Students win first place with analysis of retail company
After many hours spent studying and working at the library, Marina Martinez, a University of Houston-Victoria accounting senior, was overjoyed when she found out her team won it all.
A collective shock was shared when the group learned their team was named first place in this semester’s UHV College of Business Bachelor of Business Administration Case Conference, Martinez said. The first-place team that took home the gold consisted of: Jazlyn Castro, Marina Martinez and Jacob Salinas of Victoria; and Sheri Mayfield of El Maton.
“This team met frequently during the semester to work on the course project. The project includes industry and market analysis on one hand and analyzing the firm strategy and capabilities on the other hand,” said Kaveh Moghaddam McAdam, a UHV associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship. “Subsequently, students provide recommendations on how this company may improve its current strategies.”
The BBA Conference is held once each semester as part of the “Management 4309” capstone course. Students are expected to do an internal and external analysis on a public chartered company, in addition to working on the course content. A total of 108 students divided into 22 teams competed in this semester’s conference.
The event was conducted over Microsoft Teams on April 26. This semester, students keyed in on Academy Sports & Outdoors and conducted a comprehensive examination of the internal operations of the company. The company’s strengths and weaknesses are also examined as well as the students looking for any improvements that could be made. The team began work on research for the project in early February, and the results of the competition were announced on April 29.
The students crafted a comprehensive report throughout the semester and delivered their findings through Microsoft Teams in a half-hour session to a diverse panel comprised of members from faculty members, alumni and business leaders.
“The BBA conference is a special event because the College of Business invites some of our outstanding alumni and several community partners to judge the presentations alongside of the college faculty members,” McAdam said.
The team’s performance was then assessed based on presentation skills, company expertise and adeptness in addressing impromptu questions. Following the presentation, a 15-minute period is reserved for the panel to ask additional questions.
“The first thing I thought of when I was reading the results was, ‘What?’” Martinez said. “I screenshotted the results, sent it to our group text, and we are all excited and celebrating.”
One of the biggest shocks for herself and the team was learning that her team wasn’t going to be able to present it in-person as a team, Martinez said.
“We had a solid group,” Martinez said. “Everyone was responsible, we worked around our own schedules, and everyone held their own.”
During the preparation stages, the group would meet bi-weekly from February all the way until April to discuss strategies while conducting research on their company, said Sheri Mayfield, a UHV finance senior and member of the group.
“At the beginning of the semester, the professor sent out an email that said you would really get more out of it if you met in person, and the four of us switched from meeting online to face-to face,” Mayfield said. “That right there showed effort from the get-go.”
On the day of the presentation, there was a sense of calm in the air, made possible through hours of rehearsal, effective research and a camaraderie that was built through all of the team’s meetings, Martinez and Mayfield said. Even up to the point of the morning before the presentation, the team was still rehearsing to ensure everything was going to go right.
“The people who were coming to rehearsals, us four, were not the same people who showed up that day for the presentation,” Martinez said. “We have all grown so much, and we knocked it out of the park.”
Looking back on the project, Martinez said it ultimately took the entire team to come together to achieve the result, not the effort of one or two people. The teamwork that they shared built a cohesive and fun atmosphere and allowed everybody to play their part.
Mayfield, who shared the same sentiments, said the project wasn’t just about the competition, but was how it allowed everybody to fully understand the materials they have been undertaking in their respective areas of studies.
“This has been a great project because there is a difference between knowledge and understanding,” Mayfield said. “And it takes the knowledge that we’ve been exposed to in all of our classes and converts it into understanding. The most important thing about the project was to put it all together in a way that makes it applicable to real life.”
Other teams that placed in the BBA Case Conference were:
- Second place – Lucrecia Hembree, Sebastian Herrador and Emily Maser of Katy; Sandra Davila of Houston; and Melissa Stuart of Richmond.
- Third place – Satenik Petrosian, Alfonso Salinas and Francisco Cruz Montemayor of Katy; and Nicki Cook of Midlothian.
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.