Smith Team Takes Home First Place and $10K in
ACG Case Competition

Each year every chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) in the United States runs a regional case competition for the MBA programs in the area. This year the D.C. chapter of the ACG held their competition Feb. 4-11, 2008. The competition places the student teams in the role of a financial investor. This year’s case was centered around two fictional companies that were named GrowCo and MarginCo. The industry that they operated in was aerospace & defense. Each team had to pitch an idea to a private equity fund, in doing so they had to recommend that the fund acquire none, one or both of the companies. The teams were not allowed to do any outside research in order to make their recommendation. They could only use the background and financial information they were given on each company and the industry overview they were provided with.

All of the teams received the case on Feb. 4, and then each team made a 20-minute presentation in front of the judges one week later on Feb. 11. One of the unique aspects of the presentation was that instead of having questions and answers follow the presentation, they were asked throughout, which made it more difficult for teams to plan out what they were going to present. This was done to make the competition mimic industry practices. Smith team member Jonathan Steele thought the competition provided a wonderful experience. “The competition was a great opportunity to live the life of an investment banker for one week. We were conducting company valuations, creating pitch books and selling our ideas to a client. The experience provided me and the team with a better understanding of the skills and work ethic needed to be a successful investment banker."

The team from Smith consisting of second-year full-time MBA students Jonathan Steele, Alex Obaza, Denny Chu, and Fang Fang competed against teams from George Mason, George Washington University and the University of Virginia for a first Prize of $10,000. After a week of hard work the team from Smith walked away with a first place finish. (No other places were awarded.) Alex Obaza said this about the team’s win: “We had a great team that worked hard and worked well together. The experience we gained was invaluable, so winning was just icing on the cake.”

After finding out they had won, the team headed to Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner, Va. to attend the monthly ACG breakfast meeting. During the event they were presented with their award in front of the 100 members in attendance and were also given the opportunity to network with the members, most of whom are executives in the Washington, D.C., area.

ACG was founded in 1954 and has since become a global association with 51 chapters and 12,000 members in North America and Europe. The association is the premier place for professionals involved in corporate growth, corporate development and mergers and acquisitions to come together and network. The case competition was something that the organization started in order to give back to the community and create a larger presence within it. To learn more about the organization visit www.acg.org.

▓ Loretta Goodridge, MBA Candidate 2008, Smith Media Group