2015 Holland America Line Global Case Competition: Students develop recommendations for IMAX Expansion into BRIC Economies
2015 Winning Team members Ben Hagen, Madeline Down, Midori Ng, Steven Xu
On Saturday November 7th the Seattle skies were grey and rainy, however inside PACCAR Hall, the students who participated in the 2015 Holland America Line Global Case Competition shone bright.
After 48 hours of intensive analysis and development of recommendations, the 28 teams who participated in the case competition dazzled judges with their impressive interpretations of the 2015 case, IMAX: Expansion in BRIC Economies.
Student teams played the role of a strategic planning group within IMAX Corporation, and presented their recommendations to a panel of community member judges, who played the role of IMAX CEO and upper management of the company. The teams were asked to, 1) determine how IMAX should allocate its future expansion into the BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), 2) create specific recommendations for growth and risk mitigation, and 3) provide recommendations about how IMAX should invest in Research and Development going forward.
The four top-scoring teams moved on to the final round. We would like to congratulate the four finalist teams:
Team 1 (E2): Jonathan Bannick, Daniel Park, Emmeline Vu, Deme Xenos
Team 2 (A2) Jacob Bentzen, Jacob Hoogerwerf, Kalei Munsell, Jack Post
Team 3 (C4): Madeline Down, Ben Hagen, Midori Ng, Steven Xu
Team 4 (B2): Michael Adams, Sean Mitchell, Corinne Parkinson, Edward Whalen
After watching the final round teams present, the panel of five finalist judges determined a winner. Of the four stellar finalist presentations, Team 3 took home the title of 2015 Holland America Line Global Case Competition champions and $1,000. Team 1 took 2nd place and won a $500 prize.
Congratulations to all of the teams, especially to the first place team members, Madeline Down, Ben Hagen, Midori Ng and Steven Xu. The winning team recommended entering China and India. The judges remarked that they did an exceptional job of addressing the risks of expanding IMAX’s presence in these countries, and the judges were especially impressed that this team developed their own qualitative analysis framework.
Of the 28 teams that participated, seven of those were teams of Foster School Freshman Direct students who competed in their own track of the competition to win the title of Freshman Direct Champion and $500. We are excited to see these students getting involved so early in their Foster careers. The Freshman Direct Track winning team was team F1, Aarthi Ganapathi, Mike Guevarra, Julia Jones, and Christine Ly. Second place in the Freshman Direct track went to team F3, Nick Harmon, Michael Kwan, Amber Lee, and Sheldon Spring.
2015 Freshman Direct Winning Team, Christine Ly, Julia Jones, Aarthi Ganapathi, and Mike Guevarra.
The Global Business Center is also committed to providing global business education across Washington State. New to the 2015 competition was a Community College Track. Three teams traveled to the UW campus from Columbia Basin College, North Seattle College, and Yakima Valley Community College. Each team gave an impressive presentation addressing the IMAX challenge, and North Seattle College took home the title of Community College Track Champions.
2015 Community College Track Winning Team from North Seattle College, Tysen Hillquist, Melissa Wagner, and Rex Balansay. (not pictured, Richard Wilmeth)
The Holland America Line Global Case Competition is an introductory case competition and an exceptional learning experience for Foster School students. It provides an opportunity for students who have never competed in a case competition to ‘get their feet wet’. This year’s learning opportunities included a ‘how to approach a case competition’ training session, taught by Foster School faculty member Leta Beard, and a coaching round which provided teams the opportunity to get feedback on their presentation from business community and faculty coaches before presenting in front of the judges panel. Thank you to all of our volunteers who made the event possible!
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.
