Marketing Case Competition
In the midst of rather unsuccessfully trying to find a summer internship and trying to keep behind pace with my academics for the last month of school, this weekend I had the pleasure of taking part in the 5th annual marketing case competition sponsored by the Babson Marketing Club. In typical Babson fashion, my team was globally represented by an American, an Indian, a Mexican, and a friend from Belize.
The festivities began on Friday night at MassChallenge, with beer provided by fellow Babson MBA alums Portico Brewing and burritos provided by Boloco, as well as an introduction by Babson President Len Schlesinger and a welcome speech by the CEO of this year’s case sponsor, Infonavit (don’t speak Spanish? Tough luck…). For those who haven’t yet been to the MassChallenge building, it has a great view of Boston Harbor, an even greater view of my car to make sure I could beat the parking enforcement officer in a race due to an expired meter, and it just oozes entrepreneurship, for lack of a better phrase.
Fast forward to Saturday morning, where we arrived at Olin Hall at Babson for an official release of the case question, a quick orientation, and a quick Q&A with Infonavit. Case competitions are ALWAYS tough – never enough time to read the case, come up with a solution, create a powerpoint, and practice your presentation…ugh. That being said, it was a great learning experience. I can’t exactly describe the case or the solution due to confidentiality provisions (I faintly remember having a confidentiality agreement pushed in front of me at 7:45 AM along with my coffee and donut), but there were some great solutions created on Saturday afternoon. Though my team didn’t make the finals consisting of the top 5 out of 22 teams, we were told by one of the judges that we had one of the most innovative and interesting solution out of the 10 teams she saw present, so all in all I guess that was a good consolation prize. With teams from schools such as Harvard, Tuck, Duke, and even as far as Berkeley (yes?), Babson showed why it’s the #1 MBA school in entrepreneurship – 4 out of 5 teams in the finals were from Babson!! As expected, congrats to a Babson team for winning the $4k prize money with their great idea!
Introducing Team Shark, the winners (with a wildly successful “photo bomb” by yours truly)…
Now on to more studying and more cover letters tonight so I can try to enjoy Marathon Monday. Happy Patriots’ Day, fellow Massachusetts residents!