Georgia State-Hosted International Business Case Competition Teaches Practical Skills, Strategy

An Italian company. The Brazilian market. How a tech-savvy maker of cutting machines for apparel and shoes from the old world makes its way in the new — that was the subject of this year’s International Business Case Competition at Georgia State University. 

Hosted by the GSU Center for International Business Education and Research, or CIBER, the event asks teams of students from minority-serving universities to craft a solution to a thorny international business problem — often one with a variety of potential outcomes. 

Held in person March 1 for the first time since 2020, 31 students from eight schools participated, with local international business practitioners appointed as judges-cum-mentors. 

While they encountered a supportive panel of experts, the competition was a crucible for the students, who were teamed up with new colleagues from different schools and disciplines upon their arrival in Atlanta. 

After an afternoon of professional development and ice-breakers, they had less than a day not only to solve a cross-border conundrum, but also to put together a polished, entertaining presentation capitalizing on their individual strengths while distributing the work equitably. The quality of their ideas was evaluated along with their speaking and presentation skills.

For Clara Ndlovu, an accounting major at GSU who hails from South Africa, the competition revealed her mettle in a new way. 

“I found out I know way more than I thought I did, and I underestimated myself,” said Ndlovu, a member of first place team Marketing Minds, whose individual members each took home $500 checks. 

Joshua Salter, a finance major from Claflin University in Orangeburg, S.C., said Ndlovu’s study of international business was a game-changer for the team, which recommended that machinery maker Atom s.p.A. enter the Brazilian market through a 50-50 joint venture. 

While Mr. Salter had participated in stock and finance case competitions before, he admittedly “didn’t know the first thing about international business.” 

He chased some red herrings, including trying to find Atom’s financials before realizing the company wasn’t publicly traded. Still, focusing on details and data served the team well. 

“The big thing is having something to back up what you’re saying,” Mr. Salter said, noting that it took awhile to build chemistry with new colleagues and meld their differing viewpoints and ideas. 

“We spent a lot of time just writing ideas to the point we got frustrated, and then we took a break. We were able to calm down and re-center,” he said.

Ivan Lopez, a consultant who has worked as an executive across Latin America for companies like Assurant and BBVA, said that a joint venture would not have been his first choice, since he has seen similar cases in the real world. 

But as a judge/mentor, he conceded that the competition is less about a team’s solution than it is about their interpersonal dynamics and how they use its lessons as a springboard for their future careers. 

“Presentation skills are extremely important, because you’re going to use them no matter what, so take advantage in every class that you take,” said Mr. Lopez. 

The experience brought back memories of his own educational journey, he said, when he took acting classes to become more confident on stage and to enunciate through his Spanish accent. 

“Nobody is going to remember if you did well or not, but if you can keep those learnings, that’s huge,” he added. 

Tangela Clements, a Mary Kay consultant now studying marketing at Albany State University, said her background as an entrepreneur — and as a mom who has to “sell” to her children — helped her overcome the daunting challenge of being first team to present in the morning. 

“We were a little disadvantaged, and people benefited from our mistakes,” she said, adding that divvying up responsibilities based on team members’ strengths and majors helped 

Each year, CIBER collects feedback from participating students and the faculty advisors who accompany them to Atlanta. This year, though some suggested a different arrangement for teams, the center says the overall feedback was extraordinary.  

More than a decade into hosting what has become a bona fide tradition, the case competition is achieving its goal of giving students “the opportunity to work collaboratively and sharpen their problem-solving, teaming and presentation skills,” said GSU-CIBER Executive Director Tamer Cavusgil.

GSU-CIBER one of 16 U.S. Department of Education-funded centers focused on driving U.S. economic competitiveness by improving international business instruction at the university level through student and faculty development. 

Georgia State has taken the lead among 10 CIBERs forming a consortium of Minority-Serving Institutions that have worked on joint initiatives like the case competition, an ongoing international business webinar series and an IB Pedagogy Workshop being held in Atlanta May 29-31. The consortium has become a platform for outreach to historically Black colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions and community colleges, mostly in the Southeast U.S. but also around the country. This year, two new institutions —California State University-Sacramento and Community College of Denver — brought teams to Atlanta for the event. 

Other participating universities included: 

• Alabama State University
• Albany State University
• California State University-Sacramento
• Claflin University
• Community College of Denver
• Georgia State University
• Howard University
• Oakwood University