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Graduate students get adult dose of childhood favorite.

College’s team, from left:  Marvin Rivas, Oscar Fajardo, Ger Kamminga, Nalene Rampersaud, and Otis Croney

The setting wasn’t Orlando or Anaheim, but “Disney” was still the word of the day—actually, the weekend—for five members of the College of Business Administration’s Professional MBA (PMBA) program. As participants in the 2008 Intercollegiate Case Competition, hosted by the University of South Florida in Tampa, they had to devise strategic business recommendations for Walt Disney World Co., noting ethical considerations, and then present their proposals to seven individuals, including four from the entertainment giant itself.

Leading up to the competition, Otis Croney, Oscar Fajardo, Ger Kamminga, Nalene Rampersaud, and Marvin Rivas (BBA ’06) practiced using cases from previous years. Three members of the winning 2007 team offered suggestions in person; a fourth, who has left South Florida, sent an email filled with encouragement and tips.

“You will probably wonder why you signed up at some point, but in the end it is worth it.”

—Ger Kamminga, complaint handling manager, Cordis Corporation, a Johnson & Johnson company

College’s team with competition judges

Many staff and faculty members provided support, including Ellie Browner (MS ’93, BBA ’79) assistant director, employer services, Career Management Services. She was the driving force behind the college’s participation, as she has been for all five prior years, and accompanied the team to the event, which took place from February 21-23, 2008.

Although the team from the University of Florida won, the participants gained valuable experience, as Kamminga and Rampersaud describe.

Ger Kamminga
Complaint handling manager, Cordis Corporation, a Johnson & Johnson company

Reasons to participate: The Intercollegiate Case Competition is a high-profile competition where the best universities in Florida compete. Representing Florida International University is a great way to support the university and enhance your education at the same time.
Time commitment: a lot. As we are all Professional MBA students, we all have full-time day jobs and we spend our Saturdays in the classroom. Many of us have families. The preparation for this competition needed to be done somewhere in between. In the limited time available between determining the team and the actual competition, we had three practice sessions in the college. We needed to prepare practice cases for these sessions, so we had to spend our nights and free weekend days preparing those. It is a large investment, but it is definitely worth it.
Best aspects of the experience: coming together as a team—starting from the first day of preparation. I am very proud that we were able to represent Florida International University with a truly international team, composed of people from Guinea, Colombia, Nicaragua, Jamaica, and The Netherlands. We all have different cultural backgrounds and professional experiences, yet we were able to come together and function as one under great pressure of time and complexity. Even though we did not win, we proposed a sound and well-analyzed strategy and presented it well.
Greatest challenge: time management. The case this year was so broad, with so many potential proposals, that we needed to spend sufficient time on brainstorming and prioritizing alternatives. As we had only 22 hours for the analysis, we did run into a time crunch.
Encouraging others: “You probably will wonder why you signed up at some point, but in the end it is worth it. Working as a team, analyzing a situation, and proposing a strategy under severe time pressures is a real-world experience not many people will have during their MBA program. Presenting the results to management representatives of multinational companies and receiving direct feedback is another learning experience no presentation workshop will provide. And lastly, the opportunity to network, meet other MBAs, and represent your university, creates a great opportunity for professional and personal growth.”

Nalene Rampersaud
Banking center manager, Bank of America
Reason to participate: to leverage my MBA program
Time commitment: twice a week meetings for about a month and a half, plus individual time for research and practicing presentations
Best aspects of the experience: the experience of working with some of the best minds from our group; learning from my colleagues in their respective areas of expertise
Greatest challenge: presenting the best possible idea in the time we had. We were the first group to present . . . at 8:00 a.m.
Encouraging others: “It is an experience that defines how you work in teams, tests your ability to create and produce an idea that can be presented to top management of companies, and at the end of the weekend, it is an adrenaline-fueled experience that drives people to do their best to represent themselves and their university.”