CIBER International MBA Business Case Competition; April 7-10, 2005; Madison, Wisconsin, USA

Competition Overview

All teams will analyze the same case during the competition. Teams of four students will apply their analytical, decision-making and communication skills to present strategic solutions and recommendations to a panel of judges from the business community. The case will focus on international business strategy, necessitating a firm grounding in functional business disciplines. Each team will be judged based on the content of its presentation as well as its ability to present arguments and recommendations to the judges.

Competition Rules

Team Organization - Each team will be comprised of four currently enrolled graduate business students working full-time on an MBA or similar degree. No alternates are permitted. Each member of the team must be a registered student at the business school of the university he or she represents.

Case - The case will be kept secret until it is distributed on Friday morning at 8:30 a.m.

Presentation - Although this is an international competition, all cases and presentations will be presented in English. Members of each team will have 20 minutes to present their analysis before the panel of judges. A period of 15 minutes will be allocated for questions. Presentations should consist of a PowerPoint presentation only (no props allowed). No audio will be allowed in the PowerPoint presentations. Five minutes of setup before the presentation is scheduled into each slot time. If a team is unable to setup their PowerPoint presentation within the five minutes, teams must use slide copies that they will be responsible for preparing. It is expected that all members will be active participants in the presentation. Teams and judges will be alerted to the time they have remaining for the presentation as well as the question and answer session at the five and one minute marks. Five minutes of take down will also be allocated at the end of the time slot.

Presentation Delivery Deadline - At least one representative from each team must be present to turn in the presentations on Saturday morning by 8:30 a.m. Presentations will be submitted by a team-supplied USB flash drive (will be returned after the competition). No alterations to the presentation will be permitted after this time.

Presentation Order - Teams will draw for presentation slots for the preliminary round after turning in their presentation on a USB flash drive on Saturday, April 9, at 8:30 a.m. Teams advancing to the championship round will be announced in no particular order during lunch on Saturday. Following the announcement, advancing teams will draw for presentation slots for the championship round.

Reference and Resource Materials - Team members may use and bring with them any reference sources/materials in the public domain (i.e. books, the business library, the Internet etcetera) in conducting their research. Teams may not use password protected electronic reference materials to which they may have access due to particular school affiliation.

Role of Advisors - Advisors will not participate in any way in the case preparation or presentation. Once the team receives the written case, coaching by faculty members, school staff, or contact with outside experts is expressly prohibited.

Judging - Judging will be “blind”, meaning that judges will not be told and should not be led by the team, verbally or through colors or graphics, to know which school the team represents. Teams will present using their chosen fictitous team name, such as "ABC Consulting." Individuals are free to use their real personal names in the presentation. Judges in the morning, preliminary rounds will be different than the judges in the afternoon, final round of competition. The decisions of the judges will be final.

Presentation Viewing - Only team advisors, members of the competition planning committee, student hosts and assistants and official videographers may observe the preliminary rounds. Team members will not be allowed to view the presentations of competing teams in the preliminary round. All participants and advisors may observe the final round; however, teams advancing to the championship round may observe only after they have presented.

Preparation - Each suite in the Fluno Center is large enough for case preparation and practice. Each team will be furnished with a computer (more information under Technology section). Teams may bring personal laptops to the competition if they wish to prepare in another location (business library, etc.). Team members will make their competition presentations using PowerPoint.

The presentation rooms (rooms 201, 203 and 219) will be available from 6:00 p.m. - midnight on the case preparation day (Friday) for presentation practice. The rooms will be available on a first-come basis, but no team may occupy the rooms for more than 45 minutes if another team is waiting. A computer, LCD projector and screen are built into each room.

Teams will also have additional practice time on Saturday morning and in the afternoon if they advance. These practice rooms will not have computers since presentation files will be turned in early Saturday morning).

Printing and Copying - Teams will have access to printing and copying at the Fluno Center .

Technology - Each team will be provided with a computer (with the Microsoft Office suite of products and the Windows operating environment) to prepare the case analysis. Each team must supply its own USB flash drive.

Teams will present PowerPoint presentations using built-in computers and projectors in each presentation room. Each room is equipped with a wireless handheld slide advancer/laser pointer, but teams should be prepared to advance slides by hand at the podium computer in case of equipment malfunction.

Each team’s presentation file will be loaded in their presentation room by the competition technology manager; however, teams should be prepared to present from print copies of their PowerPoint presentations in case of technical difficulties.

Attire - Business casual attire will be appropriate for the opening reception and for the day of  case preparation. Formal business attire will be appropriate for the competition day.

Feedback - Judges from the preliminary round of competition will meet for 10 minutes with each of the three teams they judged in order to provide personal feedback to each team. Each team will receive a video tape of its presentation, as well as that of the other two teams in their preliminary round room for comparison and learning purposes. No additional video or audio recording of presentations will be permitted, and photos may not be taken during the presentation.

Supplies - Each team will be provided with legal pads and pens. Additional supplies and materials are the responsibility of each team.

Team Host

Each team will have a University of Wisconsin MBA student host. The host will meet you when you arrive and help you get settled. The host will be available as much as possible during the competition to assist with technology, answer questions and help with any scheduling changes that may arise. Team hosts will get in touch with each participating institution in March 2005.

Organizing Committee

Ross Benbow
Graduate Project Assistant, International Programs, School of Business
internationaladvisor@bus.wisc.edu

Mason Carpenter
Professor of Management
mcarpenter@bus.wisc.edu

Randall Dunham
Faculty Director, CIBER
rdunham@bus.wisc.edu

John Eichenseher
Professor & Chair, Accounting
Executive Director, International Programs, School of Business
jeichen@bus.wisc.edu

Jeff Gehrke
Student Services Coordinator, Undergraduate Programs Office
International Business Major Advisor
jgehrke@bus.wisc.edu

Susan Huber-Miller
Director, CIBER
+ 1 608-263-7682
shubermiller@bus.wisc.edu

Jay Jain
MBA Student; Co-President, Graduate International Business Association
mdkulkarni@wisc.edu

Michael Knetter
Dean, School of Business
Executive Director, CIBER
dean@bus.wisc.edu

Manoj Kulkarni
MBA Student; Case Competition Manager
mdkulkarni@wisc.edu

Linda Li
MBA Student; Co-President, Graduate International Business Association
xli5@wisc.edu

David Lu
Technical Project Assistant, CIBER
hdlu@cae.wisc.edu

Mark Matosian
Director, Graduate Student Services
mmatosian@bus.wisc.edu

Penelope Miller
Program Coordinator, CIBER
+ 1 608-265-9719
uwmadisonciber@bus.wisc.edu

Victor Munsen
MBA Student; Case Competition Manager
vamunsen@wisc.edu

Judy Symon Hanson
Assistant Director, International Programs, School of Business
jsymonhanson@wisc.edu

Sachin Tuli
Assistant Director, CIBER
+ 1 608-265-4938
tuli@bus.wisc.edu

Team Hosts

Bocconi University, Italy
Nikhil Tungare
MBA Student
tungare@bus.wisc.edu

Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
Pattarinee Ratananakin
MBA Student
pratananakin@bus.wisc.edu

Copenhagen Business School
Kylie Huang
MBA Student
kueiyuhuang@bus.wisc.edu

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Richard Collumb
MBA Student
collumb@bus.wisc.edu

The Ohio State University
Jessy Ng
MBA Student
jutami@bus.wisc.edu

University of Connecticut
Dilek Gurel
MBA Student
gurel@bus.wisc.edu

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Felix Wolfinger
MBA Student
fwolfinger@bus.wisc.edu

University of Washington
Oleg Kolosov
MBA Student
kolosov@bus.wisc.edu

University of Wisconsin-Madison
Xiao Dong Yin
MBA Student
xdyin@bus.wisc.edu