MBA students win 1st out of 6 schools

Traveling deep into the heart of Texas for a business competition, a group of second-year Kelly School of Business MBA students had good reason \nto say, “Houston, we have a problem.” \nIt was a business case problem that called on the students to design a solution in an intense five-hour competition with other schools from across the country. \nJudges from Microsoft and Dell liked IU’s solution so well that the team took home first prize at the 2007 Dell & Microsoft Marketing Case Competition. \nBusiness graduate students Peter Kuo, Carolina Hoyos, Justin Chafe and Rob Bakalar applied to the competition last spring along with 40 other teams. They were invited, along with only six other schools, to compete in early October. \nHoyos said she organized the team to enter the competition. She looked for classmates with diverse backgrounds who demonstrated certain strengths in the classroom that would benefit a team in competition. \nBefore leaving to compete in Houston, the team researched and practiced with fake business cases to prepare. \nKuo said the group won because it worked hard to prepare and delegated tasks well. \n“We went into the competition knowing what our expectations were,” Kuo said. “We knew each other’s work styles and became team players fairly quickly. There were no egos because we recognized the unique aspects we all brought to the team.” \nThe MBA students were asked at the competition to devise a strategy for Dell to take advantage of additional retail channels other than Wal-Mart. The groups were given five hours to research, 20 minutes to present their solutions and 10 minutes for questions from judges. \nBusiness case competitions give corporations ideas that they may use in the future as part of their business strategies, Kuo said. \n“It was really a chance for companies like Dell and Microsoft to get new ideas,” he said. “They want in on the creative process demonstrated at these competitions ... And our idea was simple, but it was one they hadn’t considered before.” \nProfessor Paul Friga, who is responsible for organizing teams from Kelley for business case competitions, said that groups from the school enter about 15 to 20 competitions a year. \n“We see case competitions as learning experiences,” Friga said. “It’s another way to get a business education: traveling, making contacts and so on.” \nOften, business case competitions provide intimate networking opportunities for students that they wouldn’t otherwise receive, Hoyos said. \n“When else can you talk to top executives from Microsoft or Dell? After the competition, they were very willing to give us informal feedback and talk to us about job opportunities,” Hoyos said. \nFriga said the IU team should be proud because it bested groups from other elite institutions from across the country, including groups from Northwestern University, Rice University and Emory University, among others.\n“These students should be commended for the hard work, skills, initiative and commitment they showed that allowed them to win,” Friga said. “Kelley has a strong heritage of placing at national competitions and now they’re a part of that.”