By Jennifer Kang
Reporter
Five students will represent Baylor in the final round of an international business case competition in November.
This is Baylor’s first time competing in the International Institute for Business Development Hong Kong Baptist University Case Competition. Baylor is one of four finalists out of 33 universities from 15 countries.
Teams were assigned a case on June 1 about company branding and were required to submit a case analysis report and executive summary on how to promote a company. The evaluation criteria for the case were based on depth and comprehensiveness of analysis, relevance, originality and persuasiveness.
The IIBD Case Competition is a way for students to experience strategic challenges and managerial dilemmas that many global business leaders face. The cases simulate real world business problems to test the creativity and problem solving abilities of students.
Companies use branding to show consumers and clients that its brand is superior and different from others. The students will be able to establish credibility and show consumers that their company is the solution for any problem by employing branding skills.
Baylor will be represented in the final competition by Houston sophomore Lauren Hall; San Jose, Calif., senior Cassandra Yip; Houston junior Christin Pyle; Conway, Ark., junior Kaitlin Nabholz; and Cincinnati, Ohio, sophomore Alexander Dixon.
The students were part of the Baylor in China program this summer and have many advantages in the competition, said Dr. Chris Pullig, department chair and professor of marketing.
“One of the advantages we have is that these students are studying Chinese language and culture, so they are culturally adept and very in tune with understanding different cultural issues,” Pullig said. “The students were also given a one-day seminar on branding, so they have a foundation on branding.”
To prepare for the final competition in Hong Kong on Nov. 11, students will engage in a simulation case Saturday that will be a good representation of the cases they will see.
“They will spend six hours with a case in a conference room, which they will do in Hong Kong,” Pullig said. “We will combine faculty and graduate students and critique their performance in terms of preparing, reading, discussing and coming up with their solution and how to improve their process.”
Hall said the first case for the competition was about improving the company’s marketing and brand.
“When we were in China, we were emailed the information packet. We did research on the company and came up with a plan and how to pitch the idea to the company,” Hall said. “We wanted to improve their marketing and brand. At the end, we wrote a paper and executive summary on this and emailed it to them.”
Nabholz said the case study was based on teamwork instead of individual roles.
“I think the reason we worked so well together is because most of us have different backgrounds, but they all relate to business,” Nabholz said. “We tried to utilize what each person was the best at in relation to what they could focus on in the project on a task-by-task basis.”
