A Twenty-Four-Hour Sprint

PROVO, Utah – Nov 30, 2017 – Bribery. Embezzlement. Scandal. Imagine a big name company trusting you to strategize a solution to its ethical dilemma in just twenty-four hours. That is what a Brigham Young University Marriott School of Business team did at an ethics competition held at Baylor University, bringing home a second-place prize for their solution.

“It’s a twenty-four-hour sprint,” says Austin Strong, a third-year business administration and engineering masters student from Centerville, Utah. “We finished at 3:30 in the morning and were exhausted and sleep deprived while rehearsing our presentation.”

In a case involving the rectification of Samsung, BYU Marriott MBA team members spent a lot of time bouncing around ideas until they identified the core issue: loyalty. Once they pinned down the problem, the group continued with identifying where the failures are and how to address them.

Strong says they tackled the issue with a presentation designed around redistributing stock options and implementing a new training model for employees based on a language barrier.

Not only did the BYU Marriott MBA team deliver on the solution, but the judges were also in impressed by the team’s overall PowerPoint slides and presentation.

“It was refreshing to hear that this was one of the best presentations ever done in this competition in terms of visual appeal, flow, and content,” says Jason Alleger, a second-year MBA student from Redmond, Washington.

BYU Marriott provides MBA students with the knowledge and skills needed to prepare them well for case competitions. The team came ready with books, a deck template, and a list of possible ethic structures to use.

“Most of our classes, especially in the first-year core, are focused on giving you a case and solving problems,” says Seth Wright, a second-year MBA student from Dallas. “There’s a lot of different frameworks and concepts you can master, but more importantly, learning how to dissect and solve an ambiguous problem is emphasized.”

During their time at Baylor, team members took advantage of building their network by connecting with students from other schools and learning about the various work other people are doing professionally. By forming new relationships, the MBA students hope to leave a positive, lasting impression of BYU.

“It’s great going somewhere else and continuing to build up a great brand name for BYU Marriott,” says Wright. “There’s people who have gone before us and have done a lot to establish us as a reputable university, so being able to build off of that was an awesome experience.”