Every year MBA students have the opportunity to participate in case competitions and challenges. Student teams are given a business problem to analyze, and they present their recommendations to a panel of experts who offer industry-specific feedback and select winners.
The 2020-2021 case competition season kicked off in September 2020 when Texas McCombs MBA students Christopher Williams, Sean Stallings, Tyrone Smith, and Ingrid Zagzebski competed in the annual National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) Graduate Case Competition and took home the first place prize.
The Team
Christopher Williams, MBA ’21
Sean Stallings, MBA ’21
Tyrone Smith, MBA ’21
Ingrid Zagzebski, MBA ’22
McCombs teams have had strong showings at the NBMBAA competition in the past, but this was the first time the Texas McCombs MBA team won first place.
In 2019, Christopher Williams and Sean Stallings competed with another MBA team. They persevered to come back this year and win it all. Chris is a former transportation engineer, and Sean was a tech consultant, so they formed a strong foundation and were looking for a well-rounded team. They recruited Tyrone Smith, who had experience in automotive sales, and Ingrid Zagzebski, who had worked in marketing, to join their team.
We felt like we could do better a second time around and decided to compete this year. We recruited two other team members — Tyrone, another second year student, and Ingrid, a first year student. They brought energy, creativity and a wealth of automotive and marketing experience to the team.
— Christopher Williams, Texas McCombs Full-Time MBA, Class of 2021.
It was the perfect blend of talent: sales, marketing, tech, consulting and engineering!
— Tyrone Smith, Texas McCombs Full-Time MBA, Class of 2021.
The Competition
For over 25 years, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has partnered with the National Black MBA Association to provide a challenging case for students from top business schools to compete for $50,000 in cash prizes and employment opportunities. The competition challenges MBA teams to dissect complex, real-world business problems, come up with a thorough solution and present their findings to a panel of Fortune 500 executives.
The McCombs MBA team, along with over 30 other teams from universities around the country, were faced with the need to problem-solve innovative digital retailing solutions and car delivery options. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 competition was hosted virtually, which added another challenge for students.
What was the key to the McCombs team’s success? Sean thinks it was their team’s diversity and experience.
I think our diverse backgrounds were a strong differentiator for the judges.
A big reason McCombs did so well that was Chris and I competed last year. Having made some mistakes, we internalized a lot of the judge’s feedback. We also learned from other top-tier MBA school presentations, and felt we could outdo them. It didn’t hurt to have completed coursework in Corporate Strategy, Tech Strategy and Operations — those frameworks definitely set us apart from other first year heavy teams.
— Sean Stallings, Texas McCombs Full-Time MBA, Class of 2021.
Even with having a strong team and prior case competition experience, the group had to overcome a set of challenges. For one, there was the issue of time management: How can four Full-Time MBA students juggle their coursework, extracurriculars, and personal life on top of this competition? Tyrone, who is also a professional Olympic athlete, was still training and competing while the team was in the beginning weeks of planning and strategizing. Because of that, he correlates his team’s overall success to their synergy in those crucial early stages.
It feels absolutely incredible to be a part of this team. We worked our butts off with all of us having exceptionally full plates. We started meeting before school started and myself, being a professional Olympic athlete, I was still training and competing during the first few weeks. This team covered for one another excellently and we pulled together in perfect harmony
— Tyrone Smith, Texas McCombs Full-Time MBA, Class of 2021.
A First Place Victory
The team worked hard and made sacrifices. Their efforts paid off abundantly — in addition to new employment and networking opportunities, the team was awarded a $25,000 scholarship. Here’s how they felt when they got the news:
I literally screamed when we won although, if I’m being completely honest, I very much expected us to win. Chris and Sean competed last year and had a solid idea of the quality of presentation they would take. I was confident that knowledge — combined with the insider info, recommendations and our expertise in tech —would be difficult to beat.
For me, as far as new doors, the finalists were all invited to speak with McKinsey&Co., and I had an excellent one-on-one info session with them. I was encouraged to apply and they genuinely seem interested in my experience and story, something they would not have been exposed to without the competition.
— Tyrone Smith, Texas McCombs Full-Time MBA, Class of 2021.
I felt AMAZING. Our team put in a lot of effort to prepare for the case and bring data-backed, well researched and feasible recommendations to address the case challenge.
The scholarship from NBMBAA & FCA has had an immediate impact on my financial health, helping to reduce my student loan liabilities. More broadly, the case allowed me to meet and network with other minority MBA students and continue building my network.
— Christopher Williams, Texas McCombs Full-Time MBA, Class of 2021.
I was speechless! It felt like I was inside of a dream. After the shock wore off, I wanted to scream and shout, but I was sitting at my gate at the ATX airport and didn’t feel like it was the place to make a scene.
The scholarship money was a big reason why we signed up to compete last year; however, as we got further along in the process, it was less about the money and more about proving ourselves on the national stage. The $25,000 will be split up evenly amongst the four teammates and will be used to pay down some loans upon graduation.
— Sean Stallings, Texas McCombs Full-Time MBA, Class of 2021.
Advice For Future MBAs
If you’re a current or future MBA student interested in participating in next year’s National Black MBA Association Graduate Case Competition, here are some final words of advice curated by the team.
Get ready early.
The case is typically released in mid-August. I attribute a large part of our success to preparation and giving ourselves enough time to fully flesh out our ideas.
From the start, we came to a consensus on expectations. We knew we wanted to position ourselves for a win and decided to dedicate several hours each week to prepare. Even so, we stretched ourselves to make things work. We had a great team dynamic and trusted each other to get the work done. That made it easy to prioritize and focus on specific aspects of the project, rather than having to worry about doing everything individually.
— Christopher Williams, Texas McCombs Full-Time MBA, Class of 2021.
Be meticulous and say on task.
My advice is to have someone on the team who is meticulous about planning and have them take charge. Chris did an amazing job getting us started early to plan, so we were always a head of the curve. When the inevitable, unforeseeable things came up and we had to miss a meeting or change a time, it was okay because we were one-to-two weeks ahead of schedule.
Everyone is going to have to sacrifice at some point, and when it’s your turn, don’t hesitate. Show the team that you are in this to WIN — not just to make the final, or hopefully top 3, but to WIN.
— Tyrone Smith, Texas McCombs Full-Time MBA, Class of 2021.
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