The Operations Stimulus CSM Case Competition was hosted by the Denver Transportation Club. The College of Business brought ten students to the competition, split into two teams, coached by Department of Management faculty Susan Golicic, assistant professor and Paul Vanderspec, instructor. Both teams did an outstanding job of representing the College. College teams tied for fourth place out of 12 teams, finishing a close second in the initial round to Ohio State University and University of Manitoba respectively. Ohio was the overall winner, followed by Georgia Southern and Manitoba. Our students had a mere two days to prepare the case due to the timing of our semester start date, compared to over a week for the other competitors.
The case dealt with crafting a supply chain to facilitate the launch of a new product similar to an iPhone in Africa, Asia and Europe. Our students put together clever solutions that effectively incorporated so much of what they’ve learned.
The students representing CSU were:
Team 1 - Wes Deats, Ashley Tevault, Rachel Phillips, Matt Bratschun, and Marisa Fails.
Team 2 – Brittany Warren, Adam Davies, Jacob Morland, Kate Starkebaum, and Dani Johnston.
On a final note, a particularly gratifying moment of the conference was when Wes Deats was awarded one of two Terry L. Priest Transportation scholarships in the amount of $2000.
Special thanks is due to several people who helped make the exercise a success. Department of Management Travis Maynard, assistant professor, worked with the students to facilitate the rapid formation of high performing teams. This exercise clearly paid off. Margaret Parks, department coordinator, helped coordinate room reservations, payments, and expense reports. John Olienyk, senior associate dean and acting deparment chair, sponsored the teams through the Department of Management.