College of Business Administration Quarterly Newsletter
                                                                                                            April 2006 - Volume 6.1

COBA Homepage :: The Executive ::  COBA MBA Students Win 4th Annual Florida Intercollegiate Business Case Competition

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COBA MBA Students Win 4th Annual Florida Intercollegiate Business Case Competition
“It all starts with a desire to compete, to grow, and to learn,” states Jon Smith, (MBA, ‘07), regarding the 4th Annual Florida Intercollegiate Business Case Competition.   The event took place February 24th and 25th at the University of South Florida’s (USF) Tampa campus, which is the central location for all the competing universities.  USF’s team, which included Jon Smith, Qiong Lin (MBA, ‘07), Dinesh Nagaraj (MBA, ‘06), Jack Mendell, (MA, ‘07), and Estela Cabrero, (MBA, ’07) represented the university well as they won the competition with a remarkable group effort.
 

The College of Business Administration (COBA) at USF provides exceptional opportunities for their students, as well as for students all across Florida.  The case competition was created by two COBA professors – Mike Bowen and Maryanne Rouse.  Students from Florida State University, Florida International University, Florida Atlantic University and USF all participated in this year’s event.
 

The purpose of the competition is to challenge students with a true-to-life business situation and ask for a creative means of resolution.  Participants receive a package filled with a company’s information on Friday morning at 9:30 am, and they have until the following morning at 8 am to provide a thorough analysis and PowerPoint presentation.  “It provides an opportunity for students to test themselves against students from other universities in an intense, competitive, high-stress environment,” Bowen explains.  Rouse adds: “It really is a business simulation.  Senior level managers tell us they are faced with these situations often.  In real life, you don’t have an entire semester to create a presentation.”

 The event attracts industry leaders, such as Nike, Pfizer, Tyson, GM, Xerox, TECO, Outback, and this year AirTran Holdings Corporation to participate as subject case companies. Leading business professionals are also asked to judge the competition.  Arne Haak, Vice President and Treasurer of AirTran was present this year to represent the case company and judge the competition.

Back row (left – right): Judges Steve Oscher,
Samantha Robinson, Matt Crowley, Dale Schumacher,
COBA Executive in Residence, George Seegers, and
Air Tran’s Arne Haak. Front row (left-right): USF’s
winning team members Qiong Lin, Dinesh Nagaraj,
Estela Cabrero, Jon Smith, and Jack Mendell.
Other judges included Steve Oscher, CEO, Oscher Consulting, Dale Schumacher, President, Tampa Bay Federal Credit Union, Samantha Robinson, Director of Training & Development, The Teague Financial Group Inc., Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, and Matthew Crowley, Corporate Counsel, Technicolor, Corporation.
 
Students get a chance to stand out as they demonstrate their capabilities.  “We’ve had many students obtain jobs at the judges’ companies as a result of this competition,” claims Bowen.  It’s not an easy task, and all the participants are aware of that. The student teams have only 24 hours to prepare a professional analysis of the case and present their results to a distinguished senior executive at the subject company, telling them what their company could do better or differently. “It’s very intimidating,” Bowen asserts.
 




“The greatest lesson I learned
[from the competition]
is the importance of teamwork.”

 “The greatest lesson I learned [from the competition] is the importance of teamwork,” Mendell from COBA’s winning team expresses. “It was the one thing that set us apart from the other teams. Our team knew the company inside and out.  We answered every question dead on.  In a business writing course I took, my professor always stressed the significance of having a solid management team in order to make a company work.  It’s very true; we needed to be able to compliment each other’s strengths and weakness and to perform.  And we did.”
 
Students are not the only ones who benefit from this event.  The companies have an opportunity to listen to some of the best MBA students in Florida talk about their business in detail.  “Companies and judges are getting a chance to meet and recruit some of the brightest minds across the state,” Bowen affirms.  Both Bowen and Rouse are proud that COBA Deans Robert Anderson and Rick Meyer supported their vision, and have been willing to provide the necessary support for such an excellent opportunity for the students and companies.  Bowen and Rouse hope to see this competition expand to include other state universities in coming years.