Smith MBA ’12 Wins Sony Marketing Strategy Case Competition

The Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland is proud to announce that first-year Smith MBA student Lakshmi Sankar and her team placed first at the 2011 Sony Marketing Strategy Case Competition, held February 18–19, 2011.

The four –year-old Sony Competition is a unique opportunity for MBA students to work with their counterparts from different schools to solve a current business case presented by Sony. This year, over 60 MBA students from the United States and Japan were selected by Sony to compete in San Diego, CA. Students toured Sony’s offices and were hosted to a dinner with executives. The next day, they were randomly assigned to teams of five and given five hours and one computer to present solutions to a panel of eight senior Sony managers.

Sankar was the only Smith student competing in the event, which included MBAs from 33 schools. “We all came with different backgrounds on marketing,” she said, “which allowed us to bring different perspectives and skills to the table.”

Sankar worked with Ning Ge from UCSD, Deepak Rathore from UT Dallas, Hyewon Shin from Ohio State University, and Christopher Stevenson from U. Wisconsin. “We were a diverse group with second-year and first-year MBA students,” she said. “As the day progressed and with the pressures of working against a tight deadline, we brainstormed and frequently disagreed but we were focused as we wrapped up our final take on the case and worked on the presentation.” “It was difficult at first,” Sankar continued. “All of the ideas we came up with in the beginning, Sony had already implemented.”

Sankar, who worked as a Business Development Manager and Vice President at Sabinsa and Organica Aromatics, respectively, is bound by a non-disclosure agreement from revealing details about the case or her team’s proposals.

“What I’ve learned about marketing while at Smith really prepared me for this experience,” she continued. “Besides training me with a basic marketing framework, our core course in marketing management provided me with some great business cases to reference. I also learned a tremendous amount about understanding consumers from my current course in consumer behavior.”

The competition was also an excellent opportunity for Sankar to network with Sony executives and other MBAs. “I highly recommend that other students compete in the Sony Competition,” she said. As a Smith student, Sankar has also applied for other case competitions. “It’s important to me to have a practical place to apply what I learn in the classroom. There are plenty of opportunities to do that at Smith through student consulting, portfolio management, or board participation, but it’s also important to get out of your comfort zone and get exposed to others.”

“Being a Smith student has been a fantastic learning experience. I have learnt a lot and enjoyed the process every step of the way.”

Stephen Huie, Smith MBA Candidate ’12, Smith Media Group