By Ankit Mahajan, MBA Class of 2014
On April 27th, Penn State beat five top schools, Georgetown University, Cornell University, Rutgers University, Ohio State University, and University of Maryland to win the 2nd Smith Strategy and Operations Case Competition with a cash prize of $1200.
Five first year MBA’s Andrew Driscoll, Ankit Mahajan, Iqbal Aasim, Jyotinder Singh and Marcus Cullen drove to University of Maryland to compete in the competition, which was held in collaboration with the Carbon War Room. The Carbon War Room is a non-profit with a mission to seek to accelerate profitable, entrepreneurial solutions that reduce carbon emissions at Giga-ton level. The Carbon War Room harnesses the power of entrepreneurs to unlock Giga-ton-scale, market-driven solutions to climate change.
The case was provided on 20th April and the submissions (Executive Summary and a 10 min power point presentation) were due at midnight of April 26th. The case was focused around real world problems facing the trucking industry, specifically in regard to green technologies and their usage in this industry.
The team had a tough time coming up with a feasible, well rounded and entrepreneurial solution to the problem. The team visited a local gas station to better understand the problems that transportation personnel were facing. The input from the drivers helped greatly in shaping the recommendation.
The Smith School played perfect hosts for the event and organized the event without any glitches.
The team would also thank Prof Doug Thomas for his inputs in the whole competition.