University of Georgia Terry College of Business wins first place in 2005 National Black MBA Association competition

Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Nov 17, 2005

ATHENS, GA.

A polished presentation prepared by a team of Terry College of Business MBA students from the University of Georgia earned first place in the National Black MBA Association-DaimlerChrysler Case Competition held in San Diego last month.

Redick Brown II, Tracy Dunbar and Demetria Hannah, all second-year students in the college's full-time MBA program, spent three weeks studying the case and outlining strategies that would help DaimlerChrysler penetrate the consumer automotive market in China.

"We spent more than 80 hours outside of our regular classes preparing. There were a lot of long nights on the third floor of Sanford Hall," Brown says. "When we got on the plane ... we knew we were prepared and confident in the presentation. We knew our presentation backwards and forwards. We knew our numbers were solid and our assumptions were indicative of what could be expected. We just had to deliver it properly."

After two rounds of presentations and question-and-answer sessions, the panel of DaimlerChrysler executives who judged the competition decided the Terry team had delivered it properly. The Terry team beat defending champions Michigan State University and 27 other MBA teams from business schools across the country, including teams from Vanderbilt University, Pennsylvania State University, Brandeis University and Johns Hopkins University.

Brown, Dunbar and Hannah have been invited by the DaimlerChrysler executives to make their presentation to the company's board of directors in Detroit. The three students also each received $5,000 scholarships.

The National Black MBA Association Case Competition was conducted concurrently with the 27th annual NBMBAA Conference and Exposition.