“This was a lot of work in a short period of time, but look at how cool this is,” Haynes said. “I’ve never been in a room with this many diverse students in my life.”
The annual case competition took place Friday and Saturday. The competition, which brought teams from 34 different schools this year, was started by students five years ago and is sponsored primarily by Target.
“These teams of students get a real-world business problem, or case, and are asked to come up with solutions,” said Laurie Colglazier, associate director of the Kelley Undergraduate Program. “Target writes the case each year based on a diversity issue, which is something that definitely sets our competition apart from others.”
This year’s case asked students to develop a strategy to acknowledge Target’s support of the LGBT community. Target executives often end up actually using many of the ideas and solutions they hear from students in the competition, Colglazier said.
At least two of the four members on each team are required to be members of an underrepresented minority. The competition takes place over the weekend of Martin Luther King Jr. Day each year as a way for the Kelley School of Business to acknowledge his legacy, Colglazier said.
“I think it’s a very good move to be promoting diversity so strongly at a business school that isn’t really very diverse,” sophomore Mica Caine said. “Many business schools aren’t in general, which is why it’s so exciting to see so many talented, diverse people in one place here.”
Caine and her twin sister, Maya, were members of IU’s team for the competition last year. This year, they helped coach the new team.
“A lot of companies now are starting these huge programs to try to engage and promote diversity,” Maya said. “There’s really no better way to make those successful than to get diverse students themselves involved.”
The Caine sisters helped encourage most of this year’s team members to get involved in the competition, freshman Yi Cui said.
“I was pretty much dragged into this by them at the last minute,” Cui said. “But this is so much cooler than a lot of other competitions and presentations because no matter where everyone is from, we’re all coming out a little more open-minded.”
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s team won the Case Competition this year, taking home $7,500 from a $20,000 prize pool. Fourteen teams took home cash prizes.
Participating students all get opportunities to network with corporate sponsors and watch other teams’ presentations, said Mike Tiller, director of the Case Competition.
“More important than the competition aspect here is the chance to engage in conversation with other people on how to get along,” Tiller said. “The reason people don’t understand each other is because they don’t talk and listen to each other. Even competitive events like this can fix that.”
Most of the competing students are freshmen and sophomores who have never made presentations outside of a classroom, Tiller said. He said it is also often their first chance to meet potential employers.
“Between that and the diversity component, this is the first experience of this type many of them have ever had,” Tiller said. “And any time you can give someone a brand new experience, that’s when learning really happens.”
