Great Experience at the 14th KeyBank Minority MBA Case Competition!

By Benedetta Piva, MBA Class of 2019

The 14th Annual Minority MBA Student Case Competition took place in Cleveland, Ohio on February 242018, and was hosted by KeyBank Corporation in collaboration with The Ohio State University. Twenty-eight teams from several of the strongest MBA programs across the country came together to compete in the event, including; Indiana University of Bloomington, University of Michigan, Purdue University, University of Alabama, University of Maryland and more. Farzan Sohail, Karthick Jayakumara Sarma, and myself, all 1st Year Smeal MBA Candidates, had the privilege to represent Penn State and the Smeal MBA program in the final round.

The case provided by the organizers was based on a real-world business problem that KeyBank is currently facing: improving financial wellness of its 3 million community bank customers. The case was released to all the participating teams exactly one month prior to the official presentation. The case gave some background information on KeyBank and its offerings in three service areas: primary bank, savings/investment, and borrowing. It also provided us with a breakdown of the primary digital platform KeyBank uses to gauge customer engagement levels. We were asked to develop a business case solution on how KeyBank can leverage data analytics, emerging technology, and behavioral sciences to advance the Financial Wellness of its customers.

The organizing team was very welcoming and the event was very well organized. We arrived at the Westin Cleveland Downtown Hotel on the evening before the official presentation. All the participating teams were invited to visit the KeyBank headquarters and attended a keynote address as well as a networking brunch at the CEO suite on the 55th floor of the KeyBank building, which is the tallest building in Cleveland.


A view of KeyBank HQ from the lobby of Westin Downtown Hotel.

After the keynote, all the teams were briefed about the event rules and given the opportunity to practice in the room where the official presentation would take place the following day.  The first round of presentations was hosted at the hotel boardroom in the morning and during the networking lunch in the afternoon, the names of the five finalist teams were announced.

While our team was not selected for the final round, we all had the opportunity to attend the final round with presentations given by the finalist teams and the Q&A sessions afterward. The day ended with a closing award ceremony followed by a formal dinner.  Ohio State University was awarded 1st place while the University of Alabama took 2nd place and Case Western Reserve University took 3rd. During the ceremony, we were pleased to find out that our team member Farzan was selected for one of the five best Q&A awards.


Networking brunch right before the keynote address
in the CEO suite at KeyBank HQ.

We’d like to express our gratitude to everyone in 220 and the MBA program, especially Denise Rill, for helping to facilitate Penn State’s entry in the competition.  Participating in the competition gave us greater exposure to the role of community banks in improving the financial wellness of their customers as well as the potential of artificial intelligence and data analytics in the future of consumer banking. The competition afforded us the chance to network with KeyBank executives as well as with peers from business schools across the country.

Definitely an experience worth pursuing!