A group of Full-time MBA students from the David Eccles School of Business recently traveled to Boulder, Colorado, to compete in a case competition hosted by Net Impact, an organization dedicated to sustainability in business. Team leader and MBA student Whitney Williams shared her thoughts on the experience. Whitney writes: 

I think I might be addicted to case competitions.

What’s a case competition? I asked the same thing when I started working on my MBA in 2012. A case competition is an event where students are given a case written around a business problem and asked to analyze the problem and present their solution to a panel of industry experts. Undergraduates and graduate students can participate in case competitions, and there are literally hundreds of competitions around the country and the world dedicated to any topic you can imagine, from social entrepreneurship to health care.

I traveled to Boulder, Colorado, for my fourth competition–the Net Impact Case Competition–hosted by the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Graduate Net Impact Chapter. Net Impact is a leading national nonprofit in the field of sustainability. Their mission is to “empower a new generation to use their careers to drive transformational change in the workplace and the world,” which they accomplish with their network of over 50,000 students and professionals sharing job opportunities and educational resources.

Our four-person team (Tania Bashford, ’15, Stu Barnes, ’15, Chad Salvadore, ’15, and Whitney Williams, ’14) had already worked together in the virtual round last semester to progress to Boulder. We spent the two weeks before the finals developing a new product-launch strategy for the fictionalized company Kryptonetics, based on the real-world Berkshire Hathaway Company and case sponsor, Johns Manville. We developed a triple-bottom-line scorecard that analyzed the financial, social and environmental implications of their new product launch, and ultimately recommended commercialization in the most profitable industries that also had the highest potential for energy savings.

Boulder is a funky and beautiful small town. When we were not practicing or presenting, we explored local bars and restaurants and mingled with MBA students from 19 schools across the country. One night we had the opportunity to sit with C-suite executives from Johns Manville, one of the many networking opportunities during this well-organized event. It was fun to be around other like-minded students who have an interest in corporate sustainability and renewable energy.

Though our team did not win, it was a confidence boost to hear positive feedback from the judges about our unique and thorough analysis and well-designed slides (it always helps to have a graphic designer on the team–thanks Stu Barnes!)

The rest of my team is looking forward to competing in the event again next year since this was such a high-class event.

Photo courtesy Whitney Williams. From seft to right: Chad Salvadore, Whitney Williams, Tania Bashford, Stu Barnes