April 6, 2004

GW Wins 11th Annual Case Competition

GW’s team of MBA students won first place and $3,000 at the 11th annual GW/KPMG Case Competition March 19–20. Georgetown University and University of Alabama teams won second and third place, respectively. Shanika Dissanayake, Atul Jain, Dan Kotrapu, Rachel Mor and Xi Su were on the GW team. Pradeep Rau, professor of marketing, served as the team’s faculty adviser.

Teams developed five-year strategic plans for National Public Radio (NPR) in response to this year’s case, which was written by GW strategic management professors James Thurman and Joel Cook, in cooperation with NPR.

So many GW MBA students wanted to compete on behalf of GW the School of Business hosted a qualifying round well before the main competition. Kotrapu, a first-year MBA student, won his slot on the GW team in what he deemed a “brutal” tryout. Kotrapu said he was impressed with the caliber of competition at the GW/KPMG Case Competition.

“It’s hard to stand out in a group of such exceptional competitors,” he said. During presentations, all teams were identified by a randomly selected number, rather than by school name, to ensure fair judging.
Students from SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan, Italy, kept a positive attitude despite missing the finals round.

“It was a long trip to get here,” said Marco Farinelli. “We really have to enjoy every minute.”

The event concluded with a formal dinner and awards ceremony, at which Emily Rubin, NPR director of business development, and Maria Thomas, NPR vice president, delivered keynote speeches.

NPR is an internationally acclaimed producer and distributor of noncommercial news, talk and entertainment programming. A privately supported, nonprofit, membership organization, NPR serves more than 770 independently operated, noncommercial public radio stations. Each member station serves local listeners with a distinctive combination of national and local programming.

The GW/KPMG Case Competition is the only such event that addresses issues and challenges facing nonprofit organizations. In recent years, the competition has considered issues facing National Geographic, the American Red Cross, Kennedy Center and National Symphony Orchestra, the World Bank, the International Olympic Committee, and Habitat for Humanity. This year, five of the 20 participating teams were international, traveling from Hong Kong, Canada, Italy and Spain.

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