UC Business Team Takes Top Honors in California Competition

Good news from San Diego on Feb. 16 as University of Cincinnati (UC) part-time MBA students Shannon Rappach, Michele Phelps and Jennifer Bellin — under the guidance of UC Prof. Charles H. Matthews — brought home the first-place prize for their field-case consulting project for Cincinnati public broadcasting system television station WCET (channel 48). The Case of the Year competition is sponsored by the Small Business Institute.

(l-r) Charles Matthews, Shannon Rappach, Michele Phelps and Jennifer Bellin

Matthews is executive director of the UC Center for Entrepreneurship Education and research professor of entrepreneurship and strategic management in UC’s College of Business. Susan Howarth, president and CEO of CET, served as the primary organization contact for the student team. The students represent a variety of organizations in the Greater Cincinnati area:

• Michele Phelps is director of marketing for Fujitec America, Inc.
• Shannon Rappach is assistant chief fiscal officer for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
• Jennifer Martin Bellin is director of Public Relations for the Cincinnati Opera.

The team worked on a strategic management field-case project focusing on developing, building, monetizing and sustaining the new “CETConnect” Web portal. The winning case was selected from over 38 of the top cases entered in this year’s national competition. UC was one of 12 finalists at the graduate level, four each across three case project categories: new start-up feasibility, comprehensive, and specialized cases. The UC team took first place in the specialized category.

"CET is extremely proud and appreciative of the efforts of the UC MBA team," says CET's Howarth. "This award acknowledges their great work and is justly deserved. CET and CETconnect.org are grateful for the work that the team contributed to our effort to launch and enhance CETconnect.org as the nation's first on-demand community public media Web site. We continue to benefit from the recommendations of the team."

"I cannot say enough positive things about this student team," says Matthews. "Their skill, talent and ability to think through the challenges presented by the case was outstanding. At every turn they were able to apply core learning amplified by their own insights. Having outstanding educational partners like WCET and Susan Howarth is a great asset for teaching and learning in Cincinnati."

This award is the fourth first-place win for a UC field-case consulting team in the past seven years. Since 2000, UC MBA teams have brought home four first-place, two third-place and one “Honorable Mention” in the Annual SBI Case of the Year competitions.

In order to qualify for the national level, the UC team has to first compete in and win the 2007 Cecil Boatright Business Plan competition sponsored by the Cincinnati Chapter of SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) in cooperation with the Center for Entrepreneurship Education & Research in the College of Business at UC.  

Read about the 2006–07 Case of the Year competition.