Jasmeh Singh Bhurjee

The Prompt

EY partnered with the Buckeye Undergraduate Consulting Club to run a case competition built around GreenWave Energy, a realistic (though fictional) Columbus based renewable developer that had grown to 120 megawatts across 15 solar and wind projects and was pushing for major expansion. Teams had to build a prioritized transformation roadmap across four areas: energy transition and decarbonization, digital and technology enablement, grid modernization and reliability, and community and stakeholder engagement, each broken into near term, mid term, and long term initiatives with clear risks and expected benefits.

Our Approach

My workstream owned the energy transition and decarbonization pillar. GreenWave had clean energy capacity with nowhere near enough storage to make full use of it, so after hours of research I proposed deploying battery storage on GreenWave's own solar farms first, proving the model on their own assets before selling that expertise to partner developers, as one piece of the broader plan to take the company from 120MW toward 500MW and beyond. When we presented to EY, our recommendations lined up closely with what they had actually delivered to one of their own clients facing a similar issue, which is what ended up winning us the competition.

The Ask

IVI came to our OSU case team looking for a way to grow donations coming out of the United States for their nonprofit. Their existing funding base was shrinking and heavily restricted, so the ask was open ended: find the best path to more U.S. dollars.

Our Approach

We started by digging into the numbers: IVI's funding had fallen by $18.7 million in a single year, and 82% of what remained was restricted to specific programs, leaving almost no flexibility to grow. To get past the numbers, we ran hands on interviews with people across the company to get to the root of the issue and find out what IVI had already tried on the fundraising side. Looking across the options for growing U.S. donations, we landed on the individual donor market as the biggest opportunity, since it was largely untapped for IVI and had the most upside compared to other sources, so we built a two phase plan around it: first strengthen IVI's global marketing and storytelling so American donors actually understood who IVI was and why their work mattered, then pursue U.S. fiscal sponsorship, the same approach organizations like MSF and Save the Children used to build large, recurring individual donor bases.

We got to deliver that final presentation directly to IVI's leadership team, including the Director General and COO, which was an incredible experience. They told us they genuinely learned a lot from it. They're now working on implementing several of our recommendations, including actively looking for a fiscal sponsor.

The Ask

Cintas came to our BUCC case team with a straightforward ask: help them figure out how to pitch their facility services to Insomnia Cookies, a fast growing late night bakery chain, in a way that would actually win the business. That meant digging into how Insomnia Cookies actually operates behind the counter, finding where they were exposed on cleanliness and safety, and building a pitch that solved a real, specific problem instead of just listing off services Cintas offers.

Our Approach

Instead of just working off assumptions, we actually went to an Insomnia Cookies location and talked to the people who would know best: customers, the workers behind the counter, and the store managers. That's how we found their weakest point, three nights a week with no dedicated overnight cleaning crew, which mattered because cleanliness ties directly to their Yelp ratings and revenue. We built our pitch around showing Cintas exactly how to fix that gap with a dedicated night crew, uniform optimization, and first aid and fire safety supplies, all pulling from infrastructure Cintas already had. It solved a real problem for Insomnia Cookies and opened new business for Cintas, a win win for both companies.