IBUS Team Takes Third in International Business Case Competition

For the first time ever, IBUS students participated in an international business case competition. The team earned third place!

The four students, along with Marketing Professor Dr. Bud Clarke, travelled to Boston on October 30 to compete in Northeastern University’s International Business Case Competition.  Pictured left, the team included students Sarah Van Leeuwen, Kaitlin Acton, Alex Anthony, and Cameron Young. Dr. Bud Clarke is pictured in the center.

The competition lasted for the entire weekend, starting with a welcome dinner Thursday night, and concluding Saturday night.  Thursday night, participants received the case, which centered on importing Israeli wine into China.  The four students were not allowed to communicate with Dr. Clarke from the time they received the case until after their presentation.  Anthony, Acton, Van Leeuwen, and Young spent all of Friday in their hotel room working through the case.

Saturday morning they presented their case solution to a panel of business professionals.  At a luncheon that afternoon, JMU learned that they won in their group and were advancing in the competition.  They had to present immediately, with no time to improve upon their work.  JMU came in third at the competition, finishing ahead of top-10 ranked* International Business programs like the University of South Carolina, Florida International University and San Diego State University.

Acton, one of the IBUS competitors, said she enjoyed hearing how other universities ran their international business programs.  The competition also made Acton realize how well her CoB experience prepared her.  She says of the event, “I felt like especially JMU students were really prepared because of the projects we’ve done in the business school…. With minimal preparation we were still able to get third place.”

IBUS Director Dr. Marion White says, “We are so proud of our student team. They put their teamwork skills to work, creating a winning case very quickly and efficiently.”

*USNWR 2015 Best Colleges Rankings