February 14, 2005
Barron’s Profiles McCombs Victory in 2005 MBA Marketing Summit

In January, a team of McCombs MBAs won the country’s most prestigious national marketing case competition, Wake Forest University’s MBA Marketing Summit. Through a twist of fate, the victory was also the subject of an 1,800-word profile in Barron’s by Lawrence C. Strauss. Before the competition began, Strauss serendipitously chose Texas as the team to track from beginning to end.

“The Texans face stiff competition—Emory, Yale, Western Ontario, Michigan, UCLA, Wharton and Wake Forest. Thirty-one teams from 21 schools applied,” wrote Strauss.

After 36 hours of lattes and power point presentations, the prize went to Texas. In the words of one judge, “They defined the problem, made a bold recommendation and backed up why that recommendation was achievable.” Ten days later, executives from Wachovia, the subject of the case, were “strongly considering” one of the McCombs team's primary recommendations.

Strauss had no way of knowing beforehand that the six MBAs from Texas—Wendy Pursch, John Reed, Fernanda Sacasa, Chad Sliva, Diego Szteinhendler and Rebecca Welch—would win.

Or did he? If he spent some time on the McCombs Web site, Strauss might have known that McCombs MBAs placed in eight national competitions last year. Head-to-head with teams from other MBA programs, they have one of the strongest track records in the country.

Strauss’ 1,800-word feature, “36 Hours to Glory,” is available on the Web to subscribers of Barron’s and The Wall Street Journal Online. A free Web reprint is also available at The Wall Street Journal Online's CollegeJournal.com site:

• Free Web reprint from CollegeJournal.com.
• Original from Barron's (requires subscription).

Excerpts follow.

From “36 Hours to Glory," by Lawrence C. Strauss, Barron's, Feb. 14, 2005.

“The Texans face stiff competition -- Emory, Yale, Western Ontario, Michigan, UCLA, Wharton and Wake Forest. Thirty-one teams from 21 schools applied, and seven made the cut, along with the home team.”

….

“The students' challenge is to devise a plan to make Wachovia Wealth Management No. 1 in all of its geographic markets, a swath stretching from Texas through the Southeast and up the East Coast to Massachusetts. An extremely aggressive goal. Or maybe a pipe dream.”

….

“By late Friday morning, the Longhorns are bogged down….

“Still, the Longhorns don't produce any Apprentice-like story lines: no backstabbing, romances or evil teammates. By late afternoon, they're hashing out a marketing theme.”

….

“They focus on what, in biz-school speak, is termed ‘the delivery model’—how Wachovia offers its service through 53 teams that are local and easily accessible to clients. ‘Clients expect e-mails, but they want face-to-face contact when they are talking about investing a couple of million dollars,’ says Reed.

….

“At the awards bash Saturday night, Wachovia's Doss prepares to announce the winner. She says the top finishers paid attention to ROI, or return on investment. ‘It's not us,’ Pursch tells a teammate. She's wrong. The Horns have hooked 'em. They're No. 1, followed by Wake Forest and Yale.

“’They defined the problem, made a bold recommendation and backed up why that recommendation was achievable,’ says V. Todd Townsend, vice president of small business marketing at Yahoo! and one of the seven judges.

“In a telephone interview about 10 days after the competition, Doss says her division is ‘strongly considering’ asking for an increase in the ad budget. (The Texans' recommendation must have been music to her group's ears.)”

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