NEWS OF NOTE

Florida International University team eyes Johnson & Johnson case competition victory.

Panel of Judges

SWOT team members Robert Simms, Ligia Martinez, and Elena Klevsky
of the Accounting Association, and Samuel Lapidus, American Marketing Association,
won the local competition.

The Johnson & Johnson case competition at Florida International University is always exciting. Teams of hard-working students who have logged vast numbers of hours preparing a business plan for a real company finally make their presentation to a panel of judges.

The 2005 case under consideration was CLEARVIEW Vision, a world leader in the development of disposable, soft contact lenses. Teams were asked to perform an in-depth assessment of three business opportunities:

• An internally-developed daily disposable contact lens
• An improved two-week daily-wear contact lens that features a proprietary material
• Licensing two ophthalmic pharmaceutical products

This year, even the weather contributed to the excitement. Due to start at 6:30 p.m., the College's event was delayed for an hour because heavy rain turned the judges' seventeen-mile trip from Cordis into a two-hour adventure. Then, lightning blew out the projector that hangs from the ceiling in the presentation room. The organizers had to improvise and bring in a portable projector to enable the presentations to go forward.

Seven representatives from Johnson & Johnson attended, five of whom formed the judging panel. Three college teams presented the case: SWOT, composed of three members from the FIU Accounting Association and one member from the American Marketing Association; Raging Bull, consisting of members of the Financial Management Association; and Bovespa, an independent team of Brazilian friends.

Each team presented its case well and then took questions from the judging panel. Although the panel was pleasant and polite, they did ask tough questions that sometimes caught the teams off guard.

The SWOT team of Robert Simms, Ligia Martinez, and Elena Klevsky of the Accounting Association, and Samuel Lapidus of the American Marketing Association was named the winner. The judges felt SWOT had done a more thorough analysis of the case and a better job fielding questions.

Networking and an informal constructive criticism session with the judges followed the formal presentations. All the participants agreed that they were glad they had undergone the experience-despite the long hours they had put into their preparation.

The SWOT team traveled to Johnson & Johnson's headquarters in Brunswick, New Jersey earlier this month to compete against the winning teams from business schools around the country. Although they didn't capture first place this year, they represented the College well.