TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama’s MBA program took second place in a prestigious international competition for its analysis of a particularly complex case on the World Bank. This is the fourth year the UA team has entered the competition and has placed in the top 10 three of the four years.
The George Washington/KPMG Peat Marwick MBA Case Competition is held each spring. This year it brought together MBA students from 20 business schools around the world to analyze a situation facing a non-profit organization and to present strategies that use the organization’s assets. The first place winner in this year’s competition in Washington, D.C. was ESADE, an internationally ranked program from Spain. Baylor finished third.
Other competitors were teams from the University of North Carolina, the University of South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Georgetown, William and Mary, Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, American University, the University of Rhode Island, Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech, Bocconi (Italy), Hong Kong University, Georgetown, Case Western Reserve and Semmelweis (Hungary).
Faculty adviser for the Alabama team was Dr. Louis Marino, assistant professor of strategic management in the UA Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration and its Manderson Graduate School of Business.
“In the first round of the competition, our team prevailed over Georgetown, Case Western and Semmelweis — a well respected Hungarian program — to move into the final round,” Marino said. “Comments from the judges included ‘excellent alternative analysis and implementation plan’, ‘enthusiastic and well organized presentation,’ and ‘excellent use of external data and analysis.'”
Marino said one judge was so impressed with the Alabama performance he asked if any of the team members might be interested in a summer internship. The judges were officials from the World Bank and several other consulting firm executives.
The members of the UA team were Matt Clemmons of Knoxville, Tenn. and Scott Otts of Tuscaloosa, both second year MBA students, and Kedar Patil of Parel, Bombay, Emily Volz of Tuscaloosa and Adam Yates of Oak Grove, La., all first year MBA students.
Marino said given the global nature of the case, “it is not surprising that finalists included IPADE (an internationally ranked program from Mexico) and ESADE.”
Finalists from the United States, in addition to UA, were American University and Baylor.
“As the coach, I want to recognize all of the faculty members in the College who helped prepare the team for the competition, as well as other members of the team who did not make the trip to Washington – Frank Skinner and Brandy Williams, ” Marino said. Both Skinner and Williams are from Birmingham.
The Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration, founded in 1919, first began offering graduate education in 1924. Its Manderson Graduate School of Business has received repeated positive recognition in the 1990s from such publications as Business Week, The Princeton Review and The Gourman Report.
Contact
Bill Gerdes, UA Business Writer, 205/348-8318