Walking into a conference room at a corporate headquarters, plugging in your laptop and presenting your plan to launch a new product to a panel of financial analysts provides a different level of education than most undergraduate business students get in the classroom alone.

For the past month, a group of 30 students in Oglethorpe’s Hammack School of Business have been preparing for and participating in a case study competition to introduce a fictional water conservation technology to the Las Vegas market. The first rounds of the competition were internal at HSB with Dean Stephen Craft, Ph.D. and the faculty serving as the judges, winnowing the group down to 11 finalists in five groups.

The finalists had the opportunity to shake off their nerves, step up to the moment, share their research and present their solutions for a new product launch with a group of seasoned financial analysts poking holes and asking probing questions.

In the end, first place went to the team of Annabelle English and Martha Cruz-Palma, and second place went to Kai Crow and Neal Nankani.

“You guys did a fantastic job,” said Russell Mitchell, senior manager of business operations at Cox Business. “You took high-level information you were given, and you expanded on that. You came onto a corporate campus and presented to people you didn’t know. We appreciate the effort you put into it.”

In addition to Mitchell, the judges panel included Alan Royalty ‘88, an Oglethorpe alum now working in the nonprofit sector after a career in finance and consulting; Blaine Cloud, Director of Financial Analysis at Cox Communications; Harper Morris, senior finance manager at Cox Automotive; and Greg Woodward, director of finance at Cox Automotive.

“It really was a hard decision,” Cloud said. “There were two that rose to the top. These two groups looked beyond the original requirements of the case and looked beyond the five-year horizon and took into account market conditions from the community.”

The approach in the Hammack School is to develop skills by doing, not just listening to lectures and reading textbooks. Craft was careful not to offer too much in the way of guidance about their proposals but instead coached the teams on preparation and presentation skills.

 “We are working to make sure students have access to a variety of applied experiences to complement their classroom work,” Craft said. “Being immersed in a professional setting such as the Cox Corporate Campus while presenting to a panel of industry leaders prepares students beyond what we can achieve in the classroom alone.”

The case competition was born out of a conversation between HSB and Cox Enterprises as part of a developing and ongoing corporate partnership.

“We are blessed to have great community partners such as Cox Enterprises to join us in developing our students,” Craft said. “I’m enormously proud of the work the students did and really enjoyed working with them.”