2008 Headlines
Johnson School Students Place Second in Tepper's International Case Competition
Team addressed a real-world operations and global supply chain issue and led the pack in the question and answer session
November 13, 2008 | Ithaca, NY | A Johnson School team fielded by the General Management Association and comprised of MBA students Adam Treadwell (MBA '09), Ben Fielding (MBA '09), Chris Atwell (MBA '09), Tayfun Uslu (AMBA '09), and Tiago Khouri (MBA '10) took second place and a $4,000 prize at the 13th Annual International Case Competition hosted by the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, held November 7-8. The teams were judged by representatives from Thermo Fisher Scientific, Eaton Corporation, and SmartOps. Additional financial sponsorship for the competition was provided by Honeywell, Cooper Industries, and Amazon.com.
The competition pitted student groups from 16 top business schools from the U.S. and abroad against each other to address a real-world operations/supply chain issue and present solutions relevant in a complex global economy. This year's challenge focused on SKU rationalization and supply chain cost cutting opportunities resulting from recent acquisitions in Thermo Fisher's liquid handling business. MIT's Sloan School of Management took the top prize. Michigan State placed third. Carnegie Mellon was awarded honorable mention.
The format consisted of a half-hour orientation to the case problem before teams were dismissed for the next five hours to digest spreadsheets of data, formulate a viable strategy, and submit presentation materials—all without access to written texts or the Internet. The presentations began early the next morning. Four of the 16 teams advanced to the final-round presentations.
The Johnson School's strategy, which centered on facility consolidation and SKU reduction, was unique in that it focused primarily on closing an entire factory. However, their key advantage against the competition was found in the question and answer sections. Said Treadwell, "We had to rely on our ability to crisply and confidently substantiate our strategy—that's primarily what carried us. In addition, our team's diverse background of experience and skills was another key asset in this regard."
The case competition was the first any of the Johnson School students had participated in. They joked that it also might be their last. "I'm not sure I'm ready to repeat that process quite yet," quipped Treadwell, who also endured the competition with a recently broken collarbone. "The last time I slept so little was when my first child was born. It was intense—just like surviving Roni Michaeli's core finance class, except not quite as much cold-calling."
Participating schools were Cornell (Johnson), MIT (Sloan), Duke (Fuqua), Michigan (Ross), Virginia (Darden), Georgetown (McDonough), Georgia Tech, Michigan State (Broad), Texas (McCombs), Vanderbilt (Owen), Indiana (Kelley), North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler), Purdue (Krannert), Toronto (Rotman), Oestrich-Winkel (European Business School), and Carnegie Mellon (Tepper).
For more information on the International Case Competition, log onto http://tinyurl.com/ICCCompetition.
