By Akash Bhatia
A team representing Ralph Lauren won the finals of the Consulting Cup on Wednesday. The Consulting Cup is an event in which sophomores give presentations in which they provide solutions to major business challenges faced by various Fortune 500 companies. Only six teams were left in the final round of competition.
The winning team was Hugh Lagrotteria, GSB ’17, Luke Ariotto, GSB ’17, Kirk Haynes, GSB ’17, Natalie Malicki, GSB ’17, Rachel Myers, GSB ’17, and Allie Pushkarsh, GSB ’17.
All finalists were competing for a chance at $1000 in prize money and the opportunity to become a part of Fordham history.
This year also saw the introduction of a physical cup on which the names of the winners from this year and the previous three years will be engraved.
All teams impressed judges with polished, well-rehearsed arguments and slideshows. “One of the biggest goals I had for this semester was to improve my public speaking. Professor Ball totally revolutionized how I speak and I fed off my teammates’ enthusiasm and energy,” Lagrotteria, who was voted Best Speaker overall and the MVP of the winning team, said.
Each group also did an excellent job of reminding the audience of the dangerous waters its company was in. The winning team, which was assigned Ralph Lauren, began its presentation with teammates looking at their wrists as if they were checking the time and with a clock ticking in the background. They were demonstrating how the lack of Ralph Lauren’s presence in the Chinese luxury goods market was costing the company every second.
Some teams presented with flair. The McDonald’s team used bold and dramatic statements, such as “the golden arches are starting to tip,” to warn the audience about the company’s pitfalls.
Other groups made an effort to be socially conscious in their presentations. One of the two groups that presented on Mattel provided statistics on the childhood obesity trend in America to illustrate the need for a product that combines activity and video games. The presentation on Coca-Cola included chilling facts about water shortage as they suggested the Company should have a product that combines Coca-Cola products and a Keurig. “We are trying to be equally socially conscious, as [well as] economically conscious,” Nazifa Nasim, GSB ’17, a member of the Coca-Cola team, said.
All groups made a distinct effort to account for changes in the marketplace. The other Mattel team emphasized that the early maturity of children due to electronics required the company to incorporate technology into their products. The McDonald’s team acknowledged the millennial generation’s obsessions with technology and called for an app that allowed customers to order with customization and sustainability in mind.
The team that represented Staples focused on accounting for the new technological landscape. They wanted to counteract their company’s declining revenue and stock price by creating a presence in the 3-D printing industry. “It was a journey getting to that idea. We had reached a dead end with a lot of other ideas until Connor found an article about 3-D printing in the medical field and we wanted to explore that further,” Julia Cassano, GSB ’17, said.
Students claimed that the competition also provided them with team-building experience. “Natalie Malicki had the idea of doing a team pyramid for our first picture. That set the tone for friendship first and classwork second. We had great chemistry the whole semester and that allowed us to critique each other,” Lagrotteria said.
Both Lagrotteria and Cassano emphasized how being close friends with their teammates allowed them to be honest with each other and critique freely.
It was not all fun and games, however. “We decided to have a goal and map out what we would accomplish before our meetings. This was especially important for our team, since we were all student-athletes, and scheduling was tough,” Lagrotteria said.
Other groups had a similar mentality. “We set up meeting times early in the semester. We orchestrated a weekly meeting; it kept everyone on the same page,” Cassano said. “We would discuss current and future plans. Setting that initial meeting time set us on a good path.”
The judges announced the top three finishers. RUD Mattel finished in third place, RUI McDonald’s was second and RUA Ralph Lauren won the competition.
Team members also voted for the MVP of their team. Hugh Lagrotteria, FCRH ’17, was MVP of RUA Ralph Lauren. Julia Cassano, FCRH ’17, was MVP of RUK Staples. Marco Congello, GSB ’17, was the MVP of RUD Mattel. Finally, Vinson Lai, GSB ’17, was voted MVP of RUI McDonald’s. RUI Coca-Cola had two winners, Beatrice Craycraft, GSB ’17, and Nazifa Nasim, GSB ’17, as did RUL Mattel, whose MVPs were Nicole Avella, GSB ’17, and Sanford Hoang, GSB ’17.