Archive for March, 2011

Dear Thunderbirds,

As you know, on Friday March 11th, Japan was hit by an 9.0 earthquake, one of the largest in its history, and a subsequent tsunami devastating the northeast coast of the country. In a matter of hours more than 10,000 people were feared dead or missing and over 500,000 people were displaced from their homes. If that wasn’t enough, nuclear meltdown now threatens the country.

Thunderbird Japan Club wondered what we can do to support Japan from Arizona, and decided to collect donations and send them to the American Red Cross since it provides help that victims need the most in this immediate situation.
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By Christian Lorentzen, Thunderbird MBA ‘12

On Friday March 4,  Robert Jansen, John Wilson, Matt Herricks, Arun Kumar and I represented Thunderbird  at the 13^th annual Venture Capital Investment Competition. We placed 2^nd only by 1 point.  Though the Thunderbird team came in 2^nd, the judges unanimously agreed that we had the best negotiation round.  Are take-aways are below.

The competition is structured as follows: Wednesday evening, all teams receive the same two business plans. That evening and Thursday, the teams research the business plan and industry. The goal is to get to know industry trends, competitors, and recent M&A and VC deals in order to identify strengths and weaknesses in the business plans. Friday morning the entrepreneurs pitch their business plan.  Each team is then given 15 minutes to ask each entrepreneur “hard questions”. In the next 3 hours the teams must select an entrepreneur to invest in and prepare a term sheet. In the last 15 minute session, the team negotiates the investment terms with the entrepreneur.
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By, Kelly Fuson, Full-Time MBA ‘11

I had the immense pleasure of competing in the 2011 Sony Marketing Strategy Case Competition which took place in San Diego, CA, the weekend of February 19th. First, I must mention that I did sign an NDA and therefore will not disclose any details about the case itself, but I will share my thoughts on the experience. It is a rare opportunity to compete in such a high-caliber competition amongst MBA students and this was no exception.

I first applied for the competition back in December (or was it November? It feels like a century ago). I was very attracted to the uniqueness of the competition based on the fact that I would apply as an individual and be paired randomly with students from other schools if I was accepted. However, when I found out that I was accepted, I wanted only to know who was on my team so I could start strategizing right away. But the true beauty of the competition was that not only are you figuring out recommendations for a very complex case but also going through the group norming process all within less than 8 hours (excluding the pre-competition dinner the night before).

When I arrived in San Diego on Friday afternoon I quickly scoped out my competition and wondered at the same time which of those students would be on my team. And in true Thunderbird fashion, I made sure to connect with everyone, regardless of whether or not they became my teammate. As a networker at heart, I knew it was not only a good opportunity to showcase my talent but also a great opportunity to make connections with other extremely bright MBAs. Indeed it was. Although it was an extremely fast and short weekend, I am confident that I now have added value to my network.

The team at Sony was very impressive and made sure to show all 60 students a good time. Every one of them was very friendly and welcoming. The building (HQ) itself was fantastic and played true tribute to the founders of Sony. It is no wonder why they decided to relocate the competition from Texas to San Diego. The best part (or another one at least)? The Sony team made sure that no contestant walked away empty handed as every student brought home a Sony product.

Let this be a lesson to all MBA students that you should take every opportunity you can to apply for case competitions. They are a great experience, win or no win. They are the best way to put your knowledge and – more importantly – your teamwork/leadership to the test.

I will end with a quick shout out to the T-birds who won the Supply-Chain and HR case competitions!

left to right: Ning Ge (UCSD), Jacqueline Xu (Thunderbird), Kelly Fuson (Thunderbird)