April 12, 2007
Competition challenges undergraduates from around the world
Students from universities spanning the globe will congregate in Seattle April 16-21 to compete in the University of Washington Business School’s ninth annual Global Business Case Competition. The week’s events will give participants the opportunity to build cross-cultural relationships, experience the city of Seattle and provide analyses and business recommendations of a real-world case within a timed, two-day period.
The Global Business Case Competition will include 64 undergraduates from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Serbia and Montenegro, Singapore and three American business schools, including the UW. New to the competition this year is an international team comprised of students from Brazil, Denmark, Singapore and the United States.
The four-person teams will arrive in Seattle next Monday, and in the days preceding the competition, will tour the Puget Sound and meet with the regional business community. They will also share their respective cultures with Hamilton Middle School students.
“This event is a great opportunity for students not just to compete, but also to interact with other cultures,” said Katie Diggs, a student co-chair of this year’s event. “They’ll also be able to establish business and personal relationships, give back to the Seattle community and network with business leaders from global companies all while having a lot of fun.”
The excitement heats up April 19 when teams are given a business case for which they must develop a solution within 48 hours and then present their findings to a panel of corporate judges. The event’s planners say students benefit from the experience by being challenged to put into practice the global business knowledge they’ve acquired in the classroom in a situation designed to simulate real corporate culture. Teams will be judged on quality, creativity and professionalism in presenting their analysis of the business problem.
“Participating in the Global Business Case Competition is one of the most valuable and rewarding experiences that our students can have,” said Pete Dukes, associate dean for undergraduate programs at the UW Business School. “The inter-cultural and social interactions, the challenging case analysis and presentation, and the sense of being part of a global community can have life-changing impacts on the participants.”
Another new element to the competition includes a corporate track made up of young professionals who will compete against each other. Young Seattle-area professionals from Starbucks, Costco, Ascentium and Microsoft will be competing against each other in this separate event.
The Global Business Case Competition is produced and supported by the school’s Global Business Center and students in the nationally ranked Certificate of International Studies in Business program. The Final round will be held April 21 from 1:45 until 4:30 in Mary Gates Hall on the UW campus and is open to the public. The winning team will be announced at an awards banquet that evening.
Since its inception, 44 countries representing 81 business schools have participated. Last year’s winner, from Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil provided solutions for how Bosnia-Herzegovina could woo foreign businesses into their war-ravaged country. Previous case companies have included Starbucks, Weyerhaeuser, RealNetworks and Neopets.
Global Business Case Competition 2007 participating schools:
Asia/Pacific
University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
National University of Singapore, Singapore
Europe
Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Universite Lille 2, Lille, France
European Business School, Oestrich-Winkel, Germany
Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro
The Americas
Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
ITESM, Queretaro, Mexico
Universidad del Pacifico, Lima, Peru
Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, United States
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, United States
University of Washington, Seattle, United States
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For more information contact Dukes at (206) 543-7141 or rdukes@u.washington.edu or Andrea Gomes, assistant director, Global Business Center at (206) 616-9565 or visit http://bschool.washington.edu/gbc/index.shtml
