CoB-Deloitte Partnership Continues

Four Deloitte representatives recently volunteered their time and talents in the 10^th Semi-Annual Management-Deloitte Innovation Case Competition. Held on April 3, the competition continued the long partnership between the College of Business and Deloitte.

Each semester, students in Dr. Fariss Mousa’s Management of Technology and Innovation Course (MGT 420), participate in the competition.

This year, the judges from Deloitte included National Managing Director of Strategic Client Ventures Schaffer Hilton, Senior Manager Ussama Baggili, Consultant Dyuti Mahendru, and Business Analyst Jorge Risquez.

Hilton arrived at JMU the day before the competition to meet one-on-one with student groups to offer feedback and help them enhance their presentations, simulating the way he advises his own consulting teams at Deloitte in preparing their pitches for real clients. 

In addition, Hilton (pictured at right) also presented on the global impact of innovation in several strategic management and innovation classes.  During his presentations, Hilton explained to students the ways in which innovation is impacting businesses worldwide and encouraged students to pursue innovative ideas and solutions both while in college and after graduation.

Friday morning, the judges convened to hear the team’s presentations. This year’s case was on Alcatel-Lucent, a global telecommunications equipment manufacturer that is based in France. The case focused on how innovative intrapreneurship can be and should be encouraged in a setting of a well-known, well respected, large corporation.

Students had to work on understanding internal and external pressures that face top managers in relation to corporate decision making. They also researched the advantages and disadvantages of intrapreneurial boot camps and all the ways that they can be structured to help the organization achieve maximum impact.

The winning team and judges are pictured at left. The group includes Ryan Altamirano (student-TIE); Ussama Baggili (Senior Manager-Deloitte Consulting); Skyler Pierre (student-TIE); Jorge Risquez (Business Technology Analyst--Deloitte Consulting); Jason Tate (Student-TIE); Dyuti Mahendru (Consultant—Deloitte Consulting); and Laura Brossman (Student-TIE), who is not pictured.

In addition to the actual judging, the Deloitte volunteers offered feedback and valuable information regarding the consulting industry, including the life of a consultant, challenges faced by consultants, and career related advice.

In offering their guidance and talents to judge these competitions, representatives from Deloitte continue to help prepare students for life after college. The College of Business is grateful to all the Deloitte representatives for donating their time and expertise with students.