BYU Marriott Hosts, Wins Competition

PROVO, Utah – Mar 20, 2018 – The Brigham Young University Marriott School of Business hosted and won the inaugural Adam Smith Society Case Competition—a three-day event which brought nine top-tier MBA programs from schools across the nation to Provo including Yale, Chicago Booth, and the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.

An evening welcome reception was held on Thursday to kick-off the event. The following day, the initial round of the competition was held with a brief recess in the afternoon when students participated in a ski trip to Sundance. The competition concluded on Saturday when BYU Marriott MBA students Richard Bobo, Sam Fisher, Danny McCracken, and Seth Randall were awarded a $3,000 cash prize for first place.

“For me, this win demonstrates that BYU Marriott MBAs not only understand free market principles. They can also articulate them and put them into practice,” Fisher says. “It is really important that as we study business we understand the free market along with the rights and principles that make it all work. This contest was a welcomed opportunity to engage in that learning.”

Paul Godfrey, William and Roceil Low professor of business strategy at BYU Marriott, helped organize the case competition, which challenged contestants to explore how Facebook’s executive team should respond to issues arising from the 2016 US presidential election.

“I thought it was a powerful opportunity for students to deal with this big issue about business and capitalism, and our students did well,” Godfrey says. “They looked at the business and the social impact, and they presented well. I was proud to be a Cougar on Saturday.”

The Adam Smith Society is a national MBA association that works to help students foster a meaningful dialogue around complicated business issues that impact society. BYU became the newest chapter of the society last year.

The BYU Marriott School of Business prepares men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Named for benefactors J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott, the school is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. BYU Marriott has four graduate and ten undergraduate programs with an enrollment of approximately 3,300 students.