Nine students at Boston University School of Management were crowned champions at the 16th Core New Product Challenge, the culmination of SM323 (known as “The Core”), for their presentation of a new dog-feeding accessory.
The SM323 sets of courses are marketing, operations, information systems, and finance. All four courses are integrated into a one-semester sequence through a common semester-long project focused on new product development.
The Core project simulates a real-world environment and allows students to work in teams. The project requires each team to design a product by assessing customer needs and markets, develop marketing plans to sell their product, develop operations processes and information systems to support their product, and understand the risks involved in implementing and financing.
“I found Core to be an incredibly valuable learning experience,” said Devon Carelli (SMG’14), a member of the winning team Lock-A-Bowls. “It was great to have the opportunity to present in front of such a large audience of students, faculty, and real corporate managers.”
Imagitas, a Pitney Bowes company dedicated to innovative lifestage marketing services, sponsored this year’s Core Challenge. The Core faculty nominates projects from about 80 plans for review by the sponsor, who then selects three finalists based on how well each team’s plan displayed the analysis of their research during the semester, not on the product idea itself.
The three finalist teams—Lock-A-Bowls, Magic Toothbrush, and the KibblerNibbler—then presented to the judges and answered follow-up questions. Noting their strong presentation and Q&A session, the judges awarded first place to Lock-A-Bowls, who received gift cards, framed certificates, and their team’s product name on the Challenge trophy.
“Our team is very proud and honored to be the winner of the Core New Product Challenge,” said Cristian Rocco Donohue (SMG’14). “We’re thankful to Imagitas for nominating our team and to our professors for helping us create a great product and business plan.”
