News Releases

MBA students find success in case competitions

Thursday, June 4, 2009

BY LAURA WOLFE

Each spring, the School of Business MBA program encourages its students to participate in case competitions in which they analyze and present a solution to a real-life business problem within 24 hours. These competitions are often judged by executives from top companies and allow students to showcase their ability to think clearly under pressure. This spring's competitions have included the KU/Sun Yat-Sen International Case Competition in Shanghai, the Big 12 case competition, hosted by Baylor University, the Neeley Sales & Marketing Strategy Competition sponsored by Sony Electronics, hosted by Texas Christian University, and the CIBER International competition, hosted by KU and including students from Sun Yat-Sen University in China.

"These competitions allow students to network with top executives and other MBA students," said professor Chuck Krider, MBA academic director.

Sixteen School of Business MBA students traveled to Shanghai at the end of May to participate in a case competition with students from Sun-Yat Sen University. Each team consisted of four participants, two from the KU School of Business and two Chinese students from Sun-Yat Sen University. Teams presented their recommendations for how to improve Wal-Mart's standing in the Chinese market to five directors from the company on May 31. Members of the winning team included KU MBA students Nick Arthachinda and Matt Lehrman.

"The most interesting thing was the alternative perspective on how businesses could be run. The cultural differences produce a very different understanding of how businesses interact with customers and meet customer needs," said Matt Lehrman, second-year MBA student. "In terms of international business, I learned that success is measured differently in every country. Cultural norms define the goals as much or more so than the bottom line does. The experience was an excellent introduction into how to do business in China and will give everyone on the trip an advantage in any job."

MBA student Jean Paul Michaud represented the KU School of Business on the winning team of MBA students from six different schools in the second annual Neeley Sales & Marketing Strategy Competition held at TCU. Sixty students from 23 universities across the nation competed in randomly selected teams. Sony Electronics executives acted as judges. The teams were given the task of developing a marketing and sales strategy for a potential Sony product.

"The Sony case competition provided a great opportunity to network with other KU MBAs as well as MBA students from across the country and the Sony Executives," Michaud said.

The Neeley Sales & Marketing Strategy Competition included MBA students from such schools as Yale School of Management, Mendoza College of Business at Notre Dame, which also had a student on the first place team, and Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Members of the winning team received $6,000 and a Sony Cyber-shot camera, and all participants received Sony
noise-cancelling headphones.

The winning team from the KU first-year MBA competition in January was selected to represent the KU School of Business at the Big 12 case competition in April. The School of Business team was the runner-up in its division, in which students worked on a project for the marketing company DMX, based in Austin, Texas. The team presented the idea of using applications on cell phones, like Blackberry and the iPhone, to grow the company's business. The example cell phone application presented by the team was one for Abercrombie & Fitch, a current DMX client, and could be downloaded for use on a Blackberry or the iPhone.

"We figured the plan made sense in that DMX already has all the music and video content it would need to program the apps," said Richard Smith, first-year MBA student.

"They re...