Student teams from the David Eccles School of Business recently participated in the Business Consulting Case Competition hosted by Leavitt Partners. Participants tackled a challenging case representing a healthcare company’s request for market expansion.

Eleven teams, composed of graduate and undergraduate students, submitted data sets, after which five teams were selected to present to a panel of judges made up of industry professionals from Leavitt Partners and faculty members from the Eccles School.

Team FLSSD took the prize! The winning team members included first-year students Miranda De Antunano, pre-Business major; Nick Falk, pre-Business, Ben Ludlow, pre-business; Solomon Storm, a sophomore double majoring in Quantitative Analysis of Markets and Organizations (QAMO) and International Trade; and Travis Swiger, a junior also from QAMO. The team proved that students from various business majors can compete and win cases — and that it’s never too early to try.

“The Leavitt Case Study Competition was a great experiential learning opportunity that exposed me to real-world data and challenged me to think critically and collaboratively,” De Antunano said. “I recommend participating in case competitions. You learn what skills you can bring to a team and what you may need to put more work into, helping you figure out if that particular field is, in fact, something you would like to pursue.”

Thomas Gubbay, manager at Leavitt Partners, and Spencer Morrison, director at Leavitt Partners, proposed the case competition to give students an inside view of healthcare and consultancy work. Students in the Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) graduate program were quick to get involved. However, undergraduate students were welcome to join the competition as well.

“We expected MHA students to come in with very strong cases, which they absolutely did, but we were pleasantly surprised by the thoughtful analyses and industry commentary provided by graduate and undergraduate students alike!” said Gubbay, an MBA alum from the Eccles School. “Everyone married quantitative analyses and qualitative recommendations in an incredibly compelling way. We’re grateful to the students that participated and the U of U team that made this all come to life.”

Special thanks to Leavitt Partners for creating this opportunity in concert with Business Career Services at the Eccles School and to faculty members Scott Schaefer, Larry Hogan, and Kathryn Adair for their welcome guidance.

Leavitt Partners, an HMA Company, is a healthcare consultancy with offices in Salt Lake City and Washington, D.C. Their expertise covers the intersection between legislation, regulation, and agency actions and how these affect health care at the state and federal level. Their strategic growth services include investment support, member-based alliances, and strategic advisory services, striving to make health more accessible, effective, and sustainable.