The Stern Opportunity

While many of us were savoring the last moments of winter break before the first Monday class, five Stern MBAs packed a suitcase and headed to Montvale, NJ.

What awaited them at the Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) headquarters on a cold January evening was a throng of seasoned strategists, marketers, consultants, professors, MBUSA leadership and a challenge the students would tackle for the next 48 hours.

From Jan. 21 to Jan. 24, Stern hosted the first annual, invitation-only Case Co-opetition sponsored by MBUSA with 22 second-year MBA students from Columbia, Chicago (Booth), Harvard, Kellogg, Wharton and Stern. The case challenged the participants to help MBUSA develop a strategy to target Generation-Y consumers.

The co-opetition itself was a product of Stern’s on-campus teamwork. Sonia Marciano, Stern’s Clinical Associate Professor of Management and Organizations designed the co-opetition. The Stern Management Consulting Association (MCA) worked closely with the New York Initiatives office to plan and coordinate the event. Other Stern professors and alumni participated as speakers and judges, and the co-opetition showcased Stern's unique advantage in using New York City as an extension of the classroom experience.

At the opening reception, the organizers revealed the five inter-school teams named after Mercedes-Benz cars—Adenauer, CL-Class, CLK-Class, S-Class and SL-Class. The kickoff also included remarks by Adam Brandenburger, a J.P. Valles Professorship in Business Economics and Strategy at Stern and the author of the book Co-opetition.

The following morning, students heard an industry overview from Scott Corwin, partner at Booz & Co. and an expert in the auto industry. Michelle Greenwald, professor of Marketing at Stern, also presented a framework and background specific to Gen Y.

“Above all, I would say that it was a REALLY FUN experience, and I would recommend all MBA1s to participate in the future,” said Roberto Barreda, a Stern MBA2 who was a part of the winning CLK-Class team. In addition to the glory, Barreda and his teammates walked away with $4,000 in prize money. MBUSA also offered all teams an opportunity to receive feedback on their final presentations.

“Being in a group of five people from different business schools was a great experience in terms of networking and seeing how other b-school students work, said Barreda. “I also want to highlight MBUSA’s help, resources and enthusiasm. It was great to have access to top executives of MBUSA, and they were really approachable and helpful. Our advisors also brought more relevance to our ideas.”

“Having attended various case competitions as a judge or as an advisor, I always felt the ‘school-on-school’ aspect to be a significant downside,” said Sonia Marciano, who designed the co-opetition. “Representing one's school heaps pressure on the participants and chokes all networking until after final presentations. Once we decided to host a competition, designing it as a "co-opetition" was the clear direction we wanted to go.”

Marciano also pointed out that the co-opetition structure not only allowed for an intense networking experience, but the quality of the presentations was outstanding: “More and more the business environment is demanding cooperation and collaboration—Stern should be proud to be one of the first business schools to bring this spirit to case competitions.”

"When the idea of the co-opetition was brought up by Sonia Marciano, we were at the time trying to think outside the box in terms of this pressing issue with our brand's relevance with Gen Y,” said Simon Huang, specialist, Program Management Office, MBUSA. “Then it came to us, 'Why not ask the Gen Y'ers at the top business schools in the country?’”

The five teams presented analytical insight and creative strategies to help MBUSA capture the young Gen Y consumers. The students also applied their experiences from the mystery shopping research they completed as a pre-work prior to the co-opetition. Prior to the event, participants had also received a primer package from MBUSA which included files and reports on the industry trends, performance figures, background information and market research.

Huang commented that teams competed as inter-school teams with support from MBUSA subject matter experts to provide insight for MBUSA’s Gen Y business plan. “We were pleased with the results and the timing couldn't be more perfect. We are taking what was presented to the February global meeting in Germany with the heads of marketing from all around the world who are coming together to address this very issue of engaging the next generation."

During one of the “workdays,” students had access to MBUSA “lifeliners,” who provided additional insight as resource/subject matter experts in addition to the assigned advisors. During the intense work hours at a nearby hotel next to MBUSA headquarters, Heinrik Glimsteadt, a Marketing & Strategy professor from the Stockholm School of Economics served as an unbiased, onsite advisor to all teams.

The teams were judged on presentation, content and actionability by a panel of MBUSA leadership from Marketing, Research & Strategy, and Dealership networks as well as external consultants from McKinsey & Co. and Bain & Co. In addition to the five teams, a cross-functional MBUSA team presented their ideas to the panel (but were excluded from scoring).

The winning team, Team CLK-Class, presented a mixed marketing approach that included a revamped commercial campaign with messages that appeal to Gen Y; strategic product placements; a dealership training program to improve customer experience; a graduate school-level campus ambassador program and a “Dream Drive Challenge” that would integrate social networking, online contest and buzz campaign.

MBUSA indicated the outcome "exceeded expectations" and that some ideas will be implemented immediately. “We look forward to a continued relationship with Mercedes as well as with many other firms within reach of Stern,” said Huang.

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