The Oklahoma State University case competition team recently won first place at an annual Big 12 competition in Kansas City. The team includes MBA students Tiantian Zhang (left), Jessie Loeffler, Michael Tapley and Matt Quade. Also pictured is Kevin Rauckman, Garmin CFO and treasurer. 

By Chris Pryor

STILLWATER, Okla.—A team of four business graduate students from Oklahoma StateUniversity recently won first place at an annual Big 12 competition in Kansas City.

The Masters of Business Administration (MBA) case competition required teams of graduate students to analyze and solve a current real-world problem for Garmin International, a Kansas City-based company that manufactures devices that use global positioning systems. The competition was held March 14 and 15.

Competing teams received a case at 8 a.m. and had 24 hours to complete an analysis, come to a decision and craft a presentation to deliver to a panel of judges.

A field of judges awarded the OSU MBA team in first place. The University of Nebraska team placed second.

The OSU students, Michael Tapley, Tiantian Zhang, Jessie Loeffler and Matt Quade, were given courtside seats at the Big 12 men’s basketball final game and were recognized at the game. But recognition wasn’t the only thing the students won.

Competitions like these encourages students to apply classroom material to real world business problems, said Jan Analla, the assistant director of OSU’s MBA program. This win demonstrates the high quality of OSU’s MBA program and of the students it attracts, she said.

“The competition just goes to show that our program measures up to any
of the competition we are up against,” Tapley said.

The team members were selected through an internal case competition that the OSU program holds every year, which each MBA student is required to enter. Judges select the four best students to participate on the school’s traveling team.

“I think it helped to broaden my horizons a little bit … to help me see that the sky really is the limit for me.” Quade said.  “I don’t have to settle for merely being average, but using the education I’ve received here as a foundation, I can go and accomplish great things.”

Zhang is an international student in the program, and she said her teammates helped her overcome a language barrier, which helped her performance before the judges.

“They also introduced me to many fun things about American culture,” she said. “That made this experience even more valuable for me.”

Loeffler, a first year MBA student, said though she has not been in the MBA program very long, the competition helped her learn a lot about business situations.

“The second-year students were extremely intelligent and were a source of inspiration to me,” she said. “There was such a large learning curve, but I also feel like we brought our own strengths to the table, which helped us to succeed and work well as a team.”

As Oklahoma's premier comprehensive land-grant university, OSU is “The STATE's University.” OSU’s MBA program is housed in the Spears School of Business and is dedicated to the original land-grant vision of research, instruction and extension. For more information about OSU’s MBA program, visit spears.okstate.edu/mba or call Analla at 405-744-2951.