The summer Great Case Competition is over and the results are in!

Graduating students enrolled in Robert Porter’s Applied Strategic Management Course participated in the competition. Porter organized the course as a company named Applied Strategy Incorporated and the students were enrolled as employees. Lab instructors took on the role of strategic business unit managers. Course assignments were treated as work for clients of the company. This semester, the client for the competition was Darden Industries.

Teams of four to six students competed by presenting their analysis of the casual-dining industry along with their recommendations for Darden to help the company create and sustain a competitive advantage over their competition.

The top 12 employee teams were selected by their business unit managers (lab instructors) to compete in the semi-final round of competition and their presentations were judged by College of Business Administration business faculty members. Four teams were selected by the judges to move forward to the final round of competition.

Winners were:

  • First place: Team Superior Solutions: Megan Hamel, Kristin Luviano, DeeDee Scheller, and Corissa Weist (Richard Quinn manager).
  • Second place: Team SBU14: Brittany Graeff, Tia Krueger, Tyler Landis, Tristan Martin, and Bradley Yeater (Bob Boettcher manager).
  • Third place: Team Visionaries: Brittany Briggs, Thomas Cancro, Jeremy Lewis, Manny Ortiz, and Jessica Salazar (Charles Viggiano manager).
  • Fourth place: Team Shake and Bake: Nicole Ellis, Scott Alarcon, Frank Camilliti, Virginia Carpenter, John McGarry, and Marcjordan Mones (Katheryn Meagher manager).

    • Final judges were:

  • Bob Case, ’70, College of Business Administration Hall of Fame member
  • William Long, ’73, owner/manager of Jonah Consulting Group LLC, and a College of Business Administration Hall of Fame member
  • Stephen Goodman, chair of the management department

    • Case presented each member of the winning teams with certificates for dinner for two to area restaurants, award certificates, and UCF business portfolios.