Rutgers MBA students target case competitions to test their knowledge.

Getting down to business: Rutgers MBA students collect early case competition wins

Two teams from Rutgers Business School are top winners in separate national case competitions.

A group of Rutgers MBA students won first place in the annual Minority MBAX Case Competition held at Howard University School of Business in October.

The students – Anand Bhatia, Stephanie Gelband, Rohan Shah and Anish Varma – competed against more than 15 teams from across the country. In the second round, the Rutgers team won the first prize of $5,000 after competing against students from the University of Maryland, Howard University and American University.

In the competition, the Rutgers students had to present strategic solutions to optimize workflow processes for the Department of Defense’s relocation program.

Rutgers Business School won first place in Howard University's annual Minority Case Competition.
A team of Rutgers MBA students, Anish Varma, Stephanie Gelband, Anand Bhatia and Rohan Shah pictured above and flanked by Howard University professors, were the first place winners in a case competition at Howard University in October.

Bhatia, who is concentrating his MBA studies in supply chain management, said the team’s success is a reflection of the real-world knowledge and problem-solving skills emphasized in their classes at Rutgers.

He said the team also benefited from a workshop sponsored by the Management Consulting Club. Deloitte’s Joe Slota made a presentation about building a team structure. “That was something that helped us to solve the problem (in the case competition) as a unit,” he said.

Rutgers started tallying wins early in the new academic year when another team of MBA students finished second in the National Black MBA Case Competition held in September in Detroit. 

The Rutgers team – made up of Jamar Negron, a part-time MBA student, and Olanike Otebagde, Bonnie Chen and John Teabout, all second-year full-time MBA students – beat out 36 teams in the first round of competition.

Rutgers MBA studens won a second-place prize of $15,000 at the National Black MBA Case Competition in Detroit.
MBA students from Rutgers Business School, Olanike Otebagde, John Teabout, Bonnie Chen and Jamar Negron, won second place in the National Black MBA Case Competition in September.

In the final round, the Rutgers MBA students competed against teams from the University of Michigan, Ohio State, Howard, Alabama and the University of California at Berkeley.

The Rutgers team won $15,000 in prize money. First place winner University of Michigan received a $25,000 prize, and Ohio State received $10,000 for third place.

The Rutgers students were advised by marketing instructor Yla Eason and Albert Turner of the graduate student admissions office. The team also received support from Ron Kwan, director of the graduate student admissions office.

Other prominent schools in the competition included Boston University, Georgetown, Illinois and the University of Georgia.

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