Trojans host Irish and Longhorns for a chance at Fairfield

Thanks to ECLP, just as it started to turn cold in NYC, I got to head to sunny LA for the GE Case Competition hosted at the USC Marshall School of Business. I loved case competitions during business school, especially inter-MBA competitions where I met MBAs from other programs. In addition, I had read the case, which focused on GE’s healthymagination initiative and the issue of obesity, and I was excited to see what sorts of creative solutions the different teams had come up with.

As host school, USC did not disappoint. They were extremely gracious and had planned a fun calendar of events after Friday’s competition, including a keynote address by renowned professor Warren Bennis, a Halloween party in West LA, a Saturday tailgate and free tickets to the USC – Oregon game.

In total, seven teams participated – three from USC, three from Notre Dame, and one from Texas. While the long-held collegiate rivalry between USC and Notre Dame is well known, all of the ECLPs and ECLP alumni planning the event recognized that Texas has inflicted its share of football grief on both programs. We also readily acknowledged that no one’s football teams are looking as good as we’d like this year, so we took to calling this the “Former Football Glory” case competition.

Each group had such interesting ideas and a totally different take on how to use GE’s capabilities to solve the obesity epidemic. All of the teams faced the challenge of balancing what is innovative and exciting with what is doable and fits GE’s core competencies. I see the same struggles with new GE Capital initiatives, so though healthcare isn’t my domain, I felt I personally learned a lot from listening to the pitches. More detail on these ambitious strategies will come later, after we host the final round competition in Fairfield on November 19.

All of the teams presented actionable plans, demonstrated charisma and had compelling metrics to back up their arguments, so it wasn’t an easy task for the judges to pick a winner. The judges were an impressive panel including a global marketing manager for GE – Healthcare, a regional sales director for GE – Healthcare working on the GE-Intel joint venture, an executive from Intel also working on the Intel-GE joint venture, a business consulting lead for Kaiser Permanente, and a life sciences professor.  For me, the highlight of the day was the chance to listen to the judges as they discussed the different ideas and thought through various business models.

Ultimately, all of the participants had a great weekend – a perfect combination of big business ideas, a healthy smattering of competition, and collegiate fun. It also helped that the weather was absolutely gorgeous, and the USC MBAs went out of their way to make us all feel welcome.

I’ll be heading to Fairfield in a few weeks to blog on the final round, in which teams from George Washington, Notre Dame and Texas will compete. Though Fairfield certainly can’t compete with USC weather-wise, it should still be just as tremendous an event. Our CMO, Beth Comstock, is giving a key note address, and the judges are the leaders of the healthymagination initiative – meaning that some of these ideas may become business realities before the participants even finish their MBAs! 

Posted by Kathleen