MBA students participate in case competition

The semester started early for first-year MBA students who participated in a case study hosted by Koch Industries. KU School of Business lecturers Venkat Bendapudi, Steve Liggett and Wally Meyer prepared the students for the annual first-year MBA KU Case Competition on Wednesday, Jan. 16.

They worked on the case for 24 hours and, on Thursday morning, with the help of KU Media Productions, Duane McGregor, one of the four judges and a senior business consultant at Koch, held a question and answer video conference. Friday morning, the students travelled to the company’s headquarters in Wichita to present their cases to a panel of judges. In addition to McGregor, Chase Koch, senior vice president of Koch Agronomic Services, LLC, Pamela Swedlund, human resource leader of Koch Industries and Jeff Gentry, chief executive officer of INVISTA.

“KU Business Alumnus Jeff Gentry was instrumental in making the competition happen,” said Catherine Shenoy, director of MBA programs, “and Rachael Sanner, a KU alumna, coordinated the event in consultation with Koch College Recruiting.”

Several members of the business school staff and faculty travelled to Wichita with Shenoy, Bendapudi and the students: Dee Steinle, administrative director of masters programs; Jinae Krieshok, MBA recruiter; and David Byrd-Stadler, employee relations coordinator.

The MBA students presented their arguments on whether Koch should convert an existing facility to produce the crop fertilizer YieldMax or whether a brand new facility should be built. The six groups gave 15 minute presentations with an additional 10 minutes for questions. Suzelle Tala Medjou, Boyao Bi, Anas Maazouzi and John Terkovich won first place; Colin Hartigan, Marion Caremel, Jacob Esau and Prasanna Tadimeti won second place; and Paul Epp, Moses Jiang, Andrew Lovgren and Gary Snider won third.

School prepares students for long-term success

In August, freshmen filled the Summerfield hallways at the University of Kansas for the first time, with efforts of the Business School Experience (BSE), a first-year program designed to prepare students for success in the classroom, the workforce and the professional world.

The BSE was designed by Jason O’Connor, assistant dean of academic programs and director of Student Academic Services, alongside Alicia Green and Shu Tosaka, academic advisors at the School of Business. The program focuses on incoming, high potential freshmen interested in pursuing a business major.

“Students are often looking to jumpstart their majors within the first year,” Green said. “Many other colleges offer that possibility and we see this addition to be an improvement for the students wanting to pursue a business degree, as well as the school itself.”

The BSE is a course offered to students as an introduction to the business school and KU. Each student admitted as a freshman is required to enroll in one business school introductory course for four semesters before enrolling in major-specific courses their junior year. 

“It shows them what it means to be a Jayhawk, and more specifically what it means to be a business school student,” Tosaka said. “It ties students together and they are bound with tradition.”

To guide the freshmen during their first year, each student is assigned a peer mentor. Throughout the semester, the students are required to meet with their mentor at least two times. In addition, each student is required to attend four School of Business events each semester.

“Quite honestly, I would have benefited tremendously from exposure to the School of Business during my freshman and sophomore years,” said Joe Viviano, senior at the School of Business and BSE peer mentor.  “Had I participated in more events during my first two years, I believe I would have emerged from my introverted shell earlier.”

Viviano and the other 10 mentors want to provide as much insight, counseling and advice as possible.

“Our hope is that the BSE students will parlay our mentoring and advice into personal and professional success,” Viviano said.

Green has received feedback from the mentors, who wish they would have been offered the same resources their first two years of college. This program allows students to network early and to explore all the possibilities in business. Green and Tosaka hope that this will benefit the students to make more specific schooling decisions for long-term success.

“Our goal with this program is to help the students become well-rounded individuals, personally and professionally,” Tosaka said.