A team of USC MBA students hailing from five continents won the 2022 Everyone’s Business Global Case Competition, beating out teams from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and UVA Darden. The fourth annual event, held March 3-4, was the first to include a hybrid of in-person and online presentations.
UBS Wealth Management sponsored the event for the third time. The Everyone’s Business Global Case Competition takes a unique approach to the traditional business school case competition, allowing student teams to provide strategic consulting on a pressing business issue related to equity in business.
Nine business schools (including USC Marshall) participated: UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, Baruch College's Zicklin School of Business, McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Gies College of Business, University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business and the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business.
The winning team, appropriately named “Team PotPourri,” was comprised of Marshall Full-Time MBA student members Timothy Pryor (UK), Victoria Qiu (USA), Gabriela Carvalho (Brazil), Nkemdirim Nwogu (Nigeria), and Parul “Kimmy” Nagpal (India).
Christopher Lord MBA ’22 served as the team coach, with Becky Heino, professor of clinical management and organization, serving as faculty advisor.
Second place went to Team “Meta-Four,” from HKUST, which presented online.
Third place went to Team “Amplifying the Solute” from University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
Originally called the Global Consulting Challenge, Marshall’s long-running competition was rebranded the Everyone’s Business Global Case Competition in 2019, after the class of 2020 became the first full-time MBA program at a top 20 business school to reach gender parity.
Challenges
UBS tasked the teams to diversify its client base by asking them to design a concept and implementation strategy for a high-touch hybrid program for its prospect clients. UBS wanted to ensure that its financial advisors were an integral part of the programming and that the impact of the event was highlighted in the final presentation.
Particularly challenging was creating a strategy for an exclusive event while maintaining emphasis on inclusion, said team members. Another challenge? One team member caught COVID in the weeks before the competition. But she recovered, and the team went on to present a winning strategy.
“More than the award itself, it was rewarding to know that our suggestions weren't just an academic exercise and that our suggested brand name and strategies will be used to bolster initiatives toward diversity, equity and inclusion at UBS,” said Parul “Kimmy” Nagpal MBA ’23.
“What was unique was that this competition not only fostered DEI in business but also intra-team diversity. We were thrilled to share the platform with some of the best schools in the world. Participating in and winning the Everyone’s Business Global Case Competition will be one of the highlights of my MBA experience at Marshall,” she added.
