Business students win first place with analysis of restaurant company
When University of Houston-Victoria business student Dennis Silva and his colleagues, Bianca Singh, Hillary Sanchez, Jodi Mitchell, Mervin Machuca and Devin Higginbotham assembled in late September, the first thing they established was setting the tone of engagement as a team.
Weeks of rigorous meetings and brainstorming sessions later, the team recently celebrated their first-place win in this semester’s UHV College of Business’s Bachelor of Business Administration Case Conference.
“I witnessed how students in the winning team met frequently online during the semester to work on their project, including industry and market analyses on one hand and discussing the firm strategy and capabilities on the other hand,” said Kaveh McAdam, associate professor in the UHV College of Business. “As they were making progress on the project, I provided them several rounds of feedback, and I was impressed with the amount of work they put into revising their analyses and improving their project.”
As part of the Management 4309 Capstone course, the BBA Case Conference is held once each semester. Throughout the course, in addition to working on the classroom content, students are also expected to conduct an in-depth analysis of a publicly traded company. This hands-on project allows students to apply the business concepts and analytical skills they have developed during their studies to a real-world organization.
"We are incredibly proud of our students for their outstanding work in this semester's conference," said Rhiannon Smith, UHV assistant dean in the College of Business. "Their hard work, innovative thinking and dedication to the project exemplify the core values of our business program, and I look forward to celebrating their future successes."
This semester, a total of 101 students competed in 21 separate teams. The conference was held over Microsoft Teams on Nov. 23, and results were announced on Dec. 7.
“The BBA conference is a special event because the College of Business invites some of our outstanding alumni and several community partners to help the college faculty members judge the presentations,” McAdam said.
This semester, the winning team was led by Silva, a senior who will graduate this December with a Bachelor of Business Administration. This year, the competing teams examined Brinker International, a global restaurant company with a diverse portfolio of dining concepts. The team looked at the strengths and weaknesses of the company and looked for any opportunities for improvements that could be made.
“Our first meeting, we leaned toward whatever strengths each team member had; everybody has different strengths, some people might have more of a creative eye, and someone might be more analytical in their thinking,” Silva said. “That was one of the things we wanted to do, was to play into our strengths.”
To approach the project, Silva said he aimed to set a collaborative tone by dividing research into six sections – one for each team member. He led by taking the first section on the company’s history and background. Although he was familiar with Chili’s, Silva said he found it fascinating to learn about Brinker’s acquisition of Maggiano’s Little Italy and the creation of its virtual brand.
The team would reconvene weekly to share insights, such as examining Brinker’s upward profitability trend and comparing it with other competitors. This collaborative process allowed the team to prepare themselves more thoroughly before the actual presentation, he said.
“The weekly meetings were very beneficial because they kept us in contact,” Silva said. “But it also kept us on pace, so we didn’t get behind.”
Leading up to the team’s virtual presentation, their energy remained intense but focused, Silva said. They began preparing early, holding a dry run of their presentation with their professor on Monday before the competition. After receiving feedback, they agreed to meet up every evening to refine their presentation.
By Thursday, tensions were high as the team anticipated their final dry run on Friday. On the morning of the presentation that Saturday, the team gathered early to make final adjustments and to calm their nerves, Silva said. During the presentation, Silva said the team did their best to maintain a flow while speaking and to answer the judges’ questions as concisely as possible. After the presentation, they debriefed as a group, offering each other constructive feedback, reflecting on their performance and giving each other praises of how proud they were that their group had come together.
“As a team, I would say we were resilient – in that we continued on the path and kept our commitment to each other, our assignment and getting it done together,” Silva said. “There were a lot of team members volunteering; a lot of people stepped up, and it was a really good experience.”
Other teams that were placed in the BBA Case Conference were:
- Second place – Shelby Adkison of Cypress, Jeremy Nowlin of La Ward, Judy Pham of Katy, Hector Ramirez of Katy, Andrew Ung of Houston and Brittany Wagner of Victoria.
- Third place – Phuong Do of Cypress, Jennifer Fernando Montano of Rosenberg, John Thallas of Victoria, Daniel Villarreal of Houston, Mario Villarreal of Houston and William White of Richmond.
The University of Houston-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 50 academic programs in the schools of Arts & Sciences; Business Administration; and Education, Health Professions & Human Development. UHV provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as an instructional site in Katy, Texas, and online classes that students can take from anywhere. UHV supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.