Indiana University Wins Business Language Case Competition

The Indiana University team, from left to right: Nicole Budzynski, Jeff Carlson and Claire Ranzetta.PROVO, Utah – Nov 16, 2011 – Competing against nine other teams, Indiana University took top honors at BYU's fifth Business Language Case Competition. This year the event, held Nov. 11, challenged students to apply their Spanish skills to critical business decisions.

Coming in after Indiana were teams from American University and University of Nevada – Las Vegas, which received second and third place, respectively.

Teams of three non-native Spanish speakers were given two weeks to tackle the task of deciding whether a large company should revamp or drop a struggling product. They presented their strategies in Spanish to a panel of judges consisting of 12 Spanish-speaking professionals and three BYU MBA students. The judges made their decision based on the skill of the presentation, mastery of the language and effectiveness of the business strategy.

"All of the teams were ready with their sources and explanations and were able to come up with a variety of solutions to the problem," says Gabriella Poletti, a project manager at MultiLing and a judge for the competition. "Some teams went the extra mile, looking not only at the case but also at other issues that could come up, and that really made the difference between those that did very well and those that did not."

Indiana University's team impressed judges with its preparation and ability to answer questions on the spot. The team consisted of Nicole Budzynski, a finance and economics senior; Jeff Carlson, a finance and business economics junior; and Claire Ranzetta, a finance and accounting senior. The first place team received a prize of $1,000.

Emily Moore, a member of American University's team, says she is proud to have participated in the competition, which allows her to practice what she is learning as she works toward a degree in business language and culture studies.

"It's something my major has worked for as far as being able to apply Spanish to business contracts, and it's given me confidence to apply for jobs that would ask for this type of skill," she says.

Nine schools, including Bryant University, Purdue University and the University of Miami, came from across the nation to participate in the event, which was sponsored by the Whitmore Global Management Center/CIBER and the University of Miami CIBER.

Luz Robles, Utah state senator and vice president and Hispanic/Latino market manager at Zions Bank, was an example of using Spanish in the business world as she gave the keynote address during the competition. She says the competition prepares students to enter a job market where being able to speak Spanish is becoming an essential skill.

"Look at the global market," she says. "In order to succeed we need people who are linguistically and culturally competent. The sky's the limit when it comes to being able to communicate with people around the world."

The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, public management, information systems and entrepreneurship. The school's mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,000 students are enrolled in the Marriott School's graduate and undergraduate programs.