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Students brainstorm to save Indigo at business competition

Teens from across the district tackled the store's challenges circa 2012 at the inaugural case competition.
Elevate Case Competition
Richmond students had a couple of hours to put themselves in the shoes of consultants for Indigo circa 2012 and come up with a marketing strategy to bolster its flagging revenue. Photo: Submitted

Dozens of Richmond students devised business solutions for Canadian book chain Indigo Saturday, suggesting how it could reverse its declining revenues at the first-ever Elevate Business Case Competition.

The students, working for a tense few hours at Richmond Secondary, delved into the business’ 2012 problem, with the hopes of presenting a solution to impress the panel of judges.

Indigo Case Competition
Students tackled a real-life problem faced by Canadian book chain Indigo in 2012. Photo: Submitted

The day was entirely organized by students on the Richmond Student District Council Organization (RSDCO), who lined up keynote speakers, recruited judges and chose the case, based on a real-life scenario Indigo faced seven years ago.

“I thought this would almost be impossible. I thought everything would go wrong the day of and it might be a big flop. But it was the complete opposite. Everybody was able to pull together and execute,” said Hasan Altaf, RSDCO finance chair.

Business competition
Organizers hoped this case competition, open to all Richmond public school students, would be less intimidating than existing province-wide ones. Photo: Submitted

The Grade 12 student loves the thrill of case competitions, and wanted to create one open to all public school students in Richmond. He said this one could be less intimidating than province-wide or national ones that already exist.

About 70 kids attended, and they broke off into groups of three to five to come up with a marketing strategy to help the Canadian book chain at a time when it was struggling.

Some students suggested it add cafes to its stores, some explored subscription services and others looked into how it could wade into the e-book market. 

“I was actually really impressed. The slide decks were really professional and they put a lot of thought into the solutions,” Altaf said.

In the end, a group of three students won first place because they backed up their solution with numbers and presented it succinctly in the four-minute window.

RSDCO chairs
RSDCO chairs Hasan Altaf, Joey Huang and Kerrie Ye organized the inaugural business competition. Photo: Submitted

“Our vision is for students to scale new heights in business, marketing and finance while networking with professionals and gaining noteworthy experience to support their future endeavours,” Joey Huang, RSDCO chair, wrote in an email.

RSDCO is a relatively new student organization, formalized in September, that aims to help students discover their passions and develop leadership skills. While a student council organizes events at an individual high school, RSDCO creates events for students across the city.