|
CONTACT:
communications@mail.cox.smu.edu
Andrea Hugg
(214)768-4474 |
OR |
Ally Phillips
(214)768-9747 |
SMU Cox MBAs Win First Place in Travelocity Intern Case Competition
Dallas (SMU) - SMU Cox School of Business congratulates two full-time MBA students for placing first in the 2006 Travelocity Intern Case Competition.
Jessica Daw (MBA '07) and Deborah Poulos (MBA '07) participated on the winning team, competing against other interns from top business programs throughout the United States, including MIT, Cornell, Georgia Tech, and the University of Texas at Austin.
For the second summer in a row, Travelocity, a Sabre company, has offered its interns the opportunity to participate in a case competition, working on real world Travelocity business cases. Teams of technical and business students worked for approximately eight weeks to prepare business case proposals, and winners were selected based on the quality of the proposed solution, thoroughness of analysis, feasibility of implementation, potential market impact, and alignment with Travelocity's strategy and brand.
The competition was held on August 3, and winners were announced on August 9.
The winning team outlined how Travelocity could leverage the overwhelming amount of customer feedback they get to define strategies to identify and correct systemic business issues to increase customer loyalty and retention. The team demonstrated methods by which Travelocity could access and enact customer feedback and the positive financial impact this could have. As a final deliverable the team:
- Provided a proof of concept, recommended process, tools, and procedures to manage customer feedback,
- Provided a business plan to support recommendation,
- Supported the business plan with financial analysis, and
- Gave insight to best practice examples related to the process, tools, and procedures for fulfilling and managing feedback
"Our team achieved victory by utilizing skills gained from the first-year MBA curriculum, including regression analysis, strategic planning, cost-benefit analysis, and marketing strategy," said Poulos "This combined with previous work experiences and a diverse skill set allowed us to develop a compelling business case and end-to-end solution to address Travelocity's customer feedback mining issues."
This first-place announcement follows on the heels of two additional first-place wins this year. In March, the MBA Portfolio Practicum class came in first place at the third annual Texas Investment Portfolio Symposium (TIPS). Also in March, the Cox School placed first in a Case Competition sponsored by the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks (NAIOP).
About SMU Cox
SMU's Cox School of Business offers a full range of business education programs, including BBA, full-time MBA, Professional MBA (PMBA), Executive MBA (EMBA), and Executive Education. The school also offers a number of unique resources and activities for students, ranging from its Business Leadership Center (BLC), Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship, and American Airlines Global Leadership Program (GLP) to its Associate Board Executive Mentoring Program and an international alumni network of more than 29,000. SMU Cox is ranked among the top business schools nationally and internationally by major publications, including BusinessWeek, Economist, Financial Times, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and U.S. News & World Report.
###
|
