Here's the official press release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Winners of $47,500 International Tech Case Competition Just Announced

MBA Students from Sloan School of Management Won

11 Top Business Schools Sent Teams


BOSTON, MA, March 31, 2007 – The Second International Tech Strategy Business Case Competition, hosted by Boston University School of Management and sponsored by the Motorola Foundation, has just announced the winners.

First place went to the students from Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who were awarded the top prize of $25,000. The team captain was Ryan Hudson, and the team members were Garrett Dodge, Damian Fernandez and Bala Venkatrao.

Placing second with a $15,000 award was the student team from Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. The third place finishers were from Stanford School of Business, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, and they shared a $5,000 prize. The students from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, placed fourth and won $2,500.

This is the only international tech strategy business case competition featuring MBA students from the world’s top business schools. On some campuses, 22 and even 27 teams competed to represent the business school during the March 29-3l event.

Each team had 24 hours to address the subject, “What is the best way for Motorola to win in seamless delivery of media and entertainment?”

The captain of the MIT team, Ryan Hudson, said, "We presented ideas that would enable seamless mobility to extend to new content. For example, we see the consumer turning the cell phone and TV cable box into My Channel by becoming the creator and distributor of content, and spreading that content through Motorola products."

The Motorola Foundation sponsored this event for the second year. Navin Mehta, Motorola Vice President, Network & Enterprise Services, announced the decisions of the judges. He said, "This is the second year that Motorola has sponsored this event, and it continues to be an exciting and impressive experience. The depth and quality of the presentations made it a challenging task to pick the winning teams, and we look forward to exploring some of their ideas in more detail."

Louis E. Lataif, Dean, Boston University School of Management, the host school, said, "This unique international competition focused on the critical role of technology in contemporary business at all levels. These students gave additional proof that future business leaders must be adept in employing technology for both operating and strategic advantage. The competition also exposed the students to 14 highly-placed technology and telecom executives."

The event was organized by MBA and MS-MBA students from Boston University School of Management. The 11 teams that took part in the competition were:

Boston University School of Management (KRZR)
Eller College of Management – University of Arizona (SLVR)
Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University (CANOPY)
Kenan-Flagler Business School – University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (MotoMing)
Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (V3BLUE)
London Business School, U.K. (RAZR)
McCombs School of Business – University of Texas at Austin (MotoFone)
Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada (PEBL)
Seoul National University, Korea (Motorola Q)
Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (ROKR)
Stanford School of Business, Palo Alto, CA (SURFBoard)

About Boston University School of Management
Founded as the College of Business Administration in 1913, Boston University School of Management develops builders and leaders for the networked-era, emphasizing the fusion of the art, science, and technology of business. The School’s holistic approach prepares the next generation of business leaders for a world that values management as a system of interdependent functions, decisions, people, and technologies. It is the worldwide leader in offering a unique MS-MBA program, a rigorous dual degree and next-generation MBA fusing a traditional management education with expertise in the information technologies that are transforming all businesses. The School also offers a full range of graduate and undergraduate management degree programs and executive education.

Boston University School of Management is located at 595 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215. For more information, visit http://management.bu.edu.

Media Contact:
Pete Arnold
Peter Arnold Associates
cell: 781-248-3600
office: 781-239-1030
parnold@parnold.com

Team KRZR is almost ready!

Well that's what they said when I walked in! They've had lots of ideas and they're working well together. The high point of the event for them was when they realized that the approach they had formulated had already been implemented and so they felt like CEOs because CEOs think like they do. The low point of the event for them was when they realized that the approach they had formulated had already been implemented and so they couldn't use it for the competition.

Good luck, KRZR. Don't worry, you'll think of something.

Team KRZR

I finally managed to track down the KRZR team on the 9th floor. Joe was appropriately contrite about standing me up for our earlier interview session and I made him promise to name his first-born after me so we're all good. He was very excited to be part of the competition (and who wouldn't be!) and commented that "this makes me feel like a normal adult!". The idea of getting together with peers to solve a real-life business case with real-life constraints and considerations really appeals. Sometimes in the BU MBA life (as I'm sure in most other programs too) one does get quite caught up in cases and homework and papers that we forget what its like to be part of a contributing workforce - I definitely can appreciate that point of view! The fact that there is prize money associated with this makes it all the more exciting.

The team did some prep work before the competition by getting together every other week or so to do some research on the telecom industry. According to Joe, the one thing that is so amazing about the world we live in today is that information is so easily available and accessible and the rate at which information travels is mind-boggling. We talked about life before Google and online libraries and how writing papers and doing research was limited by the size and quality of physical libraries when we were in undergrad. Joe is very cognizant about the challenges of making information relevant in today's world and I think this case competition is the perfect arena for him and his team to showcase their ideas on this.