31st Fisher Invitational Case Competition

A very important part of any MBA program is providing its students with hands-on learning opportunities. I believe that Fisher does an outstanding job at doing so. Last semester, we had the opportunity as a class to participate in an internal case competition among all first-year MBA students.

The competition was for Local Cantina, a Mexican restaurant located here in Columbus, Ohio. We have had many case competitions as a class, but this one was particularly fun. This is because, as the semester ended and while we were working on this case, you could see how much we had progressed from the very first class we had.

It was very exciting to see my teammates capitalize on their acquired knowledge and be confident when presenting. In the end, my team ended up winning the case competition and getting selected to compete at the 31st Fisher Invitational Case Competition, sponsored by Bath and Body Works (BBW).

The invitational consisted of a case provided by BBW to different Big Ten Conference schools. Schools like Penn State University, the University of Maryland, and the University of Nebraska. In the end, we had to present to different BBW executives as well as an OSU faculty member who was part of the judging panel. All things considered, hands-on learning opportunities teach us, students, a lot about business and ourselves. Some of the things I learned include:

• Trusting your teammates: While we were working as a team, each of us had to work on a specific area of the case. We had to trust that each one of us was gathering the right information to support our overall strategy.
• Do not be afraid to be creative: Many times we are given an outline of the expectations other people have of a project. Sometimes, is okay to push back with ideas that might fall out of scope, as long as you can provide your reasoning and supporting data.

In the end, it was a great learning opportunity, and I am grateful that and my teammates got to work alongside other Big Ten schools and the BBW employees.