At the award presentation, from left, are: Bradley Furman, senior manager, and David Tierno, partner and director of human resources and organizational development, Ernst & Young LLP; Alan McAdams, associate professor of managerial economics; and members of the winning consulting team, MBA students Bradley Stewart, Christopher Morris, Christian Abyholm and Andrei Bgatov.
By Darryl Geddes
Management consulting firms no longer wait in lines at university placement offices to find new talent. Now they've entered the classroom to see how students perform as would-be consultants.
The consulting firm of Ernst & Young LLP recently sponsored and judged a $5,000 consulting competition at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management. Ernst & Young's foray into the classroom marks a departure from how the firm connected with students in the past.
"We've met with students at different activities, like social events and recep tions, but the case competition is a much more substantive approach," said David Tierno, national director of human resources and organization development for Ernst & Young LLP consulting services practice. Ernst & Young LLP is the larg est professional services firm in the United States, employing over 22,000 here and 66,000 abroad. "Supporting competitions like this one at the Johnson School gives us more content and a better understanding of the educational environment and a better insight into the quality of the students and instructors."
The competition's final round, held Dec. 12, required each student consulting team to present a detailed plan on how their fictitious consulting firm could ben efit a particular corporation. Students presented their plans to Tierno and two other Ernst & Young associates, Bradley Furman and Donna Meucci who, depend ing on the scenario, were cast as executives of the Ford Motor Co., Caterpillar, Marriott International and Apple Computer. (Furman and Meucci are graduates of the Johnson School.)
One student consulting group cast Tierno as Ford's CEO Alex Trotman and suggested that if the automaker adopted the "new industrial paradigm" it could attain global leadership.
MBA student Miguel Fernandez-Martinez said the competition was one of the most rewarding educational experiences he's had. "This kind of project is important to have in business school," he said, "espe cially because it dealt much less with theory and more with actual experience."
The winning team -- Christian Abyholm, Andrei Bgatov, Christopher
Morris, and Bradley Stewart -- told how their firm, Aardvark Consulting, could help Ford Motor Co. improve its bottom line by implementing the new industrial paradigm. For their winning presentation the students split a $4,000 prize.
MBA Consultants -- John Bunce, Miguel Fernandez-Martinez, Janina Jancu and Anthony Riley -- shared a second place prize of $1,000 for their presenta tion to Marriott International.
"The school has much to be proud of," Tierno said. "The presentations were very thoughtfully done and very professional.
Students indicated a level of maturity and professionalism that does credit to the school and their faculty. The presentations showed evidence of a lot of prepara tion. I would not be ashamed to take any one of these people in front of my clients."
According to Alan McAdams, associate professor of managerial economics who teaches the management consulting class, the winning team impressed judges in every way. "Every member performed well and with high energy," he said. "The substance was strong and the presentation was tightly integrated."