Broad’s team at the competition
First-year Broad College of Business MBA students placed third in the 2018 Big Ten Case Competition with a focus on Bob Evans restaurants.
MBA students participating included Maria Haugen, Winnie Jeng, Jason Siegfried, and Vivek Wali.
“After visiting with Bob Evans representatives and being given a 36-page case backgrounder, teams had 24 hours to develop their 25-minute presentations in PowerPoint format with analysis and recommendations for a panel of judges made up primarily of executives from Bob Evans and several other Ohio-based businesses,” states Jeff Hittler, MBA faculty member who served as the advisor to the team.
The competition took place at Ohio State University, with several teams competing over their analyses and recommendations for a live business case, including students from University of Illinois, University of Iowa, University of Maryland, University of Nebraska, Ohio State University, and University of Wisconsin.
“A key to a great presentation is really knowing what points you are trying to make, how they benefit your team’s strategy, and ultimately, why you included them in the small amount of time the team has to present,” states Haugen, who was named “best presenter” at the finals.
While reflecting on working as a team, Jeng notes, “Working together is about sorting out your individual processes to the best only in a group. We practiced how we were going to break down problems, and it really makes a difference in preparedness.”
MBA students prepared in the weeks leading up to the competition in practice sessions in which they tackled a variety of cases as a team.
