IU KELLEY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS MBA PROGRAM 60TH ANNIVERSARY BOOKLET Section 8
TEAM ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Success in business almost always depends on great teamwork. At Kelley, MBA students experience teamwork first hand. And when they team up, Kelley MBAs accomplish great things.
Case Competitions
Walk into the Kelley MBA lounge and you’ll see them: row after row of case competition banners honoring students who stepped up, went head to head against the best and brightest from other business schools, and triumphed. Case competitions are a great source of pride for the school and for every student who takes on the challenge.
Ahead of the Competition at Dell and Microsoft
For 2nd year MBA Carolina Hoyos, the best part of winning the 2007 Dell & Microsoft Marketing Case Competition at the National Society of Hispanic MBAs 18th Annual Conference and Career Expo was the opportunity to enhance Kelley’s reputation.
"I had a lot of fun working with my classmates and winning just showed the rest how great Kelley is and what we are capable of," she said.
Competing against teams from other top MBA program, including Northwestern, Rice, Emory, Florida International and UT Dallas, the Kelley team—also including 2nd year MBA candidates Rob Bakalar, Justin Chafe and Peter Kuo—came up with a retail strategy case analysis and presentation that won over the judges from Dell and Microsoft. The winners each received a Dell Inspiron Laptop and Xbox 360 video game console. But their most valuable prize was a private networking reception with Dell and Microsoft executives.
Making a Strong Case at Cornell
The Cornell Marketing Case Competition pitted a team of Kelley MBAs against heavyweights from UC Berkeley, Washington, Michigan, Chicago, Stern, Cornell and Purdue. The challenge: develop a new vision and marketing strategy for Cheetos to double sales. The victor . . . Kelley! The winning team--MBA students Guillermo Garau, Glory Alcantara, Anthony Davis and Freddy Mino—returned to Kelley with the $6000 first place prize in hand.
Big 10 Champions
Think of the Big 10 and powerhouse college football comes to mind. But IU, Michigan, Ohio State and other schools are no less competitive when it comes to the annual Big 10 case competition for first year MBAs, hosted at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University. In 2007, the Kelley School team of Manish Mathur, Bhavin Shah, John Donald Walter and Abhi Nadgir took first prize. For Mathur, the victory was a true team effort.
“If you think, work and achieve as team, individual rewards will take care of themselves,” he said.
Adding to the team’s triumph, Abhi Nadgir also won first place for best presenter.
To Incorporate or Not to Incorporate . . .
Residents of Center Grove, a small community 20 miles south of Indianapolis, are faced with a tough choice. They can incorporate and become and city, but then have to swallow a substantial tax burden. Or Center Grove can remain an unincorporated suburb and see their best commercial property annexed by nearby cities—a move that would require resident to pay more taxes for the upkeep of roads and public safety. And the longer they wait to decide, the more valuable commercial property gets gobbled up.
To help decide, Center Grove turned to the Kelley School.
Working with associate professor of strategic management Paul Friga, a team of Kelley MBA students took on the challenge. After 3000 hours spent delving into the complex issues of zoning, planning, taxation and infrastructure, the Kelley team reached a conclusion: Center Grove should take the necessary steps to become a city and bear the extra tax burden. They presented their study to a group of Center Grove residents, who were impressed and grateful.
“We wanted help in our own backyard,” said Center Grove resident Anita Knowles. “It was a wonderful study and it created the catalyst we were hoping for to get the community talking.”
2nd year MBA and team member Alan Burleson found the experience invaluable. “It was a great opportunity because it allowed us to take our academic knowledge and transfer it to a live project with real implications.”
Location, Location, Location
What would you do with pristine beachfront property on remote desert island in the Gulf of Mexico? That was the challenge put to Kelley undergraduate and MBA students by Kelley alumnus Stanley Benecki (BS ’81), an Atlanta-based developer who in 2007 gifted the Kelley School five lots on Dog Island, Florida. Stanley donated the property, he said, to “give students an opportunity to play developer by getting out there and figuring out ways to market and increase the lots’ value.”
Students are working with Jeffrey Fisher, director of the Benecki Center for Real Estate Studies, to market and sell the island. For 2nd year MBA student Kyle Szymanczyk, the opportunity to work on a real development project was priceless.
“Traveling to the development site and interacting with real estate and other professionals provided an insight into the development process that you can’t get in the classroom,” he said. “It was an experience that you could only get as a Kelley student because of the passion and generosity of the faculty and the alumni of this school."