Seven teams of students, comprised primarily by accountancy and supply chain and operations management majors, presented their cases on March 13 to a panel of judges in a case competition sponsored by Terillium. This annual case competition is co-hosted by the Center for Supply Chain Excellence and the Department of Accountancy. The judging panel included Terillium executives David Woodworth, Molly Monson, Alyson Power, and Evan Crew.
The case centered around a hypothetical company, Woody’s Inc., a $250 million office supply manufacturing and distribution company headquartered in Chicago, IL. At a case introduction meeting held February 25, students were tasked to develop a 15-minute presentation that presents their recommendations for the company to improve its performance despite facing challenges such as increasing raw material cost, a weakened labor force, and cybersecurity and technological challenges.
Students were assigned to their teams, then spent the next three weeks formulating their recommendations and perfecting their presentations. A week before the presentations, Terillium President David Woodworth shared insights and strategies during a workshop to help strengthen the teams’ presentations skills.
Accountancy Professor James Zhang said, “Overall, students did a wonderful job presenting and answering the questions from the Terillium professionals. Compared with last year, this year has seen more AI-enhanced works by the student teams. One of the most impressive examples was when a student team created an app using Gemini Pro that simulated the online ordering interface for the case company, with functional buttons and text-entry boxes. As an instructor, it is great to see students leverage the power of AI while keeping the human part in the equation.”
The awards were presented to the winning teams at a celebratory dinner held at The Marcum Hotel and Conference Center. Zhang also provided some “half-time” entertainment by sharing his talents on the Irish whistle.
Congratulations to the winning teams!
Photo credits: Featured image, Corrine Kidd (Department of Accountancy); event photos, Raven Sparks (Center for Supply Chain Excellence at Miami University).