A last-minute decision to enter an international business case competition has led to an all-expenses-paid trip to Germany next week for a team of students from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The team was named one of 12 finalists out of 180 teams in the Business Masters 2005, an international case studies competition hosted by the University of Karlsruhe in Karlsruhe, Germany. Teams from the Leeds School and the Sloan School of Business at MIT are the only two U.S. representatives in the finals.
Team members Mike Kerins, a senior majoring in chemical engineering and finance, and three second-year MBA students, Neil Cowan, Mike Huguelet, and Susan Traube had to rush their entry, compressing three weeks of work into a little more than one week because they found out about the competition late.
To make matters worse, Kerins had to participate via phone from New York, where he was interviewing for investment banking jobs the week the case was put together. In fact, while the three MBA students knew each other from class, Kerins was added on recommendation from advisers and did not have a chance to meet the others in person prior to leaving for his job interviews.
The students said they were successful because they worked so well as a team. "We all led; we all followed, and we all listened," Huguelet said. Cowan added, "And we all accepted what we were best at."
Despite the late start, they were able to develop a creative winning plan because they became very involved.
"The more you put into it, the more you wanted to put into it," Traube said.
Team members collectively had a broad range of experience and interests that they brought to the competition case, which asked teams to develop a business plan for a new mutual fund focusing on the international airline industry. Their expertise included engineering, corporate and investment finance, brand management, international marketing, consulting and non-profit management, and they all shared an entrepreneurial focus.
"Our experience, the strategy and leadership skills we developed in the MBA program, and the help we received from faculty were critical to our success," Huguelet said.
The team was guided by Chris Leach, the Robert H. and Beverly A. Deming Professor in Entrepreneurship and a professor of finance; Michael Stutzer, director of the Burridge Center for Security Analysis and Valuation; Matjiaz Bren, instructor in marketing; Thomas Vossen, assistant professor of information systems; and Mary Banks, director of career services.
"The team's success illustrates a convergence of Leeds School areas of expertise," said Leach, faculty sponsor for the team. "The Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, the Burridge Center for Security Analysis and Valuation, and two major funded finance curriculum initiatives all played a role in providing the domestic and international contacts, resources and education programs that helped the students' hard work pay off."
The team leaves Tuesday for the finals, which are Nov. 17-19 in Karlsruhe, near Frankfurt, Germany.
For more information on the team go to: .