A student team named “Moves Like JAPR,” certainly had the right moves as they took home top honors at the recent “Great Capstone Case Competition.”
(See a slideshow of the top three teams)
The students were enrolled in MAN 4720, and spent the summer along with nearly 800 students preparing for the competition, which is designed to help them strengthen their analytic, communication, presentation and teamwork skills beyond the classroom by developing recommendations for real-world business issues.
Their client was Electronic Arts (EA), the leading video game publishing organization in the world. The winning team was comprised of Joel Gonzalez, Anthony Pezzulich, Peter Herron and Ryan Joseph. They developed a plan for EA to acquire a game rental company which would thrust them into forward vertical integration. The team, led by lab instructor Christopher Leo, was one of 17 teams to make it to the semi-finals.
“Everything I had learned, from economics to marketing, was used in order to form a winning strategic recommendation for Electronic Arts,” said team member Ryan Joseph. “This class not only challenged me, but gave me genuine experience in thinking beyond day-to-day operations of business; we learned how to analyze, formulate and implement new ideas.”
The second place team, led by lab instructor Ghada Baz, included Joey LaRocco, Kailey Smith, Michael Schultz, and Kevin Edelson. The third place team was also led by Christopher Leo and included Tyler Wilkins, Robert Ferguson, Christopher Damiano, Jaime Szikszay, and Daniel Yaldor.
The overall course was directed by Bob Porter, lecturer in the Management Department. The competition was enhanced by EA employees Alex Chatfield, director of operations; Brian Graham, director of product development; Marco Busse, director of product development; John Sousa, Sr. Producer and Nick Lang, producer, as well as judges from UCF including Ben Noel, executive director of Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, and CBA Hall of Fame members Bob Case, ‘70 and Paul Gregg, ’74 and ’76.