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UPCOMING EVENTS Distinguished Ethics Speaker "Ethics is Ethics" Staci L. Ziants January 31, 2007 ------ Ethics Luncheon Forum "Breaking the Glass Ceiling" Gretchen R. Haggerty Major General February 8, 2007 Sponsored by:
Ethics Luncheon Forum "One Man's Opinion: Why Employees Must Come First" Le Herron May 23, 2007 Click here to request additional information about either event. RECENT EVENTS Ethics Luncheon Forum "Making the Right Choice... Timothy J. Noonan LINKS Beard
Center CONTACT US For more information, contact Rebecca Ellsworth at 412.396.4005 or beardcenter@duq.edu
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The Donahue Case Competition “Look for the big picture, but never ignore the details.” That’s how Simona Agache summed up the team’s approach to preparing for MBA case competitions. Simona is one of seven Duquesne University MBA students on the newly created Donahue Competition Team. Other members include team captain Micheal McDonagh, Landon Bell, Kate Fink, Katie Kruswick, Marian Mulholland, and Emily Scerba. Coaches are Professor Ken Matejka and Instructor Diane Ramos. MBA case competitions are prestigious events where students solve real world problems posed by corporate executives. Graduate schools tend to view the competitions as forums for benchmarking the quality of their curricula and students, and corporations see them as opportunities to recruit students. According to Landon, “Being on the team means better, fast-paced training because the cases are based on real world scenarios, the competition is keen, and the judges are executives from leading firms.” And then, of course, there are the bragging rights. That’s something that Marian, Katie, Micheal and Simona learned about first hand when they entered the Innovation Challenge, an annual virtual event in October. The 2006 competition, hosted by the Darden School at the University of Virginia, drew 440 teams from 88 universities and 15 countries. Teams received their assigned cases late one Friday and had just one week to post a solution. No input from coaches, professors, classmates or business people was permitted. It was an intense week for the Donahue team, but well worth the effort. What do MBA students from Duke, MIT, UVA, Vanderbilt and the University of Toronto have in common? As one member of the team triumphantly remarked, “They competed against us at the Innovation Challenge, and we beat all of them!” The Donahue team ranked 12 out of about 90 teams that analyzed the American Express case, a most respectable finish for the team’s maiden competition! The team’s next challenge is the Molson International Competition at Concordia University. Affectionately known as the “Cadillac” of MBA events, Molson is a 36-team invitational featuring five rounds of head-to-head case presentations. Marian, Katie, Micheal, Kate and Landon were thrilled to be invited! They will spend January 8 to 12, 2007, in Montreal with teams from Europe, Africa, Asia, Canada and the United States. To prepare, the team has been analyzing sample cases on Monday nights and Saturday afternoons. At a typical work session, the students break into two teams and prepare competing solutions. They examine a comprehensive case, evaluate alternatives and risks, develop a strategy, and recommend an action plan. Three hours after students receive the case, they present a strategic solution using write-on overhead transparencies, the format required for the Molson event. Since defending a solution is part of the competition, sessions include intense question and answer sessions with coaches, faculty members and even Dr. Alan Miciak, Dean of the Duquesne University Schools of Business, serving as judges. Looking ahead, the Donahue Team has registered for regional and international competitions in the spring semester. In addition, members will be helping our undergraduate teams prepare for the Deloitte Competition that Duquesne will host in February 2007. “I feel grateful to be part of such a precious team from whose members and coaches I have a million things to learn,” says Simona. “We’re constantly amazed at the energy of our coaches,” added Marian, “and we’re gaining confidence in our skills and how well the Donahue School is preparing us for careers in business.” All seven members agreed with Micheal: "It's a lot of fun, it's a lot of work, it's a lot of learning, and it's a privilege."
Katie Kruswick, Simona Agache, Micheal McDonagh
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