Annual Kogod Case Competition Takes a Look at Uber

The 23rd Annual Kogod School of Business Case Competition tasked more than 150 participating students with developing a strategy to continue to grow upon the recent success of ridesharing company Uber in Washington, D.C. over the next five years. Proposed ideas ranged from instituting customer rewards systems to branching into new customer bases.

“The prompt was definitely geared toward creating an effective marketing strategy,” said Ina Bonnier, one of the competitors. “That was probably the most challenging for me as a numbers person.”

And students weren’t the only ones who found the case’s lack of quantitative information somewhat difficult — even the judges found themselves challenged by the prompt as well.

“This case was certainly more vague than others in the past,” said Farzad Shirzad, MBA ’02. “That makes it difficult, but also more interesting because there are many ways to approach the problem.”

Judges could award up to 60 points to each team, divided among the categories of Critical Issues; Evidence; Recommendations; Questions and Answers; Delivery; and Overall Impression. The winning teams of each division received $175, second place teams $125, and third place $75.

Shirzad, who had competed as a student, enjoys judging the competition and giving back to his alma mater.

“I learned a lot from [the Case Competition] as a student and I’m continuing to learn as a judge,” he said. “I also hope I bring a bit of empathy to the role as I recall working on little sleep and the stress involved as a student.”

regions: Washington, DC

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