Howard University Wins CIBER’s 3rd Annual Emerging Markets Case Competition With Partner Infosys Limited

A beautiful Friday afternoon welcomed the 3rd Annual Emerging Markets Case Competition at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. Nine teams from some eight top U.S. MBA programs gathered at Van Munching Hall for an intense 24-hour preparation and presentation of their findings. The sponsor company for the competition was Infosys Limited. The objective was to provide recommendations to an Infosys client, an ATM financial security firm that would improve profitability and revenue growth for a company operating on a global scale and an industry moving towards a possible “cashless society.”

On Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017, through two rounds of presentations and Q&A, the team from Howard University emerged victorious capturing the event’s $2,500 first prize. The runner-up prize of $1,500 went to Temple University’s Fox School of Business. This year’s awards ceremony was kicked up a notch by offering additional prizes for “Best Presenter,” “Best Q&A” and “Best Visual Presentation.”

In addition to Howard University and the Fox School, competitors represented business schools from our very own Smith School of Business, which made it to the final round, University of Washington, George Mason University, University of Arizona, University of Connecticut, and University of Missouri.

The Emerging Markets Case Competition is a wonderful example of the partnership between Smith’s Office of Global Initiatives, the Center for International Business Education Research (CIBER) and the MBA Emerging Markets Association. The competition was judged by an engaged panel of corporate executives and international development professionals, as well as an Infosys executives and consultants.

Student teams of three to five were issued the case on Friday afternoon upon their arrival at the University of Maryland. The teams attended a reception and competition overview and then quickly broke into their teams to prepare their presentations for early Saturday morning. The teams were evaluated on their identification of the critical issues, quality of their analysis and feasibility of their recommendations as well as their overall delivery and ability to navigate the question and answer session.

“I am pleased to see the success of our Emerging Markets Case Competition in its third year. It has been wonderful to watch this event grow and we could have made this happen without the support of Infosys and, of course, the months of preparation from both OGI and the Emerging Markets Association,” said Kislaya Prasad, executive director of CIBER and research professor in the department of decision, operations and information technologies. Interested in learning more about emerging markets? Register to attend the Emerging Markets Forum, on April 21, 2017.

Contact CIBER at ciber@rhsmith.umd.edu to find about 2018's event. For more information about the Smith CIBER, visit: rhsmith.umd.edu/CIBER.

- Zach Feldman, Smith MBA/MS Marketing Analytics Candidate 2017

About Infosys Ltd
Infosys is a global leader in technology services and consulting. We enable clients in more than 50 countries to create and execute strategies for their digital transformation. From engineering to application development, knowledge management and business process management, we help our clients find the right problems to solve, and to solve these effectively. Our team of 199,000+ innovators, across the globe, is differentiated by the imagination, knowledge and experience, across industries and technologies that we bring to every project we undertake. Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise thrive in the digital age.