Data Feast: MSBA Case Competition
Featuring The St. James, Hosted by The Boehly Center & Raymond A. Mason School of Business
With today’s businesses seemingly inundated with data, many struggle with how to put this proliferation of information to the highest and best use.
“Data by itself can have limited value. Businesses need skilled analysts who know how to turn that data into better decisions and business strategies,” says Aaron Koehl, faculty director of W&M’s residential master of science in business analytics (MSBA) program. “We train our students to apply cutting-edge technology to real business problems and then communicate the findings in a persuasive way.”
This hands-on approach is at the core of William & Mary’s new Data Feast competition. Created as part of the intensive capstone course for the Raymond A. Mason School of Business’ rigorous MSBA online and residential programs, the competition underscores the program’s ability to prepare fluent and innovative thinkers in the field.
“Data Feast sits at the intersection of business, data science and technology,” says Koehl. “The competition tests our students’ ability to float between computing technology and asking the right questions to deliver business insight to address an ambiguous problem.”
Developed in collaboration with the Mason School’s Boehly Center for Excellence in Finance and Eldridge, a private investment firm, Data Feast gives four teams of students (two teams from the online MSBA program and two teams for the residential MSBA program) a general business problem to solve using a real dataset and feedback from senior business leaders. Unlike business analytics case competitions at other universities, students are judged on two distinctive proficiencies.
“The goal of the competition is to create a real-world experience to practice technical skills while also honing business acumen,” says Joseph Wilck, faculty director of the MSBA online program. “We are unique in this ‘double pitch’ approach. Teams are judged not only on their actual findings and technical summaries but on their presentation skills and business sense.”
Originally slated to occur in Alan B. Miller Hall on May 12, the inaugural event was moved online due to COVID restrictions. Several weeks prior to the competition, each four-person team was given real data from The St. James, a large sports, wellness and entertainment complex in northern Virginia and an Eldridge portfolio company. Students used the venue and event data provided along with outside research and statistical modeling to analyze The St. James member and guest preferences, levels of engagement and spending habits to identify areas of focus to drive decision making.
“This project demonstrated just how powerful the tools we have learned throughout the MSBA program are and showed me how impactful they could be in any business setting in the future,” says Kevin Schweiss MSBA ’20 whose team from the residential MSBA program won the business acumen challenge. “It was an awesome feeling to cap-off my college experience with being recognized for all the hard work we had done throughout the capstone.”
During the competition, team members tuned in from around the globe to share a 20-minute pre-recorded presentation and then participate in a live Q&A with a panel of six judges which included W&M faculty and directors from Eldridge and The St. James. The student findings gave The St. James new perspectives and recommendations for actionable opportunities to build the business.
“We are a young company and we look forward to leveraging the insights from the presentations. It will have a real impact on our business,” says The St. James co-founder Kendrick Ashton ’98. “We were grateful for the students’ high quality work and look forward to taking a deeper dive into the results.”
Ashton along with his fellow St. James co-founder Craig Dixon ’97, J.D. ’00 were excited about the opportunity to partner with their alma mater. “William & Mary is a very special place. People associated with W&M are leaders and trailblazers. These students lived up to that standard and we look forward to the future of this event.”
The MSBA students who participated had a similarly positive experience.
“It was exciting to create marketing recommendations for the business based on a variety of models which were strengthened by research on the influence of gender on sports participation,” says Cheryl Ngo MSBA ’20, whose team from the online MSBA program won the technical challenge. “The time my team spent collaborating on the project has been a valuable exercise in creativity as well as coding and communication skills, and I am honored that we won.”
The two winning teams each received a $1,000 prize made possible by Eldridge and The St. James. With this year’s first annual competition such a resounding success, the event will likely continue to grow.
“Following the success of the Women’s Stock Pitch and Leadership Summit, the Boehly Center sought to create another opportunity for students to develop their business, analytical and technological skills against real-world scenarios,” said Todd Boehly ‘96, co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Eldridge. “We appreciate the curiosity, thoughtfulness and time that these students have brought to the Data Feast competition, and look forward to the future of this event.”
Since the Mason School launched the residential and online MSBA in 2015 and 2018 respectively, the programs have continued to grow and incorporate integrative opportunities.
“This competition is right down the center of the plate of where I think we are leading all other business schools – we put our faculty, program teams and alumni around the table to figure out what it takes for our students to be truly career ready and then we connect them to world-class opportunities,” says Mason School Dean Larry Pulley ’74 “The St. James is an incredible example of what happens when William & Mary alumni partner together to bring a vision to life.”
