More than 125 teams across five campuses competed in the largest and most competitive Capstone Case competition ever. From the overall group, 26 teams advanced to the semifinals and just five were invited to compete in the finals.
The case study for the competition was Target Corporation. The winning team presented “U-Design.” Team members included: Keristen Black, Melissa Blette, Michael Chandiramani, Krista Forti, and Michael Newman, all graduating seniors.
Their strategy consisted of Target partnering with universities to bring bedroom design concepts to campuses so students can plan their own dorm bedrooms. Their strategy leveraged technology where students could use their smart phones to mix and match products and picture the layout of their rooms before making purchases. They also considered the long-term benefit of their strategy by making the case that college graduates were likely to be Target customers well into the future.
Judges for the finals were College of Business Administration graduates and Hall of Fame inductees Paul Gregg, ’74 and ’76;Tom Bland, ’75 and ’79, as well as Vic Caserta, a senior executive from Target Corporation. Judges for the semifinal round included 10 Target representatives, and seven graduates from the College of Business Administration’s Executive MBA program.
The Capstone competition takes place at the end of each semester.