Two Groups of MBA Students Place Second in National Case Competition

For the first time ever, SDSU had two MBA cases in the national finals of the Small Business Institute (SBI) annual Case of the Year Competition and each placed second in their respective categories. SBI members are directors of collegiate business consulting programs. As part of their classroom experience, students consult with local businesses and write field cases to help make lasting improvements to their clients business operations. These cases can then be submitted to the SBI for the case competition.

SDSU's case winners were for GroomToys.com under the faculty supervision of Don Sciglimpaglia and Heather Honea and Educational Enrichment Systems under Howard Toole and Craig Dunn. The GroomToys.com project was conducted by MBA students Anja Schweppe, Denny Pezic and Jan Heiligtag and assessed the market potential of an online wedding gift registry directed toward grooms. The project for Educational Enrichment Systems (EES) was a comprehensive business study conducted by MBA students Izaskin "Izzy" Uriz, Jynette Thompson and Hui Sun. Izzy later was offered a job by the client, which she accepted. She currently works for EES as a project coordinator.

"This is really a great honor for our students and our school," said Don Sciglimpaglia. Top universities from all over the country submit their cases to this competition. It reinforces how prepared our students are to tackle real-world business issues and provide sound solutions for them. Sciglimpaglia has had a case that he supervised place first or second in the SBI National Case of the Year Competition each of the past four years, winning it in 2003 for a marketing study conducted for the San Diego Downtown YMCA. Last year, as well, four graduate students from his seminar in marketing research won first place at the national level of the Cadillac National Case Study Competition.