Spring Break
LeBow and IBM host competition
Cameron Birch
Issue date: 10/24/08 Section: News
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According to Donna Ferrari, director of Special Projects, Research and Ranking for LeBow, students participated in a corporate challenge that, "Evaluated not just [the] bottom line and price strategies," but where students were also "judged on leadership qualities, presentation qualities and team working qualities."
Brian Kall, a second-year MBA and finance graduate student, said the competition was similar to the TV show "The Apprentice." Kall said he and other students were divided into four teams in two groups, with each team consisting of one undergraduate student and two or three graduate students.
Within their respective groups, the teams competed to be first in order to move on to the second round. It was only after the second round that the winner of the IBM business simulation was declared.
According to Kall, each team received a packet of instructions, a flash drive with balance sheets, and past and current sales numbers. He said it was up to each group to increase their company's sales and make the right choices about pricing, inventory and to whom they were selling their products.
"Our job was to sell to three fictional companies," Thomas Stinson, a senior and business engineering and operations management major, said.
Stinson described how his team presented sales and collaborated on how their numbers looked in the competition.
Stinson also said he and other teams had to devise a strategy to sell their fictional company's hardware, software and maintenance systems.
Kall said his team had to make real world choices and decisions to increase revenues.
"[You have to] stick to your opinions, [but also] converse to the final decision," Weimin Ou, a graduate MBA student in financial management and international business, said. She stressed a need to work things out for the final goal - for the team to work.
Ferrari said this was one of many events that encompass "The Business of Ambition" program in LeBow. These programs help to integrate events with classes, and Ferrari said this principle was among those "A.J. Drexel founded us on."
She added that students "get information in their courses, they take it to practical applications in the Dean's Challenges, and then hopefully they take it into a job."
Ferrari said the competitions are a "practical application of what [students] are learning."
Ou said "[there is] no loser here," and, according to Stinson, the competition was "for the non-winners."
"More and more students are being asked to do case study analysis as a part of their interview," Ferrari said.
Ferrari added that the business simulations were becoming very popular in "HR circles" and that it puts prospective employees under stress to make them think quickly and verbalize their ideas.
Kall said the simulation was "high stress, [you had to make] decisions on the fly." He also added, "People that don't win will receive experience."
Ferrari said, "We're hoping to do this on an annual basis. … The IBM staff really walked us through the process … and it worked really, really well."
On Lebow, Ferrari said, "The fact that we have The Business of Ambition is very innovative."
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