Smith School Graduate Team Wins 2023 NASBITE International Case Competition

For the second time, a team from the Robert H. Smith School of Business won the 2023 NASBITE International Graduate Student Case Competition. Steve Baker, President and CEO of this year’s case company, Procedural Technologies, thought the team of Tamekia Graham (Flex MBA), Melissa Simpson (Flex MBA), Keshav Gupta (MS Business Analytics), and Shiv Jethi (MS Business Analytics), presented the best analysis.

Procedural Technologies is a company that focuses on cloud-based radiology workflow software, aiming to improve the quality and efficiency of radiology assets.

“Participating in the NASBITE International Case Competition, we were given a chance to work on a real-life business case”, said Jethi. He said it has been a monumental learning experience that will stay with him for a long time, detailing how they “applied various new market venture frameworks.”

Each year the competition recruits teams from business programs to identify the best international market and market entry strategy to meet a challenge presented by a U.S. exporter. The case is developed with the sponsoring company and allows students to demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary to obtain the Certified Global Business Professional (CGBP) credential, a nationally recognized certification awarded by NASBITE. Procedural Technologies is particularly interested in entering markets in Africa, and this team selected Ghana as the best market.

“This year’s competition was unique in that the product was a cloud-based, health care service. Many of the traditional tools students might use to research potential markets wouldn’t work,” said Laurie Wolff, Distinguished Fellow and case competition lead for NASBITE International. “Exporting doesn’t have to mean goods physically cross borders, especially as our economy shifts toward even more knowledge-based services.”

“Every step of the competition was a new challenge for us”, said Keshav Gupta. “One thing I learned from the competition was that opportunities do not happen, you have to create them.”

Baker especially appreciated the very specific leads the team offered Procedural Technologies for potential partners. According to Wolff, “People may be surprised that the case competition winner isn’t so much about the specific market they select, but more about the supporting package of analysis they deliver, which in this case included great ideas for potential partners and detailed information, even at a geospatial level, on where private health care customers were in Ghana and about their ability to access a cloud-based service.”

“Procedural Technologies is the real winner of the competition because now Steve has leads in multiple markets to pursue,” said Wolff.

“It was a tremendous honor to take part in the competition, and the knowledge I gained from it was truly invaluable,“ said Simpson.” I sincerely wish Procedural Technologies all the best in their future endeavors."

The Smith School's Center for Global Business is home to one of 16 Centers for International Business Education (CIBE) in the country. CIBE, a Title VI grant administered by the U.S. Department of Education, serves as a regional and national resource for teaching, research and outreach in international business and related fields. “CIBE schools have been important partners for NASBITE International, so it’s really great to see one of them have the winning team,” Wolff said.