Olin student team wins prestigious case competition


A team of Olin Business School graduate students recently won the $5,000 first prize in the 18th annual International Case Competition organized by Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business.

Olin came in second last year, but this is its first win in the prestigious competition.

In addition, the team of four MBA students and one master’s in supply chain management student tied with Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the “Best Presentation” Award.

“Winning second place would have been fantastic; winning first place plus an additional award that could have gone to anyone, whether they placed in the finals or not, was unbelievable,” said MBA student Chase Huey.

“Olin Business School is on its way to being a Top 10 MBA program, and our team hopes that victories like these continue to validate that assertion, reminding those of us within the school as well as the business community as a whole of our potential.”

Others on the team were MBA students Prasanna Shrivastava, Saurabh Singh and Austin Murray and master’s in supply chain management student Qu (Jane) Jiang.

Top-tier business schools from all over the United States and abroad are invited every fall to compete in the prestigious two-day operations case competition. The next generation of operations management leaders work in small groups under strict timelines to solve a business case that highlights multinational corporations’ real-world operational issues.

The teams then present their strategies to a panel of industry and academic experts in the field of operations management.

The event has become an important educational and networking tool for the schools involved as well as an exceptional recruiting opportunity.

Other schools participating included Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley; Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University; MIT Sloan School of Management; Yale School of Management; and New York University Stern School of Business.


“The Olin Supply Chain Club put together an amazing team, each member brought unique skills, and highly effective leadership allowed each member to achieve their potential,” Murray said. “The collaborative teamwork, along with amble preparation before the competition, gave the team a noticeable advantage over other competitors.”