentives, building a recommendation that was financially sound, operationally actionable, and paired with a clear implementation roadmap and timeline. Coursework played a real role here too — our Leadership, Ethics, and Organizations class helped us think through incentive alignment, while our finance course with Professor Alon Brav sharpened our financial rigor. Finally, Professor Ashley Shelby Rosette’s Leadership course shaped how we ultimately presented ourselves — as confident experts delivering a unified recommendation.

What was it like managing the competition on top of your existing responsibilities? Is there anything you would do differently?

Garrett: The moment we committed, Claire — our fearless team lead — helped us map out a shared calendar with defined availability and recurring meeting times, some nearly daily. It wasn’t easy. Across two rounds, we put in roughly four hours a night for a week at a time. But we set expectations early: this was a shared priority, and we were all in to win.

Just as important, we made sure to take care of each other along the way — very much in the “Team Fuqua” spirit of putting people first, even under pressure. If we could change one thing: we built our solution around a storyboard, dividing sections among team members and reconvening to integrate our thinking. In hindsight, doing more of that ideation in person — whiteboarding together rather than iterating virtually — would have made our early brainstorming even sharper.

Virtual collaboration works, but there’s a spark that’s hard to replicate outside the room. Given that we’re spread across different cities, that wasn’t always feasible, but we could have carved out time during an on-campus session.

Elizabeth: It was definitely a grind but one that was incredibly rewarding. I became a new mom last year and returned to work one month before our competition, so balancing a full-time job, a new baby, my executive MBA, and an intense case competition sometimes felt like I was taking on too much. I still laugh thinking about one of our late-night team calls where I was literally falling asleep on camera!

The competition is truly a sprint, with daily meetings and multi-hour evening work sessions to produce a high-quality solution in a short amount of time. Thankfully, I had an incredible team that supported one another, stepped in when needed, and made the experience not only manageable but genuinely enjoyable.

If I could do anything differently, I would have spent more time developing the financial model. It was one of the most impactful components of our recommendation, and I would have loved the opportunity to dive even deeper into that aspect of the case.

Claire: The biggest challenge wasn’t simply finding enough time. It was protecting enough uninterrupted time to think well. As working professional students, we must balance full-time careers, coursework, and life outside the classroom, while many of the other teams were full-time graduate students who could dedicate more time to the competition. We knew we couldn’t simply outwork others by putting in more hours, rather we had to be extremely intentional about how we used the time we had.

That meant establishing a rhythm early, dividing ownership thoughtfully, and creating an environment where everyone felt comfortable challenging assumptions without slowing down the process. One of the things I’m proudest of is how quickly our team built that trust. If I could change one thing, it would simply be having more time. Not because I think we missed the mark, but because I know how much stronger good ideas become when you give thoughtful people another week to refine them. Finishing third under those circumstances made the outcome especially meaningful.

What skills do you think are most critical for tackling complex healthcare challenges like this one?

Garrett: Healthcare strategy often comes back to the “quadruple aim”: provider well-being, patient experience, cost reduction, and population health — moving beyond fee-for-service toward care that serves entire communities.

At the core of all four is the same tension: payers, providers, and patients don’t always have aligned incentives. The most critical skill is learning to navigate that — first, identifying which incentives are actually in play for a given problem; second, understanding where they conflict or align; and third, designing strategies that bring divergent interests together so every stakeholder is moving in the same direction. That means breaking a problem down to its root causes, mapping the motivations behind it, and building a framework that brings the right stakeholders to the table with a shared, actionable path forward.

Claire: I think one of the most underrated skills in healthcare is learning to ask better questions. Our industry has no shortage of smart people, data, or competing opinions. What often determines the quality of a decision is whether someone is willing to pause long enough to ask if the team is solving the right problem in the first place.

That mindset shaped our entire approach to the competition. Every time we thought we had the answer, we challenged ourselves to look at the problem through another stakeholder’s perspective or test a different assumption. In my experience, the strongest solutions emerge from teams that are genuinely curious enough to keep improving the question until the answer becomes clearer.

Elizabeth: One of the most important skills for tackling complex healthcare challenges is the ability to think beyond traditional silos and view healthcare through the lens of the whole patient. Many of the industry’s biggest challenges can’t be solved by a single clinician, organization, or intervention, they require multidisciplinary collaboration that brings together physicians, nurses, behavioral health specialists, social workers, pharmacists, financial counselors, and other members of the care team to address the full spectrum of a patient’s needs. The most impactful healthcare innovations are those that recognize that whole-person care requires diverse perspectives working toward a shared goal.

What advice would you give to other Weekend Executive MBA students considering a case competition?

Elizabeth: My biggest piece of advice is to say yes. Case competitions are an incredible opportunity to apply what you’re learning in the classroom to a real-world challenge while building meaningful relationships with your classmates. They also provide a rare opportunity to present your ideas to a C-suite audience, making them an invaluable environment to sharpen your executive presence and presentation skills. It’s a demanding experience, but will be one of the most rewarding parts of my journey.

Garrett: Do it. It’s genuinely one of the most rewarding things you can do alongside the program — you’ll meet driven, brilliant people from across the country, and the networking pays off long after the competition ends. It’s also a lot of work, no sugarcoating that. But it’s an incredible way to put what you’re learning in class — and what you already know from your career — into practice under real pressure. Highly recommend.

Claire: Be intentional. Be intentional about the competition you choose, because not every case will stretch you in the same way. Be intentional about who you invite onto your team, because the people will shape the experience as much as the problem itself. And once you’re in it, embrace the discomfort. The most valuable moments usually come when your first idea falls apart and the team has to build something better together.

Placing third was incredibly rewarding, but it isn’t what I treasure most. Above all, I truly value the conversations that changed our thinking, the trust that developed over a remarkably short period of time, and the satisfaction of watching an idea evolve into something none of us could have created on our own. The competition challenges you, but the people and the process are what stay with you. I hope every student gets to experience this truly unique and special opportunity.