Case Weatherhead students soar into third place in Thunderbird
Global Innovation Challenge®
December 5, 2005
| For more information: Jeff Bendix 216-368-6070
For the second consecutive year, students from Case Western Reserve University’s
Weatherhead School of Management scored highly in the world’s largest
business innovation competition, the Thunderbird Global Innovation Challenge®.
A team consisting of four Weatherhead School MBA students placed third among
the 10 teams making it to the final round of the competition, held recently
at Thunderbird-The Garvin School of International Management in Phoenix. Other
teams participating in the final round represented business schools including
Harvard, Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management,
and the MIT Sloan School of Management.
“We’re extremely proud of the Weatherhead team’s performance
in this prestigious competition,” said Myron Roomkin, dean and Albert
J. Weatherhead, III Professor of Management. “In solving the problems
presented to them they demonstrated the hard work, creativity and critical
thinking which are typical of Weatherhead students.”
Anil Rathi, president and founder of Idea Crossing and the Innovation Challenge®
said, “I have had the pleasure of watching two diverse Case Western
teams impress the judging panel both online and in person. The ability to generate
innovative solutions and articulate their value in a compelling manner, for
two consecutive years, is simply impressive.” Idea Crossing is the organizer
of the competition.
In the Thunderbird competition, student MBA teams recommend solutions to
new business challenges faced by sponsoring companies. This year’s sponsors
were Hilton, the United States Postal Service (USPS), IBM, American Express,
and BillMatrix. In the first round, the Weatherhead team submitted an innovative
process incorporating next generation technologies to increase business for
American Express. The team was one of 10 selected to advance to the final round
from among 321 teams representing 83 business schools from 18 countries worldwide.
In the final round the Weatherhead School team presented concepts for solving
problems for the USPS and Hilton. The question posed by Hilton was, “How
might we foster a thriving service culture among Hilton employees?”
Members of the Weatherhead School’s team included:
- Heidi Mullett Carrion
from Avon, OH, who is completing her MBA with a marketing concentration.
Prior to attending Weatherhead, she worked as a product development chemist
for five years with Bath & Body Works and a
start-up company in Columbus.
- Esben Lund-Hansen, an exchange student from the
Copenhagen Business School. Prior to returning to school, he did marketing
for an e-commerce company in Denmark. He has been studying Human Resources
Management.
- Elliot Reed, a dual JD/MBA student
and currently the general manager of VasoLux MicroSystems, LLC, a start-up
diagnostic medical imaging company. During his MBA he has concentrated
on finance and bioscience entrepreneurship, and completed a business development
internship at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2004. This was Reed’s
second Innovation Challenge competition, following a finish in the top five
in 2004.
- Jannick Thomsen, an equity researcher for the
largest Nordic bank, Enskilda Securities, and like Lund-Hansen an exchange
student from the Copenhagen Business School.
Team members were enthusiastic about their experience. “We each
brought different strengths and backgrounds to the group, and our final ideas
and presentations were better than any of us could have accomplished on our own,” said
Carrion. “By brainstorming and looking at ideas from all sides, we put
together creative concepts that were both strategically and financially viable.”
Added Reed, “The impact of the Innovation Challenge® cannot be
overstated. The next generation of global leaders will require the ability
to see the coming challenges and present innovative solutions to overcome them.
Normal coursework cannot replicate the skills a contestant will acquire during
this challenge—we now know how to innovate solutions to complex problems.”
About Case Western Reserve University
Case is among the nation's leading research institutions. Founded in 1826
and shaped by the unique merger of the Case Institute of Technology and Western
Reserve University, Case is distinguished by its strengths in education, research,
service, and experiential learning. Located in Cleveland, Case offers nationally
recognized programs in the Arts and Sciences, Dental Medicine, Engineering,
Law, Management, Medicine, Nursing, and Social Work. http://www.case.edu.
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