2013 Holland America Line Competition: Students tackle global HR issues in 48 hours

The Global Business Center is proud to announce that the 2013 Holland America Line Global Case Competition was a great success! The 24 teams made up of over 95 Foster School undergraduates presented in a preliminary round to corporate, alumni, and faculty judges on Saturday, November 16th. The top four teams were selected to move on to the final round of competition.

The judges all agreed that the case this year was particularly challenging as it dealt with global human resource management issues for Maersk. Headquartered in Copenhagen, Maersk is a global conglomerate with large shipping and oil and gas businesses. As Maersk’s businesses become ever more international, the company wants to increase the geographic diversity of its work force. Our competing student teams played the role of Maersk managers who were tasked with the following:
• Setting geographic diversity goals
• Recommending recruitment and retention strategies designed to achieve the goals
• Developing measures of progress towards these goals (key performance indicators)
• Estimating the costs of the recommended strategies

Of the four outstanding finalist presentations, Team 3 made up of Tara Ghassemikia, Sam Tanner, and Demetra Xenos took home the gold, winning the Holland America Line Global Case Competition and $1000. The winning team’s solution recommended that Maersk recruit in strategic growth markets for shipping and trade including Brazil, Russia, India, and other Latin American countries. Their three-tiered strategy was to “recruit, recognize, and retain.” They also recommended an annual international event to develop and recognize leaders called the “Maersk Reunion.”

For the second time this year, we also had teams of Foster School Freshmen Direct students compete in their own track to win the Freshman Direct Champion title and $500. Seven freshman teams competed, and the winning Freshman Direct Track team was Jessica Gilmore, Adam Kinkley, Ashley Kuhn, and Joseph Rebagliati. We are excited to see these students getting involved so early in their Foster careers!

Visit our website to find out more and learn how to get involved next year.

The Global Business Center would like to thank Holland America Line for their generous support of this unique educational event for Foster School of Business students. Holland America Line is a leader in the cruising industry and a longtime supporter of the Foster School of Business.