Rice Paper Consulting rolls out winning strategy for 2025 BCom Case Competition
By Samya Vaid
The 2025 BCom Case Competition tasked students with designing a business strategy for Roll’d Australia to boost loyalty and attract new customers through digital innovation, personalisation, sustainability, and creative marketing.
A shared love of rice paper rolls and a passion for solving real-world business problems brought together four University of Melbourne students to form Rice Paper Consulting, the winning team of the 2025 BCom Case Competition.
Angel, Samya, and Kirara, all active members of the university club Startup Link, first connected, and met their final team member, Monalika, at the Team Mixer. With just weeks to prepare, they tackled a live brief from Vietnamese fast-casual chain Roll’d, aiming to reimagine customer engagement through the lens of digital innovation.
A team with complementary strengths
Having only just met, we were unsure of what challenges the competition would bring, or how well we’d work together. Our open communication and complementary skills helped us to quickly come together and work effectively as a team.
Our diverse backgrounds and complementary skill sets were key to our success. Attending the ‘Storytelling Through Slides’ workshop enhanced our understanding of narrative structure and visual communication, which shaped our research approach and final presentation. Angel and Samya, both experienced in case competitions, brought sharp analytical and consulting skills. Samya led our financial modelling, ensuring the solution was grounded in commercial feasibility, while Angel developed a working prototype to demonstrate its practical application.
Monalika contributed strong storytelling and public speaking skills, elevating our final presentation with clarity and impact. Kirara played a central coordination role, managing deadlines, dividing tasks, and maintaining team momentum across the six-week challenge.
Innovating within real-world constraints
This year’s case challenged teams to enhance customer engagement for Vietnamese fast-casual chain Roll’d. One of the biggest challenges we faced was balancing innovation with feasibility. Since Roll’d didn’t operate its own standalone app, we had to tailor our strategy within the technical capabilities of their existing partnership with Liven. We conducted in-depth research into the platform’s capabilities and looked for creative ways to enhance customer experience using existing functionalities.
Like many students, we managed competing demands, including mid-semester exams, internships, and club activities while working through the competition. During one late-night meeting, fatigue began to show, but mutual encouragement, regular check-ins, and reflections helped us push through.
A highlight of the competition was presenting our interactive prototype, which featured screen-recorded flows rather than static slides. This allowed the judges to visualise how users would interact with our proposed solution in real-time, which set us apart from other teams. We were inspired by startups that have created seamless digital experiences with limited resources, which motivated us to push the boundaries within Roll’d’s current tech stack. Taking home first place validated our innovative approach.
Reflection
By participating in this year’s BCom Case Competition, we built critical skills in problem-solving, teamwork, research, and communication, which are essential for today’s job market. The competition also gave us a chance to connect with professionals from both the sponsor firms and the Roll’d team. After the finals, a few of us stayed back to speak with the judges, which led to some meaningful LinkedIn connections and follow-up conversations. Moving forward, we’re eager to explore career paths where we can apply our growing technical skills to solve real problems and create user-focused impact.
For students considering this competition, our advice is to just go for it. Whether or not you have consulting experience, the BCom Case Competition is a fantastic place to start, as it eases you into the case competition space with structured support and industry feedback. Whether or not the outcome is a trophy, the experience will leave you more capable, more resilient, and ready for whatever comes next. The experience will challenge you to step outside your comfort zone and apply classroom learning to real-world business challenges.
The journey was unforgettable for us and created a shared memory that really stands out as a highlight of our university journey.
The BCom Case Competition continues to be a launchpad for BCom students ready to challenge themselves, build capability, and make an impact.