Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Marketing Summit 2010: Building a Case

We are proud to feature a Q&A with Herrin Hood, a second-year full-time MBA candidate in the Wake Forest University's Schools of Business and co-writer of this year's case studies for the Marketing Summit.
Lauren Collins conducted this exclusive interview for Firsthand Experiences, providing a sneak peak into the process behind what are sure to be engaging and challenging cases for the summit’s graduate and undergraduate teams.
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LC: How did you get selected to write the case?
HH: Last year I helped the case writers by keeping time during the teams' presentations. This year the Marketing Summit co-chairs asked me if I was interested in helping to write the cases. Roger Beahm, the Marketing Summit faculty sponsor, then interviewed me, and I was selected as one of the case writers.
LC: Who did you work with in writing the case?


I worked with my fellow classmate, Robbie Shappley (right). I really enjoyed working with Robbie and I think we put together a couple of good and interesting cases. Additionally, Dr. Derrick Boone provided terrific advice and guidance as our faculty advisor.
LC: What was the general process (meetings, research, etc.), and how long did it take?
HH: Altogether it took us three months to complete the cases. Once we knew that IBM was going to be the summit sponsor, we started doing preliminary research to get a feel for the company and its businesses. In early November, IBM gave us more-focused topics for each of the cases.
Robbie and I met numerous times during November and December crafting the first drafts of the cases. In conducting our research, we used internal IBM resources, library resources and online resources. We would like to thank the business school's librarian, Bob Hebert, in this effort. In early January we delivered our first draft to IBM, meeting with company executives. After our meeting, we spent January fine-tuning the case. In the last week of January we finished the final drafts of the cases and gained IBM's approval.
LC: What general advice would you offer to the teams?
Take initiative, use all of your resources within the rules, and try and get a good night of rest before you come.
LC: Did you collaborate on the graduate or undergraduate case?
HH: Robbie and I worked collectively to write both of the cases.
LC: What are you hoping to get out of the Marketing Summit? Which event are you most excited about?
HH: I hope that the Wake Forest Marketing Summit enables some of the brightest emerging business minds in the world to develop unique solutions that create real value for IBM. Personally, I learned that there is an art to accurately framing and presenting a problem in a manner that does not rely on paradigms and that permits creative solutions.
I'm very excited to hear the teams' recommendations during their presentations. Also, the Marketing Summit Gala is always a great event and I'm looking forward to that as well.

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