The traffic cone in Glasgow that capped off a leadership journey

Picture this: Mike Baca Soto, a Peruvian Master of Business Administration (MBA) student at Winnipeg’s Asper School of Business, is in a bar in Glasgow, Scotland, playfully yelling soccer chants with his arms wrapped around some of his classmates, and some locals. 

This was actually a turning point on his leadership journey. 

First, a little bit about how we got here. 
 

From Peru to Canada 

When Mike first started university in Peru, he thought he was going to become an accountant, just like his parents—until he took a marketing class that made him stop in his tracks. 

Number-focused jobs often have clean solutions, but marketing jobs don’t. That’s what interested him. “I think it's a challenge of the industry that I liked. There’s an element of psychology too, understanding what your audience is looking for, and conveying a strong message,” Mike said.

After completing his degree in marketing, he couldn’t find the opportunities he craved to level up to his ambitious goal: to become a chief marketing officer (CMO), crafting the message and storytelling of a large organization. 

After a stint in Utah, he moved to Manitoba, Canada at the urging of a friend, and enrolled at the Stu Clark Graduate School’s MBA program in 2023, hoping to fast-track his road to the C-suite. 

Since then, Mike’s storyline reads a little bit like the Game of Life. He got a job working in Digital Marketing at Bank of Montreal, took MBA classes in the evening, got married, and found a permanent home in Winnipeg.

From classroom knowledge to real-world application 

What I haven’t told you yet is that Mike has a reserved, understated demeanor. 

If your typical image of a CMO involves flashy clothes and loud jokes about cost-benefit analyses, that’s nothing like Mike. He is a casual, thinker type with relatable passions for burritos, beer and soccer. 

If his ideal working day-to-day eventually involves getting stakeholders fired up about search engine optimization (SEO)—he was going to need an extra boost beyond his classroom knowledge. 

Enter: case competitions—an extracurricular, experiential learning activity for business students. Student teams are given a real-world business problem and a deadline. At the end, they present their solutions to industry experts, who know what they’re talking about. 

Is it challenging? Yes! They’re often described by Asper students as “academic escape rooms.” Was that music to Mike’s ears? Absolutely! He jumped at the chance to take part. 

From soft-spoken to confident

Despite having great ideas, Mike didn’t contribute as much as he would’ve liked at his first competition in Ontario.

“I was almost like a passenger,” he said. “In my first case, I sidelined myself. I was struggling with getting my voice out.” 

Slowly, the passiveness drifted away and he became more comfortable with both the challenge and his teammates; the core of which remained the same across the three competitions he participated in. 

“I had to pull in all my effort to be on par with my strong teammates,” he said. 

In his second competition in Montreal, he became more vulnerable and started sharing his ideas with his team—solving one business problem in the e-sports industry by connecting it to his interest in soccer. 

By the time Mike and his team prepared for their biggest and final competition in the United Kingdom, Mike was ready to take the last steps toward realizing his potential. 

Earning a landmark podium placement

The Asper MBA case team used the powerful symbolism of the statue in their final presentation. Mike had finally gained the confidence to become the driver, not the passenger, in his team. 

For the final case, Mike and his team were challenged to help the Commonwealth Games (taking place in Glasgow) boost attendance and public support through marketing and cultural storytelling. 

Drawing on his marketing expertise, Mike helped rally the team around a single idea: a citywide treasure hunt for traffic cone stickers that would reveal exciting announcements leading up to the Games.

“I learned to believe in what I know and how I can convey that to the team,” he said. “I led us in narrowing every idea and bringing it all together.”

Impressing judges with their intimate knowledge of Glasgow, the team won their division and placed second overall, earning Asper’s first graduate-level case competition win on an international platform. 
 

Reflecting on an unforgettable experiential learning opportunity

“In case competitions, you’re learning something that’s not in the textbook. It’s about what real businesses are going through right now,” said Mike. “It has really given me the skills I need to move up to the next level in my career.” 

Confidence. Storytelling. Thinking in unique contexts. Leading a team that utilizes everyone’s strengths. Mike estimates that the CMO-level skills he gained from his three competitions would’ve taken him five years in the workplace to gain otherwise. 

“It would’ve taken a lot of trial and error, but case competitions gave me a safe environment to practice my leadership skills,” Mike said.