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© Nathan Mandell
Part-time students from five B-schools form teams that
integrated representatives from each school during an
April case competition at Kellogg. From left to right:
Deepak Pillai, University of Illinois at Chicago; Sanjay
Raghu,University of Chicago; Dan Kurcz, DePaul University;
Anne-Marie Lewis, Loyola University; Jennifer Tan, Kellogg
School of Management. |
Kellogg
part-time program hosts multischool marketing competition
At the
first-ever marketing competition for part-time MBA students
from five Chicago-area schools, senior executives from Motorola
presented a knotty case study on how the company might best
position itself in the highly competitive market for converged
voice and data devices — and pondered whether the company
should invest in the space at all.
The five
teams — each made up of part-time students from Kellogg,
the University of Chicago, DePaul University, Loyola University
and the University of Illinois at Chicago — met for
the first time for five nerve-wracking hours to discuss the
case.
They
presented their findings to a nine-member panel of judges,
which grilled the teams on their findings.
Kellogg
School Dean Dipak C. Jain praised the students, saying, “They
have full-time jobs, families, and they still seek to fulfill
their professional dreams through education at night.”
By mixing
students on each team from among all participating schools,
the competition avoided being a “beauty contest,”
resembling instead a real-life work environment, Dean Jain
said.
Senior
Motorola executives were equally pleased.
“It
gave us a chance to see some of the brightest talent in the
business marketplace,” said Fred Harburg, chief learning
officer and president of Motorola University.
The
Managers’
Program (TMP) is the Kellogg School’s curriculum for
working professionals. The TMP Marketing Club coordinated
the event.
“Combining
the teams with one person from each school worked as we had
hoped in creating networking opportunities with other students
from all the schools,” said Dan Karnatz, TMP Marketing
Club president. “At the end of the evening, they were
exchanging emails and phone numbers.”
Karnatz
praised the assistance of Kellogg School Professor Albert
Isenman, as well as other TMP Marketing club members.
—
Daniel Cattau |
