Smith MBA Takes Third Place in Simon Marketing Case Competition

Congratulations to first-year Smith MBA Donald Wood who, along with a team of students from business schools across the United States, won third place in the annual Simon Marketing Case Competition. The third-place team split $1,000 in prize money. Sponsored by Heineken USA, the event was held March 20 and 31, 2007 at the University of Rochester's Simon School of Business in the state of New York.

The Simon Marketing Club randomly assigns the 75 participating students to teams. On Woods team were students from the Michigan State University, Texas Christian University, University of Iowa, University of Rochester, and Washington University in St. Louis.

Mixed teams like Woods worked on a real-world marketing-focused business problem. This time, teams were challenged to develop a market strategy for a product known as the BeerTender, which is a premium in-home draught beer system.

I enjoyed working with a unique group of MBA students from around the nation, said Wood. Quickly evaluating and designing an overall marketing plan and strategy was a valuable experience."

Wood is the co-chair of the Graduate Marketing Association, a former competitive swimmer and marketing consultant, and soon-to-be a summer intern at Campbell's Soup.

Students received the case Saturday, March 31 and had five hours to prepare for a 10-minute presentation, followed by a 5-minute question-and-answer session. Judges included two individuals from Heineken, one from Procter & Gamble, and a professor from the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester.

The grand prize of $5,000 went to a team of students from the Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Rochester, Cornell University and Texas Christian University. Other business schools sending students to the competition included the Baylor University, Rice University, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Virginia.

Other Smith students who completed in the case competition included first-years Matt Herman and Ted Martin, and second-years Megan Boyce and Ben Fishman.

Susannah Campbell, Smith MBA Candidate 2007, Smith Media Group