SCSU team places first in national competition

Senior business students Jada Diggs, Seth Harling, Tiffany Major and Shontavia Riggins bested teams from 12 schools across the nation in the competition. The championship brought $15,000 to the College of Business’ scholarship fund.

“I have such pride because these students come from all different backgrounds,” said Dr. Barbara Adams, dean of S.C. State’s College of Business. “You never know what students are going to do when they get here. Some of them have some experience, but most of them have no experience. They don’t know what to expect.

“To see where they get to when they leave here, that’s my inspiration,” Adams said.

The Undergraduate Business Case Competition provides undergraduates with early exposure to MBA-level business case strategy and allows them to be considered for competitive summer internship opportunities.

Each year, students are given a case about a real company that has a problem, and the students are tasked with creating strategies to resolve the problem. This year the case was about Subway Restaurants and how to reverse a drop in revenue and store closings.

Harling, a senior business marketing major, said the process required steady collaboration among team members with motivation from their coach, Ellen Ricoma, a former business professor.

“The solution came from everybody’s ideas, and we took the things we knew best from what we see every day and things we see when we go different places,” Harling said. “It taught me to be open to new ideas – not just get stuck in a box or the norm. You have to branch out and try to do more.”

In the end, the students recommended that Subway advertise on the popular video sharing platform TikTok and add grills to restaurants.

“They should be able to cook the food hot and fresh for customers because a lot of customers prefer that,” Harling said. “We saw that in the surveys that we did. Customers like fresh, hot food as opposed to just toasted or microwaved food.”

Major, the team’s captain, said developing the solution and the presentation for the competition took “patience, communication and grace.”

S.C. State students also won the competition in 2018. Since first entering the Undergraduate Case Competition in 2016, S.C. State has placed in the top four all but one year. This was Major’s third year as part of the team.

“I think the things I have learned here at South Carolina State really have molded me to take on anything,” she said. “This was my first real leadership position. This was my third case competition, but being a leader was really different.

Along with the overall championship, S.C. State’s students also received individual honors. Riggins won the award for the best presenter, and Major won the award for the best response to questions.