Smith School MBA Case Competition Offers Crash Course in Consulting
Some MBAs get to enjoy a relaxing “syllabus week” upon entering grad school, while others are thrown into the pan and hit the ground running. At the Robert H. Smith School of Business, the MBA Class of 2018 got its first taste of corporate consulting, data analysis and the whirlwind pace of business school life during the MBA Orientation Live Case Competition on Friday, August 19th.
According to the Smith School website, the case competition tapped incoming MBAs to help PepsiCo boost its sales. The scenario put forth by the case competition was that the sale of Pepsi products were in decline due to changes in consumer preferences, and the company wanted to grow revenue from club stores like Costco.
Smith Clinical Professor of Management Neta Moye worked with PepsiCo executives to identify and develop the issues discussed in the case. According to Moye, live cases give students the opportunity to work on a problem that is “relevant and current.”
“This is an invaluable way for incoming students to get a peek behind the scenes of a real corporation, and to get a sense of the breadth and scope of the challenges it faces,” Moye said a part of the article on the school website.
PepsiCo executives were available to answer questions and judged the final round of the competition. Among them were Eric Hanson, vice president of revenue, strategy and management; Becca Kerr ’98, MBA/MS ’04, vice president of sales; and Alex Baxter, vice president of supply chain planning.
In the finals, one team recommended re-branding PepsiCo’s “Naked” juice products to appeal to a premium, high-end market and using QR codes to engage millennial consumers with interactive content. Another took an entirely different approach and discussed a supply chain optimization strategy that would involve making Pepsi bottles square rather than round and moving from a direct-to-store delivery to a warehouse delivery system.
The winning team suggested that Pepsi bundle its stronger-selling products with weaker-selling beverages in club stores, such as a Quaker oatmeal and Tropicana orange juice bundle aimed at parents planning breakfast. The first place team, which called itself “Team 18,” included team members Tanay Natarajan, William Woska, Kate Christman, Myounghun Lee and John DeVita.
About the Author
Max Pulcini
Max Pulcini is a Philadelphia-based writer and reporter. He has an affinity for Philly sports teams, Super Smash Bros. and cured meats and cheeses. Max has written for Philadelphia-based publications such as Spirit News, Philadelphia City Paper, and Billy Penn, as well as national news outlets like The Daily Beast.
