A group of WSU College of Business students flew to Boston, Mass., today to put their enterprise skills to the test at Northeastern University’s Internal Business Case Competition.

The Consortium of Undergraduate International Business Education (CUIBE) competition invites teams of four undergraduate students from 16 of the nation’s top tier international business schools to contend in a two-day business event.

“We have to have a good plan, but we have to be able to convincingly argue that our plan is correct and that it will work,” said Chris Tieu, a senior international business major.

Tieu met Jeremy Frank, Sterling Smith and Travis Tran in May when they solidified a team to compete in the CUIBE case competition.

With the guidance of business professor Kalvin Joshi, the four students and their adviser met for multiple meetings and planning sessions.

“It’s been probably three to four hours of meetings every week and also meetings between just the team members in order to get our presentations down, to work on the business cases we’ve been presented for practice,” Tieu said.

Frank, a sophomore international business and management information systems major, said he is astounded with the amount of improvement his team has made over the months.

“Looking back at my first practice presentation, it was almost embarrassing,” Frank said.

Smith, junior accounting major, believes his team has what it takes to win the CUIBE competition. He said he thanks WSU’s College of Business and team mentor professor Joshi for helping him prepare for the competition.

“I feel very well prepared for the competition,” Smith said.

Frank sees himself as an effective asset to the team.

“I would say I bring a sort of passion to the mix,” he said.

Frank said much of his appetite for success builds up, starting from the planning phase to the moment where the team comes together to present their practice business strategy.

“When we create a presentation and business plan it helps us do something, which not only makes number sense, but is also something we can be incredibly proud of and passionate about,” he said.

On Friday, teams will be presented the case materials chosen by the CUIBE event organizers. The objective is for teams to construct the best business strategy by Saturday morning.

Each team will have about 35 minutes to communicate their business plan with the visual aid of a PowerPoint presentation and answer questions from a panel of judges comprised of country-wide business leaders.

“The cases put you in real situations,” said Tran, a senior business management and history major.

The Los Angeles Times, one of the U.S.’s largest newspapers in terms of circulation, is an item Tran and fellow team members used in a practice scenario.

“With the increase in bloggers, decline in need for reporters and decline in the communication sector due to the internet and expansion of globalization, what are they going to do for them to survive?” Tran said.

Whether WSU returns the Palouse with the gold or not, the business team believes it is about the experience and the chance to expand their knowledge in the industry.   

Tran said he feels optimistic on earning a favorable outcome this Saturday.

“This is a great opportunity for networking and top of that, representing WSU and if we win, which I’m sure we will, bring home some bragging rights to our great university,” he said.