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02-22-07

Contact:

Ron Ackerman, College of Business, (515) 294-2585, rjacker@iastate.edu

Mike Crum, College of Business, (515) 294-2422, mcrum@iastate.edu

IOWA STATE MBAS AIM TO BE BIG 12'S BEST

AMES, Iowa — In April 2005, the College of Business held its first internal case competition, where teams of four first-year MBA students were given 24 hours to analyze a Harvard-style strategic management case. The students played the roles of management consultants, who had to present their recommendations to panel of executives and faculty, who assumed the position of the company’s board of directors.

Just two years later, a team of Iowa State MBA “consultants” is among the best in the Big 12.

The College of Business hosted the preliminary round of the inaugural Big 12 MBA Case Competition on Friday and Saturday, February 16-17 in the Gerdin Business Building. Each business school from the Big 12 North universities sent a four-person team to compete. Teams from Iowa State University and the University of Colorado at Boulder were chosen as the North’s best.

Members of the Iowa State MBA team include Michael Conger of Ames, Elizabeth Hattery of Nevada, Doug Van Werden of Osceola, and Tharangi Ranasinghe of Pannipitiya, Sri Lanka. The team's faculty coach is Brad Shrader, William and Elizabeth Goodwin Fellow in Management. Helping to plan the competition at Iowa State were Michael Crum, associate dean for graduate programs and John and Ruth DeVries Endowed Chair in Business; Jeffrey Kaufmann, assistant professor of management; and Ron Ackerman, director of graduate admissions and student services.

Conger was also selected by the judges as one of two individual award winners. Conger was chosen as the best overall presenter from all competing teams. Adriana Cisneros from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was chosen as the best from the question-and-answer session with the judges.

At the same time as the North competition in Ames, a preliminary competition featuring Big 12 South schools was held at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. The University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University were honored as the best in the South.

Both the North and South preliminary competitions presented students with the same case, about an entrepreneur marketing a new medical device to a market that did not see a need for it. It touched on two subjects – entrepreneurship and the health care industry – that organizers felt deserved more attention from business schools.

The two North schools and the two South schools were scheduled to compete in the “Final Four” round at the University of Oklahoma March 9-11, which had not yet taken place as of this writing. The final round was scheduled for the same time and location as the Big 12 Men’s Basketball Tournament in Oklahoma City, and organizers hope to link this new case competition with the conference basketball tournament each year.

“These case competitions showcase the talents of top MBA students who apply their creative skills and problem-solving abilities to a company facing strategic issues in a prepared business case,” said Ackerman.

Crum noted the significance of holding an MBA case competition among Big 12 schools. “The primary purposes are to provide an exciting learning and networking opportunity for our students, a vehicle for increased collaboration among the business schools in the conference, and to showcase the business schools of the conference and provide national exposure,” said Crum. It was the latter objective, he said, that led to the decision to hold the find round of the case competition during one of the Big 12’s premier athletic events.

And Iowa State could not have asked for more from its North preliminary round. Not only did competing teams comment on Iowa State’s hospitality and overall quality as a host, but its team advanced.

“The value of having the event at Iowa State and having it presented as beautifully as it was is immeasurable,” said Crum. “Besides the obvious positive reflection on Iowa State's MBA program, we have already made plans to participate in other academic events that were recommended by our colleagues at the other schools.”

Ackerman pointed out the significance of advancing to the final round of this inaugural competition. “It tells us that we’ve come a long way as a program in just 20 years,” he said. “It says a lot about how our students are being prepared in the classroom. Our faculty deserves much of the credit,” he said.

“Having sat in on many of the presentations, I can say that they were all of very high quality,” said Crum. “So it was very gratifying for both our students and our faculty to have our team selected to advance to the final round. The excellence of the competition made our selection even more meaningful.”

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