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Wharton mba team wins first prize in global business case competition.

Vanessa Folkerts, WG’20 and Jason Chen, WG’21, won for their proposed e-commerce marketplace serving pharmacies in rural Kenya.

The crisis of substandard and counterfeit medicines in sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to cause 116,000 extra deaths per year due to malaria alone. In the The Business School Alliance for Health Management (BAHM) global case competition , Vanessa Folkerts WG’20, and Jason Chen, WG’21, teamed up with students from the Strathmore Business School in Kenya to create a data-based solution to this crisis.

Their proposal – an e-commerce pharmaceuticals marketplace designed to empower small pharmacies on the frontline of primary care to sell quality medicines in rural Kenya – won first place along with an $11,000 prize.

“We came to Wharton looking for hard problems and how we could realign incentives in the market to change behavior, while adhering to local social and legal frameworks,” said Vanessa. “This project was an opportunity to create shared value in a critical supply chain.”

The team’s marketplace uses network effects to improve price discovery in the pharmaceuticals market and increase the value captured by end consumers. Vanessa, Jason, and their teammates Abigail Ndirangu and Winnie Abuto in Kenya conducted dozens of interviews from January to March to design a user-friendly app for retail pharmacies to procure quality products from vetted wholesalers.

Jason noted, “We realized that we can use market competitiveness to create collective value – and with enough creativity, benefit all the stakeholders. We take that responsibility for generating positive impact very seriously.”

As a case for creating economic value while addressing a societal problem, the team’s work has been invited for publication in the BAHM-affiliated journal, Health Management, Policy & Innovation.

Achieving Greater Impact in Healthcare

Vanessa came to Wharton to learn how to achieve greater impact in healthcare, including scaling the reach of low-cost telemedicine at her digital startup, HealthTap.

“In a nascent industry often constrained by legal barriers, I was looking for business models to make healthcare more affordable, accessible and effective. Wharton’s faculty opened the doors to research projects in AI applications and regulation,” said Vanessa, who is currently earning a Master’s in computer science and information technology at Penn.

She added, “Thanks to the supportive and passionate faculty, who are powerhouses in their fields, I’ve incorporated more independent research into my MBA than I expected. I had published a chapter in Prof. Robert Lawton Burns’s book China’s Healthcare System and Reform before starting the program and was excited to jump into health economics, management, and policy.” She currently has a working paper about data platforms in decentralized clinical trials, co-authored with Prof. Nicolaj Siggelkow .

Moving the Venture Forward

Jason came to Wharton with a background in entrepreneurship, product, and social impact investing, looking to “partner with diverse, talented people and acquire new mental models in unfamiliar industries” – particularly healthcare.

The BAHM competition under pandemic conditions offered the unexpected opportunity to collaborate with MBAs and health professionals 10,000 miles away. Eighty hours of Zoom teamwork later, the prize winners are looking forward to meeting in person and taking the entrepreneurial venture forward.

“Even in dark times, there are so many grounds for optimism. Wharton has helped us expand our horizons and build friendships even while we remained physically constrained,” said Jason. “Our Wharton chapter may be ending, but we are only just getting started.”

— By Meghan Laska

Posted: April 29, 2021

Competitions
Entrepreneurship
Health Care
International

EMBA Program

Wharton MBA Program for Executives

Vanessa Folkerts, WG ’20

Currently Head of Business Operations, HealthTap

Based In Palo Alto, CA

Wharton Campus San Francisco

Prior Education Princeton University, B.A. History

Jason Chen, CFA, WG ’21

Currently Vice President of Growth, Data, Strategy & Finance, LotusFlare

Based In San Francisco

Prior Education University of Waterloo, B.A.Sc, Management Engineering

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Wharton Global Youth Program's Investment Competition: A Comprehensive Guide

Investment competitions are a useful way to gain practical experience in the world of finance. They provide you with a platform to apply theoretical knowledge, develop critical thinking skills, and understand the dynamics of the financial market. If you are a Wall Street enthusiast, then you should keep reading about the Wharton Global Youth Program's Investment Competition.

What is the Wharton Global Youth Program's Investment Competition?

The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania runs the Global Youth Program , a dedicated pre-collegiate sub-division that mobilizes Wharton’s resources to provide both online and on-site courses, a pre-baccalaureate course, and of course their signature investment competition.

The Investment Competition is a free, online, experiential investment simulation for high school students (9th to 12th grade) and teachers. It is designed to help students understand the complexities of investing in a dynamic global economy.

What makes the competition unique is that it’s not about making the most money on your virtual client’s portfolio. Instead, it focuses on the investment process and the development of a long-term investment strategy that aligns with the client's needs and objectives.

Eligibility for the Competition

The competition is open to current high school students across the globe , typically secondary-level (no younger than 14, no older than 18 at the start of the competition).

Teams must be composed of members from the same high school, maintaining a minimum of four team members and a maximum of seven members from start to end.

One of the team members will be registered as Team Leader for primary communications and submissions.

There must also be a registered team advisor, who must be a teacher/educator at the same high school.

Competition Structure and Timeline

The competition is primarily conducted online on WInS (the Wharton Investment Simulator) . It begins on September 25, 2023, and teams must fully execute at least one trade on WInS by close of the U.S. markets (4:00 p.m. ET) on October 13, 2023, in order to be eligible to advance to the Semifinals and Global Finale. Your team will have just over a month of trading available before the Midterm Report is due on Oct 30th.

Trading will then continue till 1st Dec, and the Final Report is due from all teams on 11th Dec.

The top 50 teams qualifying for the Virtual Semifinals will be announced some time in January 2024, with the semifinals themselves taking place in March 2024.

The top 10 qualifying finalists will then move to the Global Finale at the Wharton campus in Philadelphia in April 2024, however teams have the option to participate virtually instead.

In both semifinals and the global finale, you and your team will be expected to create and deliver a 10-minute presentation detailing your strategy, analysis and experience over the 10 weeks of trading to a panel of judges.

Wharton’s Investment Competition is different from others in the sense that it does not have cash or physical prizes on offer. All students on teams that submit and meet the minimum requirements of both deliverables will receive participation certificates. Each student member of the global champion team will receive a complimentary spot in Wharton's online summer program, Future of the Business World or Essentials of Leadership , each worth $4,099. Each student member from all 10 global finalist teams will have the course fee waived for Wharton's online course, Understanding Your Money , a course with a $329 admission fee.

Is the competition prestigious?

Wharton has been running the Investment Competition for just over 10 years, with the latest iteration bringing in nearly 7,000 participants from 64 countries.

While the slightly lower participation and lack of a large prize pool make this competition not as prestigious as others (say, the Paradigm Challenge or the Blue Ocean Competition ), its focus on a cohesive long-term investment strategy rather than short-term gains reflects the real-world complexities of investment management, making it still a valuable experience for participants. The fact that it is hosted by Wharton, one of the world’s most prestigious business schools, does not by itself make it prestigious, but compared to similar competitions which are hosted by relatively lesser-known organizations/institutions, there is a cachet attached to winning the competition.

Should you participate?

While Wharton makes the investment competition incredibly accessible, you should consider carefully before committing to it. You should strongly consider participating if:

You want to master investment - the structure of the competition, and especially the WInS software, is comprehensive and detailed. Together with your team, you’ll have to design an investment strategy, select stocks across sectors, keep a hawk-eye on the stock market, execute trades, and react tactically to ensure you deliver your client portfolio’s objectives.

You want a foothold at Wharton - winning or reaching the semifinals ensures access to a Wharton course. If you are gunning for an admission at Wharton, this can prove as a stepping stone in building your profile for it. Fair warning, we do not mean that this competition will directly help you with undergrad admissions to Wharton, but it’ll open some doors where you can perform well and impress faculty through participation in the course!

You want to build a career in finance - the rigor and deep practical experience of the competition aside, in the semifinals and finals you will be presenting to industry executives from companies like JP Morgan, Harvest Partners private equity, and similar industry bigwigs. The exposure and networking provided by the competition can open many doors for you in the future.

You have access to an advisor - advisors have a crucial role to play in educating, guiding and motivating you in this competition, and if your school has an investment club or finance club or a teacher that is interested and experienced in investment, you are already ahead of the curve. Working with this advisor will enhance your own learning and make it easier to find other students to build a team as well.

You want a global opportunity - Wharton’s investment competition is one of the very few that allows you to compete entirely virtually if you so choose. If you are constrained by studying in a different country or are limited by the availability of funds, this competition is one of the most accessible for you to showcase your knowledge with minimal cost.

However, before registering do make sure you’re ready for:

A significant commitment - the competition lasts for 10 weeks, with another week of report preparation. You will have to stay consistent, alert, and motivated for the entire duration to ensure optimal performance. It also involves significant day trading, which means you and your team will have to spend a good chunk of time monitoring the stock market and executing the trades on WInS. This is even worse if you’re located in a country other than the US, as the trading window WInS is matched to the US stock market timings , which may be inconvenient for you depending on your timezone.

The possibility of no reward - with close to a 1,000 teams participating and only 50 moving to the semifinals , there is a strong possibility that you will emerge from it with nothing more than the increased expertise of investment that you gained. Make sure that knowledge alone is worth it for you.

Tips to Win

If you’re clear that Wharton’s Investment Competition sounds like the right idea for you to participate in, then we have a few tips that will hopefully help you reach the finals:

1. Understand the evaluation criteria - as mentioned earlier, this competition is NOT about simply maximizing portfolio returns. The midterm and final reports are judged on 5 criteria, quoted from the evaluation page:

Investment strategy: contains a clear and creative strategy thesis; demonstrates mid-term and long-term investment thinking; the portfolio is invested in at least as many sectors as there are team members.

Client knowledge and objectives: strategy is tailored uniquely to the client’s financial goals; would win him/her over as a client.

Portfolio analysis: demonstrates a clear understanding of new concepts and investment tools; uses both quantitative and qualitative analysis.

Articulation of competition experience: demonstrates good teamwork and communication; the team clearly explains the decision-making process and what they learned from the competition.

Creativity and presentation: compelling narrative and visually pleasing presentation of data; many creative elements; clearly presented with an authentic team voice.

2. Prepare thoroughly - Wharton provides a comprehensive list of all the previous year case studies that you can and should work through to understand the kind of portfolios you may be given and what the ideal strategy should be. There is also a dedicated page with student resources on core financial and investment concepts, as well as a lesson plan for advisors to teach their teams. This also brings us to the next point.

3. Work with your advisor - your advisor will have a huge role to play in your success. They will guide you, shape your strategy with you, act as a sounding board for ideas, check your progress, and overall give structure to your entire effort. At the end of the day however, you and your team will be the ones executing the trading strategy, and it is your responsibility to ask for the advisor’s help wherever you need it. And you WILL need it.

4. Communicate clearly - while this is generally applicable advice, in this competition it deserves repetition. As mentioned above, you will be judged on your investment strategy, client knowledge and portfolio analysis. You must be able to clearly showcase, both in your written reports and in the live presentations, your team’s mastery of these three criteria. More than employing industry jargons, you will need to be clear, concise, insightful and articulate.

5. Stay motivated - 10 weeks of active trading is challenging even for industry veterans, much less high school students with multiple commitments and limited experience. Create a structured working plan with your advisor to avoid burnout of individual members, with regular meet-ups and check-ins to ensure all of you stay consistent.

Wrapping Up

The Wharton Global Youth Program's Investment Competition is a unique opportunity for high school students to gain practical, hands-on experience in investment management. It offers an accessible simulation structured to make you familiar with all aspects of investment in the real world. It is particularly beneficial if you are interested in making a career in finance or business , thanks to its exposure to industry executives and access to Wharton Business School’s courses. However, it requires a significant and consistent commitment. If you are looking to start early on the fundamentals of investment to add to your existing profile as a future finance executive, then this may be the right competition for you.

If you're looking for a real-world internship that can help boost your resume while applying to college, we recommend Ladder Internships!

Ladder Internships is a selective program equipping students with virtual internship experiences at startups and nonprofits around the world!

The startups range across a variety of industries, and each student can select which field they would most love to deep dive into. This is also a great opportunity for students to explore areas they think they might be interested in, and better understand professional career opportunities in those areas.

The startups are based all across the world, with the majority being in the United States, Asia and then Europe and the UK.

The fields include technology, machine learning and AI, finance, environmental science and sustainability, business and marketing, healthcare and medicine, media and journalism and more.

You can explore all the options here on their application form . As part of their internship, each student will work on a real-world project that is of genuine need to the startup they are working with, and present their work at the end of their internship. In addition to working closely with their manager from the startup, each intern will also work with a Ladder Coach throughout their internship - the Ladder Coach serves as a second mentor and a sounding board, guiding you through the internship and helping you navigate the startup environment.

Cost : $1490 (Financial Aid Available)

Location: Remote! You can work from anywhere in the world.

Application deadline: April 16 and May 14

Program dates: 8 weeks, June to August

Eligibility: Students who can work for 10-20 hours/week, for 8-12 weeks. Open to high school students, undergraduates and gap year students!

If you are passionate about conducting research (including business research), you could also consider applying to the Lumiere Research Scholar Program , a selective online high school program for students I founded with researchers at Harvard and Oxford. Last year, we had over 4000 students apply for 500 spots in the program! You can find the application form here.

Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a PhD student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program where students work 1-1 with a research mentor to develop an independent research paper.

Image Source: Wharton's Global High School Investment Competition logo

The Wharton Global Youth Program's Investment Competition: A Comprehensive Guide is an invaluable resource for aspiring investors. It offers insights into strategic decision-making and market analysis. Whether you're a novice or experienced, this guide equips you with essential skills. For ongoing ICO opportunities, visit https://icoholder.com/en/icos/ongoing . Elevate your investment knowledge and seize promising ventures with confidence.

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More about abrdn

abrdn Enters Second Decade Supporting Wharton Investment Competition for Students

Continues legacy of work with leading business school’s Global Youth Program initiative

January 30, 2023—PHILADELPHIA—abrdn is pleased to join University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in today announcing the semifinalists for the school’s 2023 Wharton Global High School Investment Competition, extending the firm’s relationship with the business school’s Wharton Global Youth Program into a second decade.

abrdn’s Americas home office, only a few miles’ walk from the Wharton campus in Philadelphia, provides evaluators from across the investment spectrum for the competition’s semifinal round, reviewing more than 1,400 investment strategy proposals entered from high school teams around the world, ultimately selecting 55 for advancement to the next round.

abrdn and its progenitors have contributed support to the program since 2012, when the nascent competition featured only a handful of participating teams from schools around the Delaware Valley region. Today, in addition to the semifinal evaluation, abrdn attends the global finale and winners’ presentation hosted on the University of Pennsylvania campus. In 2022, equities investment analyst Joe Rava joined the ceremony, where the team Sailing to Success from Arizona won top honors.

“abrdn is proud of its longtime relationship with Wharton Global Youth. We are delighted to support this and similar investment education initiatives with leading universities around the world,” says Jim O’Connor, Head of the Americas at abrdn . “Every year the competition grows both more intense and global, and it is no easy feat to choose only 50 semifinalists; however our colleagues genuinely enjoy seeing the creativity and ingenuity that entry teams bring to their projects, and it is an honor to be a part of this annual showcase of young talent.”

"We are grateful for our years of engagement with abrdn and our shared interest in supporting financial education,” adds Eli Lesser, Executive Director at Wharton Global Youth Program . “As financial technology eliminates barriers for new investors, we are more dedicated than ever to our investment competition mission to promote client-focused objectives, a long-term-investing mindset, thoughtful analysis, and strategic decision-making. These core learnings serve students well throughout their lives.”

Read more about Wharton Global Youth and the competition here and below.

About abrdn

Investments: We work with clients to create solutions across asset classes, regions and markets globally – combining multi-layered research and market insights with technology and diverse thinking.
Adviser: We offer market-leading platform technology and tools that enable UK wealth managers and financial advisers to create more opportunity for their business and their clients.
Personal: We help people throughout the UK plan for their financial futures – through our financial planning business and our digital investing services.

Our investments are built on an insight strength that comes from multi-layered research and a large global footprint. Our teams collaborate across multiple capabilities, to create forward-thinking solutions that aim to meet our clients’ needs and deliver more sustainable outcomes. Our investments business manages assets on behalf of individuals, governments, pension funds, insurers, companies, charities and foundations – with support and expertise from 800 investment specialists in over 30 locations.

US Marketing Disclosure

About the wharton global high school investment competition.

The Wharton Global High School Investment Competition, launched in 2012, is a 12-week challenge in which students compete in teams of four to seven, led by an advisor, to win the chance to manage the wealth of a potential client.

Presented with a case study of this client, teams must create a compelling and creative long-term strategy that addresses the client’s investment goals. (This year’s case study features Peter Wang Hjemdahl, co-founder and Chief Advocacy Officer at rePurpose Global, a large plastic–action coalition, bringing together brands, innovators, and individuals to combat the plastic–pollution crisis.) Along the way, students learn investing concepts with the help of Wharton Global Youth Program resources, conduct in-depth analysis, and buy stocks for their portfolio using an online simulator that is a tool for trading and portfolio-management education.

Following the end of 10 weeks of trading, each team is required to submit a report detailing its recommended investment strategy, analytical approach and competition journey. Judges review these final investment policies and select the top 50, which then compete against each other in the Semifinals round. The top 10 Semifinalists advance to the Global Finale, which will be held on Wharton’s Philadelphia campus on April 22, 2023.

About the Wharton School and the Wharton Global Youth Program

Founded in 1881 as the world’s first collegiate business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is shaping the future of business by incubating ideas, driving insights, and creating leaders who change the world. With a faculty of more than 235 renowned professors, Wharton has 5,000 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students. Each year 13,000 professionals from around the world advance their careers through Wharton Executive Education’s individual, company-customized, and online programs. More than 104,000 Wharton alumni form a powerful global network of leaders who transform business every day. For more information, visit www.wharton.upenn.edu.

The Wharton Global Youth Program mobilizes the extensive opportunities of the Wharton academic community to educate, inform and inspire pre-college students to explore business practices, analyze the world’s complex challenges, and take the needed steps to become leaders who will transform the global economy.

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15 Business Competitions for High School Students

What’s covered:, why should you enter an investing competition, how do business competitions affect my admissions chances.

Whether you dream of being a billionaire businessman like Mark Cuban, an investment icon like Warren Buffet, or a founder who’s focused on giving back like Hamdi Ulukaya, the creator and CEO of Chobani, entering a business competition for high schoolers is often a great first step toward a successful enterprise.

Business competitions are a great opportunity to show off your entrepreneurial spirit while gaining a deeper understanding of the challenges of starting and running a business. Business competitions allow you to highlight in-demand skills like idea generation, creative thinking, leadership, and communication. They also give you a chance to learn about building a business and to test your ideas in a relatively risk-free environment—after all, there is no capital or investment to lose.

Many business competitions will also connect you with real-life professionals and college business school faculty. This creates both the chance for mentorship and the foundation of a business network that can serve you both inside and outside of the classroom—it can help with everything from gaining college admission to getting a business off the ground.

Business competitions for high schoolers also often provide winners with monetary awards or scholarships which are beneficial for keeping the cost of college down—something every aspiring business person can appreciate.

1. Conrad Challenge

Date(s): 2023 dates announced in August Type: Global

This business challenge tasks students between ages 13 and 18 to apply science and technology to solve global issues, create a pitch, and build a business plan. Participants work in teams of two to five students to compete in four traditional categories and one special category that changes annually. The four traditional categories are:

Aerospace and aviation
Cyber technology and security
Energy and environment
Health and Nutrition

The 2021/2022 special category was “re-purposed farmlands and alternative uses of tobacco (and its by-products)”.

2. Blue Ocean High School Entrepreneur Pitch Competition

Date(s): 2/18/22 Type: Global

The Blue Ocean High School Entrepreneur Pitch Competition is one of the world’s most prestigious business competitions for high school students. Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five to generate an innovative product or service that the world needs and pitch it in a maximum five-minute-long video.

3. Youth Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition

Date(s): 4/1/22-9/15/22

Type: Global

Individuals between the ages of 13 and 29 are invited to participate in this business competition focused on using entrepreneurship to solve global issues. Participants are challenged to create or implement an idea, project, concept, solution, or initiative with a societal impact that addresses one of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals .

4. Wharton Global High School Investment Competition

Dates: 9/22-4/23

The Wharton Global High School Investment Competition is a highly regarded business competition for high schoolers and is open to students in grades nine through 12. Participants are required to examine a case study of a potential client and create a portfolio that meets their long-term goals using $100,000 in hypothetical funds. Unlike investment competitions that select winners based on the performance of their portfolio, Wharton Global High School Investment Competition winners are chosen based on the strength and articulation of their investment strategy.

5. Global Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge (GYEC)

Date(s): 5/28/21

The GYEC is a 12-hour, online, worldwide business competition for high school students ages 14 through 19. Participants work in teams of up to eight students—each ideally possessing broad and complementary skill sets—to solve a significant global problem using an innovative and sustainable enterprise idea. Winning teams will receive a trophy along with an award certificate.

6. GENIUS Olympiad Business

Date(s): 4/18/22-6/18/22

Participants in the GENIUS Olympiad compete in numerous categories (including business) focused on environmental issues. Students can compete in one of two business tracks: entrepreneurship or social responsibility. Both tracks require the participant to deliver a presentation as if they were making a real pitch for funding—dressing in formal business attire and including an accompanying PowerPoint presentation.

7. Diamond Challenge

Date(s): 1/7/21-4/23/22

Type: National

This well-known high school business competition is an initiative of Horn Entrepreneurship

at the University of Delaware. The challenge features two tracks for participants to compete, business innovation and social innovation. Both tracks require participants to work in teams of two to four students, to submit a concept narrative, and provide a pitch deck. Diamond Challenge offers substantial awards to its winners—first place takes home $11,000, second place $7,500, and third place $3,750.

8. Pirates Pitch Competition for High School Students

Date(s): 9/22-11/22

This Pirates Pitch Competition for High School Students is provided by Seton Hall University and is aimed at teaching high schoolers the basics of entrepreneurship and idea generation. To enter the competition, participants must submit a business idea in 350 words or less. Finalists will need to pitch their idea to judges in a live virtual event. Competition winners receive both a cash prize and a generous scholarship to Seton Hall.

9. Yale DHSRI High School Investment Competition

Dates: 2/22-4/22

The Yale DHSRI High School Investment Competition is hosted by the Dwight Hall Socially Responsible Investment Fund at Yale University, the nation’s oldest undergraduate-run socially responsible investment fund. Competing in teams of two or four students, high schoolers (students in grades nine through 12 are eligible to participate) build a portfolio using $100,000 in virtual funds and ultimately submit a final investment report that outlines their strategy, learning process, and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) themes.

10. DECA Challenges

Dates: Varies

For three-quarters of a century, DECA has been helping to prepare future entrepreneurs and leaders in marketing, finance, and hospitality. DECA has more than 3,000 high school chapters and 175,000 members. Throughout the year, DECA issues many challenges to its members, many of which are business focused and require participants to demonstrate specific skills and knowledge.

11. tecBRIDGE High School Business Plan Competition

Dates: 3/18/22-4/21/22

STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math)-based business is at the heart of the tecBridge High School Business Plan Competition. Participants are expected to create sustainable and scalable concepts, answer a series of questions, and deliver a ten-minute-long presentation. Students are also expected to demonstrate creativity, critical thinking, and top-notch presentation skills.

12. The Big Idea Competition

Date(s): 10/31/22-12/7/22

Young entrepreneurs are challenged to think of ways to make the world a better place to live by using business to implement change in this high school business competition. The competition is open to all high school students and requires them to submit a 1,075-word description of their business idea. Nearly $35,000 in prizes are awarded annually, including a $1,000 first prize.

13. High School Utah Entrepreneur Challenge (HSUEC)

Date(s): 2/21/21-3/26/22

Type: State

Utah high school students ages 14 to 18 can show off their entrepreneurial spirit and innovative ideas in this business competition. Students are encouraged to form teams of up to five students to compete in the HSUEC and are required to submit a business proposal that details:

the opportunity or problem the business/product addresses
the solution or improvement the business/product provides
the market the business/product competes in, its target customer, and what sets it apart from the competition

Participants must also submit a prototype in any medium of what their idea, product, or service will look like.

14. West Virginia High School Business Plan Competition

Date(s): 11/12/22-4/6/22

The West Virginia High School Business Plan Competition is open to West Virginia students in grades nine through 12. The competition is aimed at helping high schoolers learn how to move a business idea from conception to action. Participants can compete either as an individual or in teams of up to four people. Submissions to the contest are in the form of a maximum 90-second YouTube video that addresses three key points:

the business product or service
the problem or opportunity and why is it a problem or opportunity
the customer and how the product/service solves their problem

15. Wisconsin High School Business Model Competition

Date(s): 4/20/22 – 5/21/22

This awesome business competition—open to high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors—is presented by the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh’s Alta Resources Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Students can compete alone or in teams of up to three and are asked to present an idea or solution to a problem that could lead to a business. Finalists will need to deliver a four-minute-long pitch to a panel of judges. Prizes include cash awards as well as scholarships to UW Oshkosh.

Business competitions can have varying levels of influence on your odds of getting accepted into college. Everything from the prestige of the competition to where you are placed to the value a college places on extracurricular activities like business competitions can impact the weight they’re given by an admissions office.

The four tiers of extracurricular activities are useful for better understanding how colleges consider your activities outside of the classroom. Top-tier activities (those in tiers one and two) include participation in the most well-thought-of and distinguished competitions. Winning or placing highly in a top-tier competition can significantly improve your admissions odds. Less prominent and lesser-known competitions fall into tiers three and four. Lower-tiered activities don’t hold the same sway over admissions offices and have less effect on admissions chances.

Interested in learning how your participation in a business competition influences your odds of getting into your dream school? CollegeVine can help! Our free chancing calculator considers factors such as grades, test scores, and extracurriculars to estimate your odds of getting into hundreds of colleges and universities while also providing insight into how to improve your profile.

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As the adoption of IoT and voice-enabled technology has become mainstream, we see a post-COVID world of innovation in voice technology products and analytics, and disruption in traditional growth of ecosystem to support it.

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Wharton Business Plan Competition Venture Finals

Since its launch in 1998, the Wharton community has taken great pride in the success and recognition of the Wharton Business Plan Competition (WBPC). As part of Wharton Entrepreneurship , the WBPC spans the entire academic year, helping student entrepreneurs develop and launch their businesses.

The WBPC Venture Finals are taking place today, allowing the “Great Eight” finalists to showcase their business plans to a group of distinguished judges . Today’s event brings together current students, alumni and leaders from the entrepreneurial community. Recently, the Wharton Entrepreneurship team held Q&A’s with 7 of the 8 finalists to provide further insight into their business plan and their vision behind it. To learn more, check out their recent blog post .

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Knowledge at Wharton Podcast

Making the business case for esg, may 3, 2022 • 32 min listen.

Wharton’s Katherine Klein talks with Wharton management professor Witold Henisz about how investors can evaluate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria and why they should deeply engage with firms if they want to effect change.

Wharton’s Katherine Klein talks to Wharton management professor Witold Henisz about how investors can evaluate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria and why they should deeply engage with firms if they want to effect change.

Witold Henisz is a Wharton management professor, director of the Wharton Political Risk Lab, and founder of the Wharton ESG Analytics Lab. He’s also a subject-matter expert on one of the most pressing issues in business today, which is ESG. Many investors want to put their money into socially conscious companies that proffer environmental, social, and governance criteria, but actually measuring a company’s ESG impact is an imperfect science at best.

During a recent episode of the Dollars and Change podcast, Henisz sat down with Katherine Klein , vice dean for the Wharton Social Impact Initiative , to talk about the business case for ESG and why investors should deeply engage with firms to effect change. ( Find more episodes here .) Listen to the podcast at the top of this page or read an edited transcript of the conversation below.

Katherine Klein: One of the things that have been striking to me when I talk about ESG with friends is that their knowledge of the topic tends to be all or nothing. It’s either, “Yep, I know what ESG is. I got it. We can delve right in,” or, “Huh? What’s ESG?”

We want this conversation to reach everybody. So, what is ESG?

Witold Henisz: ESG is the collection of environmental, social, and governance factors that can materially affect a business. It’s a re-bundling of a set of risks and opportunities that have often been thought of as beyond business, or beyond the confines of what we think of in management, but increasingly are being seen as being part of it. On the environmental dimension, climate risk is the most prominent example. On the social dimension, we’re thinking about workers, customers, and communities. And in governance, we’re not only thinking about the board/management relationship, but also the relationship with political actors, the relationship with tax, and a set of other relationships with external stakeholders.

Klein: You just said these are the factors — environmental, social, and governance factors — that affect business. That’s interesting because I might have said, “These are the environmental, social, and governance factors that businesses affect.” Which way is it, and does that matter?

Henisz: Well, it’s certainly both, but the focus within the ESG conversation and measurement area is on how those factors will come back and impact shareholder value. The reason they have an impact on shareholder value is because firms are imposing costs on stakeholders. The climate risk or the pollution of a company is hurting communities, it’s hurting citizens, and they are taking action. The regulatory environment or where there are consumer buying patterns, that’s coming back and hitting shareholder value.

In each case, the firm is doing some harm or creating some benefit, and that in turn is coming back and hitting the company. The conversation around ESG is more about the latter, but it’s because of the former. So, they’re both right.

Klein: In the ESG space today, I think there’s sort of fundamental tension. On the one hand, there are investors saying, “Hey, I want to be investing in companies that are doing good things for the environment, for society, and that are in governance and governed well, full stop.” But, there are others saying, “I want to be investing in companies that are doing good things, or at least not doing bad things on these dimensions, because that’s going to lead to better financial performance.” Again, are we going to get to, “Yes, both”?

“We’re bundling together the people who care about climate with the people who care about the bottom line.”

Henisz: I think it is “yes, both” — a typical academic answer. But I think it’s important to distinguish two groups of investors within the ESG space. For a long time, there has been talk about sustainable and responsible investing, or socially responsible investing. Those are more focused on the social consequences of firm behavior. Maybe that’s the first movement that you talked about in the last question. And there have been plenty of investors who, on moral grounds or values-based grounds, have said, “I don’t want to invest in companies that pollute. I don’t want to invest in fossil fuel companies. I don’t want to invest in weapons manufacturers. I don’t want to invest in companies that are engaged in gambling.”

Those investors are still there, and they are part of the broader ESG movement. But what distinguishes ESG from those other incarnations is that we’re really talking about the business case, that when you invest in a company that is involved in fossil fuels, that has not prepared itself for the climate transition, that’s a company that is going to underperform in terms of its share price. So, we’re bundling together the people who care about climate with the people who care about the bottom line. That makes for a winning coalition, and we can really affect change when we can make not just an ideological case but also an economic case around these factors.

Klein: ESG investing has gained considerable prominence. How big is ESG investing today?

Henisz: The headline number that you’ll see a lot is about $35 trillion of assets under management that claim to take into account ESG factors. What does that really mean? How much of that is really doing the hard work of understanding the business case around ESG? It’s a much, much smaller number. But it’s exciting that so many people care. I like the $35 trillion number, but I’ll acknowledge that it’s a pretty drastic overstatement of the amount of money that’s really doing sophisticated ESG analysis.

Klein: Got it, and $35 trillion represents about how much?

Henisz: About 30% to 35% of total global assets under management.

Klein: How do we measure ESG? I know you’re going to talk about how we measure it better, but how do we measure the ESG of different companies?

Henisz: I think your question highlights the difficulty. Unfortunately, the answer is going to depend a lot on who you ask, including which dataset you buy, and which rating agency you look to. I think historically a lot of the efforts on measuring ESG started with what the companies tell us. Let’s look at what the companies put in their sustainability reports, or let’s devise these really complicated questionnaires and send them to the companies and see what the companies send back. Then we’ll take all these different variables, sometimes hundreds of variables, and compile them into an index or a score. Then we’ll sell that to the investor.

Let’s think about that process. What do they tell us? They tell us the good news. What do they not tell us? The bad news. We’ve got all this data that’s biased towards smiling faces and green spaces. One of our new faculty recruits, Leandro Pongeluppe, has a paper that shows that over time, the percentage of pixels in sustainability reports that are the color green is increasing dramatically. We’re getting a lot of fluff and happy faces in these sustainability reports, but we’re getting less and less useful data. That’s the old way of measuring ESG.

People have recognized that’s a problem, so they’re trying to come up with better ways of measuring it, looking at what stakeholders say about a company. Do they say good things or bad things? Looking at government regulatory filings. Are they being sued? Are they being investigated? Looking at satellites and looking at the emissions coming out of the smokestacks of companies. Doing environmental monitoring. Scraping the web and looking at the wage distribution of the workers. There’s a whole host of new data providers that are trying to really get objective information on what companies are doing, but there’s still the question you hinted at: How much weight do you put on one versus another, and how sophisticated is that? And the further question is, when will those harms or benefits be realized by shareholders, not stakeholders? Everyone has a different answer. When you look at Microsoft, you might find one company put it in the 80th percentile, the next company put it in the 20th percentile. That’s a real problem that’s holding us back from progress in making the business case for ESG factors.

Klein: As I’ve read some of your work on ESG, what comes through to me is you are saying that there is a large gap between ESG practices today and the potential. Let’s talk more about that, and let’s start with some of the metrics and the research. Maybe it’s worth underscoring that measuring ESG is really hard. From a simple measurement standpoint, it’s a very multidimensional space. That means you can have a lot of noise as you try to aggregate this into a single score or even a few scores. The underlying data to base these ratings on is often unavailable or is going to differ wildly for different firms.

“We’ve got all this data that’s biased towards smiling faces and green spaces.”

Nonetheless, there have been reports that investing in highly rated ESG companies or highly rated ESG funds is financially beneficial. Talk with us about that and what we should and shouldn’t take away from existing research.

Henisz: There is a large volume of academic research that purports to find a positive correlation between some measure of ESG or sustainability performance and stock price. There are a lot of problems with that research. If we could find that correlation, and if all the investors could find it, I think we’d solve a lot of problems like climate change and racial justice a lot faster than we’re able to. One issue is the difference between correlations and causation. Does ESG performance lead to financial performance or are highly performing firms strong on financial performance and ESG. Unfortunately, it’s a bit of both.

Another problem is that most of those studies use a dataset developed by a company called KLD that’s now provided for free from MSCI. It was one of the first efforts to measure if a company is good or bad, but it wasn’t designed to measure whether it was a business case. It was just a list of “goods” and “bads.” The first academic paper that looked at this dataset said, “Let’s subtract the bads from the goods and come up with a net score of companies,” without any attention to whether there was a business case on those goods or bads, or how to weigh the goods and bads. That dataset is very infrequently used in the investor community, but it is used in over 80% of the academic studies that purport to look at the financial returns to sustainability. Academics should just stop using it. It’s not helpful. And reviewers should stop demanding that academics use it. That’s part of the problem.

Klein: That’s so interesting, because I’ve read studies with KLD, and they look pretty good to me.

Henisz: It’s a very carefully designed dataset, and the founders of it deserve an enormous amount of credit for being the first out there. But it was designed to speak to values-based investors who wanted to know about goods and bads and wanted to assess a company. Do they do gambling? Do they do landmines? Do they do fossil fuels? It does what it says it does. But that’s not what ESG investing is about, and that’s not what we should be looking for if we’re looking for the business case. So, I want to couch my criticism. The data is actually quite good at what it was meant to do, but that’s not what we should be measuring today.

I think the challenge is we don’t have good enough data. And I think there really is an opportunity in the ESG space, like there was when we started investing in emerging markets, to have a sustained period that outperforms the market because we’re starting to understand these relationships. We’re starting to see these opportunities, the same way we started to see the opportunities of emerging markets in the ’80s and ’90s.

Klein: Let’s talk about what better research is more appropriate for exploring the business case, and what you believe that research has shown or will show as the field advances.

Henisz: I think this takes us back to strong fundamental analysis that people who really know an industry and really know a firm can start augmenting their models with. Are they prepared for the climate transition? Are they addressing concerns around racial justice or immigrant justice? Are they building strong relationships with the community or generating hostility with the community? Do customers feel connected to the firm, or do customers feel transactional around the firm? To the extent that they can build that type of insight into their models, they can foresee risks and opportunities that are coming down the pike, they can adjust their portfolios, they can adjust their weights appropriately, and I think they have the potential to earn higher returns. But that takes deep fundamental analysis. It’s costly. It’s time-consuming. It’s going to lead to higher fees, so they have to not only outperform the market, they have to outperform the market enough to compensate them for the fees involved. And that’s a higher hurdle that they’re still struggling to meet.

Klein: Do you clearly believe this research is important? Is it likely to show these kinds of long-term financial performance? I think in part what you’re describing is, “We need to be pretty thoughtful about the mediating processes. What is it about a way a corporation is engaging on climate issues or racial justice issues that is going to affect its financial performance?”

“If we care about ESG issues, we should own these companies, and we should encourage the management to change their practices.”

Henisz: Right, and it doesn’t have to be as complicated. I think there are some really powerful examples that convey the logic. Can you do it at scale? Can you do it across a thousand firms? That’s harder. But let’s take a really simple case that’s gotten a lot of press over the last year-and-a-half: climate risk and the energy transition. There are oil and gas companies that are looking ahead to a period where we’re moving away from fossil fuels, and they’re investing in a different portfolio of renewables. There are other oil and gas firms that are making bets that oil and gas are going to stay the dominant energy source for the next 25, 30, 50 years, that we’re going to have a 3-, 4-, maybe 5-degree global warming scenario. Those assumptions drive investments today, and the firms that are adapting are being better prepared for the climate transition and will earn higher returns on their invested capital. The firms that are investing in fossil fuels, I would suggest, are going to have a lot of stranded assets. They’re going to be writing off a lot of the investments they make today because people won’t want that oil and gas at the price it can generate in 10 or 20 years.

ExxonMobil, Chevron, some other firms have been the laggards, and people have called them out. And people have done the financial analysis to show that you can’t justify the spend they’re making on certain oil and gas reserves if we assume we’re going to get to a 2-degree scenario or even a 3-degree scenario. It just won’t pay back. It’s not rocket science. You can work through the numbers, and they have underperformed for some time period because of these decisions. Calling that out highlights that there’s a difference between the laggards in that industry and the leaders, and people should be investing accordingly.

Klein: I’m curious about what you think on the links between the business case and diversity, equity, and inclusion, or around living wages and decent jobs. Could you talk about that?

Henisz: I think living wage is a little more straightforward — it’s turnover. When people aren’t meeting a living wage, they’re going to leave a job for the next best alternative as fast as it comes. They’re going to view that job very transactionally. “I’m not able to feed my family. The second I can get another job that allows me to do that, I don’t care about anything else. I’m tired of cobbling together two, three, four, jobs, federal assistance, so I’m out as soon as I can get to that level.”

That turnover is a cost to the firm because they have to find new workers. They have to search for them. They have to intake them. They have to train them. They’re going to be lower productivity initially. And then they’re going to do that again six or nine months later. With a higher living wage, you reduce turnover. You increase employee loyalty. You increase productivity. And it can pay to do that.

That doesn’t mean raising everyone’s wage in every circumstance is going to pay for itself, but there are cases where it will. It always helps in the short term to cut wages, but it doesn’t necessarily help in the long term. Turnover is a clear mechanism, and to the extent that we can measure turnover, we can form that link.

With diversity, equity, and inclusion, I think the research suggests there’s going to be more creative problem-solving, more inclusion of employees who feel that they’re part of the company because they’re recognized and their identity is valued. And probably more ability to reach out to a diverse set of customers, a diverse set of stakeholders, with more support from diverse communities, better decision-making in the company, being ahead of the curve as we start addressing some of the long-standing racial biases in our country. But it’s a little harder to say, “What would I measure? What data point would I want?” I think turnover for living wage is a much simpler measurement problem. But I think the business case is there in both.

Klein: I’d like to turn to some of the practical implications of what you’re saying, and I want to focus first on investors. Suppose an individual who’s not an investment professional comes to you and says, “This sounds great. I want to make sure that my investments are in ESG funds. You’ve mentioned that it can be kind of challenging. How do I do this well?” What’s the challenge here?

Henisz: It is a challenge because of the data problems. And just because someone has an ESG label on their fund or says they’re taking these things into account doesn’t mean they really are, and it doesn’t mean you should expect either impact financially or on climate or racial justice. There’s a lot of what’s called greenwashing out there — a lot of funds claiming that they’re addressing ESG issues, but they’re just dropping one or two fossil fuel companies or one or two arms makers out of their portfolio and saying, “Oh, look, it’s an ESG fund.”

“We can really effect change when we can make not just an ideological case but also an economic case around these [ESG] factors.”

One way to do it is to really look at the fund, look at what they’re investing in. Look at what’s called the tracking error. How much does it differ from the benchmark index? And then really try to understand what’s driving them. How are they choosing firms? That does require a lot of due diligence. That does require you to be a pretty sophisticated investor, to make sense of the way the asset managers are choosing companies.

Another way to go is to say, “You know what? Maybe the data is not there yet. Maybe I’m not ready to make this step. But at least I’d like to invest in someone who’s engaging with companies on ESG issues and voting in shareholder resolutions and proxy votes. I don’t want to shift my portfolio. I just want the S&P 500 or some big benchmark index, but I want to be with a fund that engages.”

There are funds out there like that, that have very low fees, that match the market. You’re guaranteed the returns of the S&P 500, but they’ll vote on ESG issues, which will propel all the firms to improve their ESG performance and hopefully their financial performance. The sponsor of one such ETF (exchange-traded fund) is a company called Engine No. 1, and I should disclose that I’m an advisor to them.

Klein: Let’s talk about the power of the vote, the power of more activist strategy. Say a little bit more about what that potential is, again, for people who may not be as sophisticated about what this means in practice.

Henisz: I think this is a really important conversation that we need to have more of. There’s so much anger right now around fossil fuels or other issues, and people are saying, “Let’s divest. Let’s get our pension funds, our endowments to divest. That sounds like I’m doing something. I’m divesting from fossil fuels.” Imagine we were looking at the 2022 or 2020 election, and I say, “I’m so angry about politics, I’m not going to vote. I’m just going to stay home.” A lot of people did that, but did that make things better? Did disengaging make things better?

If we call it “disengagement” instead of “divestment,” it paints a very different picture. By divesting, you’re giving up the power of the vote. You’re giving up any voice over the future of the company, so we should be much more active in our ownership. If we care about ESG issues, we should own these companies, and we should encourage the management to change their practices. That’s what an active owner does.

Study after study finds that engagement works, and divestment doesn’t work. The problem is engagement is expensive, and people are running away from high-fee funds. But if you really care about ESG issues, you should be focused on those asset managers who are engaging and voting on these issues, and giving your money to them for investment. That’s the best direction for change. Divestment doesn’t work.

Klein: For those folks who are saying, “We need to do better within our firm,” what should they be doing?

Henisz: As you do your analysis, as you look at the companies in your portfolio — whatever process you use, whether it’s value-based, whether it’s event-driven — think about how environmental, social, and governance factors affect the performance indicators, affect the variables you’re looking at. There’s likely a connection. That’s the idea. Yes, “G” (governance) factors are material. They affect the business case. How does that work for your strategy? You need to do that yourself. Don’t just expect the ESG analysts to pull some numbers out of a shelf and put them alongside you and make a decision.

There are too many companies that say, “These are the preferred stocks. Here are the expected returns.” And then, “Here’s a set of emojis, or a set of green light, yellow light, red light ESG factors. Now put them together.” How do you do that? How do you put spreadsheets together with emojis? It doesn’t work. You need to try to find a way to bring them together, and it’s got to be the investment analysts. I’d encourage them all to think about that themselves, and if they want help, look for continuing education courses that retrain existing investment analysts on what’s called ESG integration.

We just launched one here at Wharton through the Coursera platform. There are other programs at Columbia, at NYU, and the UNPRI has them. There’s a set of online learning opportunities to figure out how to connect the dots. Those tools will be incredibly valuable, and I suggest they’d be a positive net present value investment for many career tracks whether in financial, consulting, or corporate careers.

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Case Studies

Ayala corp..

Authors: Belen Villalonga, Raphael Amit, Chris Hartman

Ayala Corporation is the oldest conglomerate in the Philippines and has been controlled by the Zobel de Ayala family for seven generations. Over the past 25 years, Ayala has evolved from a real estate family business into a highly diversified and professionally managed business group, with a significant number of non-family shareholders. Between the holding company and its four largest subsidiaries, the Ayala group accounts for a quarter of the market capitalization of the Philippines Stock Exchange. Provides data to assess the value created for Ayala’s stockholders in the ten years leading up to 2006, when the transition to the seventh generation of the Zobel de Ayala family culminated.

Learning Objective: To investigate the unusual corporate structure, with both the family holding company and its subsidiaries being publicly traded, of Ayala Corp. Offers a unique opportunity to measure and discuss the value implications of corporate diversification for family and non-family shareholders. Facilitates a discussion of the issues associated with publicly traded family firms.

For more information or to buy this case visit: http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/207041-PDF-ENG

SUN Brewing (A)

Authors: Raphael Amit and Belen Villalonga

The Khemka family of India–founders, managers, and majority owners of Russia-based SUN Brewing. The family is debating the merits of two main alternatives: To bring in a major global beer company as a strategic partner at this difficult time or to stay on as controlling owners, inject millions of dollars into the company from other parts of the family business group, and weather the storm until better terms can be expected from any outside provider.

Learning Objective: To highlight the role that family business groups can play as internal capital markets, particularly in emerging economies, where external capital markets are inefficient. Illustrate the risks of entrepreneurship in emerging markets.

For more information or to buy this case visit: http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/207022-PDF-ENG

SUN Brewing (B)

In July 2004, Shiv, Nand, and Uday Khemka are discussing their holdings in SUN Interbrew, a leading Russian beer producer that is part of the family’s global portfolio of businesses. SUN Interbrew has been operating as a joint venture since 1998, when the Khemka family, who founded its predecessor company SUN Brewing in the early 1990s, decided to partner with Belgian beer giant Interbrew to survive the Russian financial and economic crises. Since then, the family has used Interbrew’s capital and beer industry know-how to successfully grow the business. Now several developments prompt the Khemka family to consider a liquidity event. The family’s five-year lock-up arrangement with Interbrew has just expired. In March 2004, Interbrew has announced its plans to take a controlling stake in Brazilian giant AmBev, a deal that will create the world’s largest brewer. In addition, the Alfa Group, a Russian conglomerate that has become the third largest shareholder in SUN Interbrew, has announced its intention to take part in the company’s management and attain a leading position in the Russian beer market. Is there a role for the Khemka family in the future of this company? Should they maintain some stake in the company and continue to participate in its management? Should they auction off their shares to the highest bidder and exit? Or should they play a role in the global beer industry through a stock-for-stock sale to InBev, and if so, at what price?

Learning Objective: The decision the Khemka family have to make calls for a financial valuation of the company, which the case provides the necessary data to perform using DCF, trading multiples (comparable companies), and transaction multiples. The company’s dual-class stock structure, including a voting and a non-voting class that are both publicly traded, facilitates the computation of a voting premium and the estimation of the value of a vote. Can be used to discuss the drivers of this premium and its effect on the valuation of the family’s cash flow and control rights. Can be taught as a sequel to SUN Brewing (A) or as a stand-alone case.

For more information or to buy this case visit: http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/207039-PDF-ENG

Medco Energi Internasional

Authors: Raphael Amit, Belen Villalonga, Chris Hartman

In late 2004, Hilmi Panigoro, CEO of the publicly traded Indonesian oil company Medco Energi Internasional, is striving to regain majority control of the company his brother Arifin founded in 1980.

Learning Objective: To expose students to different capital restructuring transaction available to family firms, including leveraged buyouts and equity offerings, in a turbulent emerging markets setting. Students are required to evaluate the benefits and risks of the proposed financing plan from the perspective of both the controlling family and minority shareholders.

For more information or to buy this case visit: http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/207021-PDF-ENG

Kohler Co. (A)

Authors: Raphael Amit, Belen Villalonga

Kohler Co., best known for its plumbing fixtures, is a large, private family firm. In April 2000, Herbert V. Kohler, Jr., chairman and CEO, has to decide whether to settle with the dissenters and, if so, at what share price. Students must identify and understand the different valuation assumptions that can lead to a wide range in price, including the applicability of discounts for lack of marketability and lack of control.

Learning Objective: To examine the valuation of privately held firms from the perspectives of the controlling shareholder(s) and minority shareholders.

For more information or to buy this case visit: http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/205034-PDF-ENG

Kohler Co. (B)

Supplement to the (A) Case.

For more information or to buy this case visit: http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/207025-PDF-ENG

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Previous Winners and Case Studies

Case Study for 2021-2022

PLEASE NOTE: This case study is from the 2021-2022 competition, and should be used for reference purposes only. The current case study for the competition can be found here: https://globalyouth.wharton.upenn.edu/investment-competition/case-study/

You can’t build an effective investment strategy without first knowing your client…

Meet nichole jordan.

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WGAM’s current portfolio manager (your team’s teacher/advisor) recently met with a potential client, Nichole Jordan, who lives in San Francisco. Nichole is the Senior Vice President, Global Partner Success at Via , a TransitTech company that provides the digital infrastructure for public mobility systems, optimizing networks of shuttles, buses, wheelchair-accessible vehicles, school buses, and autonomous vehicles to meet the needs of large cities and smaller communities around the world.

On March 8, 2021, Via acquired Remix Software, Nichole’s previous company, in a $100-million cash and equity deal. At Remix, she was the Chief Operating Officer. She was responsible for managing global sales, customer success, finance, and people operations, as well as maintaining executive account relationships and ensuring customer satisfaction.

Nichole has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from U.C. Davis and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. She was the first African-American female to matriculate in the Wharton West Executive MBA program.

“The Wharton Executive MBA program was invaluable to my career journey and equally beneficial for my personal and professional lives. My classmates were phenomenal and the professors were the best of the best. It challenged me in ways that I didn’t expect and I developed friendships that have lasted for more than 15 years.”

Nichole enjoys spending her free time with her family, traveling, wine tasting, and reading. She is a dedicated Peloton member and also loves doing yoga.

Nichole is an active volunteer, a leader for several non-profit entities, and is passionate about mentoring women of color. She is currently the International Technology Chairman for Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the first sorority founded by African-American women. She has also served as an executive mentor for Sequoia Capital’s Ascent Mentoring program, designed to support emerging women leaders in tech.

“What drives me is opening doors or creating opportunities for others like me. I had to figure a lot out in life on my own, but I also had strong mentors along the way that helped me become who I am. I want to serve as that person for others.”

Starting in 2022, Nichole would like to provide a small scholarship of $5,000 per year to a woman of color studying engineering at her alma mater, U.C. Davis. Nichole needs your help determining how best to fund this, as she wants to be able to offer the scholarship for at least 10 years. Should she keep $50,000 in cash? Should she invest in stocks that pay dividends? Another option? Nichole wants to hear your plan for funding the scholarship. (Please see the Placing Trades and Rules pages for more information about how to invest in stocks and bonds.)

Nichole also loves being an aunt to her six young nieces and nephews. She wants to ensure that she can help build generational wealth for them and contribute to their educational expenses, including college tuition. She specifically mentioned to your portfolio manager, “I feel very strongly about having them as part of my long-term financial plan.”

Nichole has $100,000 she wants WGAM to manage in order to achieve these two financial goals. She has set aside additional money for her other financial goals, including retirement, so WGAM does not need to focus on Nichole’s other financial goals.

Nichole told the portfolio manager that WGAM has 10 weeks to put together a detailed portfolio analysis proposal. Your portfolio manager recognizes that it will not be easy to land Nichole as a client. To make the most convincing case to Nichole, everyone on the team must contribute to ensure that WGAM creates the best proposal.

Over the next 10 weeks, your team will develop and test an investment strategy to meet Nichole’s two financial goals. Your team will conduct a thorough analysis of industries and companies, with the goal of ensuring both long-term and a small amount of mid-term profitability for your prospective client. You will test your investment strategy using the Wharton Investment Simulator (WInS). And remember, WInS can only accurately assess the performance of investments that are made for the short-term. So, while you should test your strategy and build your stock portfolio on WInS, the majority of your investments should be long-term and therefore won’t require excessive buying and selling of stocks. However, your strategy might include guidelines for certain factors that could influence your decision to sell, even in the short-term. On WInS, you will be getting some portfolio-management experience.

Your team will start out with a portfolio of $100,000 in virtual cash and will compete against other student teams from all over the world. At the end of the 10 weeks of active trading, you will be required to submit a proposal detailing your recommended investment strategy. Judges will review your final investment report and select top teams. Those teams will be invited to present their strategies to a panel of experts.

* Teams are not permitted to contact Nichole Jordan, members of her family, Via, or anyone else mentioned in this case study. The investment scenarios included in this case study have been embellished for the purpose of the competition.

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Youth Program
Wharton Online

2021 CONFERENCE COMPETITIONS

Case competition, white paper competition.

In partnership with:

We are excited to announce our winners of the 2021 Case Competition ! Now in its 8th year, our annual Case Competition gives student teams an opportunity to put their people analytics skills to the test by tackling a problem faced by a non-profit partner.

We were thrilled to partner with Teach for America for this year’s Case Competition. TFA is a diverse network of leaders who confront educational inequity by teaching for at least two years and then working with unwavering commitment from every sector of society to create a nation free from this injustice. Visit TFA’s website here to learn more about this impactful organization.

30 student teams from across the globe analyzed real data to help TFA optimize its corps matching process for placement acceptance and successful corps experiences. Finalists were selected in a multi-round process based on the degree to which they demonstrated:

Methodologically coherent and robust analysis
Actionable insights
Clarity and presentation

On March 31, five finalist teams were invited to present to an esteemed panel of people analytics experts. Watch the 2021 Case Competition finalists here!

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS

Team NIT-K Nishchith Sriram, Luv Nambia, Sakshat Rao Undergraduate Students at National Institute of Technology Karnataka

Team Behavior Change Arvind Bala, Dan Rosica, Jennifer Xue Graduate Students at the University of Pennsylvania

Team Voluntary Apple Turnovers Christopher Bahen-Tait, Beatriz Villaça, Melissa Palumbo MBA Students at McGill University

THANK YOU TO OUR CASE COMPETITION JUDGES

Ethan Burris (McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin), Julie Wargo (Teach for America), Mike Metzger (Teach for America), Monica Ionescu (The Wharton School at the University Pennsylvania), Namita Nandakumar (Seattle Kraken Hockey)

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNING TEAMS!

There Are No Colorblind Models in a Colorful World: How to Successfully Apply a People Analytics Tool to Build Equitable Workplaces

by Margrét Bjarnadóttir, David Anderson, and David Ross

Hearsay, Rumor, and Speaking Up About Other Employees’ Issues: Why lay theories about secondhand accounts in employee voice are wrong by Ethan Burris, Taeya Howell, Stephen Stubben, and Kyle Welch

The Impacts of Algorithmic Work Assignment on Fairness Perceptions and Productivity: Evidence from Field Experiments by Bing Bai, Hengchen Dai, Dennis J. Zhang, Fuqiang Zhang, and Haoyuan Hu

White papers went through a robust, multi-round judging process.

Thank you to our first-round reader judges: Jeff Polzer, Kate Glazebrook, Kayrn Marciniak, June Zhang, Adrian Perez, Steve Hale, Justin Purl, Feifei Xue , and Kate Grey .

We also would like to thank our panel of experts who judged the competition finals:

Aiwa Shirako , Google Alex Nakahara , MLB Philadelphia Phillies Lisa Donchak , McKinsey Michael Haugen , GhSmart Yuan Hou , COGKNITION Analytics

Youth Program
Wharton Online

Wharton Stories

How (not) to plan a case competition in 30 days.

Laura Gao, W’18, tells how she and a team of Penn undergraduates worked with the administration and the City of Philadelphia to create a competition to make the case for bringing Amazon HQ2 to Philadelphia.

Every year, thousands of students arrive in Philadelphia from around the world to receive a world-class education. Still, not many are able to apply such learnings directly to the city they call home for four years. This past fall, I was delighted to have gotten the opportunity to work with the Philadelphia Department of Commerce on their proposal to bring Amazon to Philly.

I had just finished that summer interning at Amazon as a business data analyst. When the city contacted me within weeks of classes starting, I was eager to assist them in decoding the tech giant’s culture and quirks. I knew my peers could also deliver a larger impact collectively. In recent years, Wharton has been focusing on the intersection of business and tech, spearheading career treks to San Francisco and adding a new Business Analytics concentration. The city’s request was the perfect way to build on this by challenging students to analyze a real-world situation for one of the top tech companies and cities in the world.

In partnership with The Sign.al — a club that aims to help students craft their own diverse career paths — and The Wharton School, we hosted the Amazon HQ2 to Philly Case Competition. 30+ teams vied for the chance to present proposals to a panel of Wharton faculty and a stellar audience including Mayor Jim Kenney, Vice Deans Lori Rosenkopf and Howard Kaufold, and several media outlets. Ultimately, the city was able to reference the presentations in its official written proposal to Amazon.

As always, each success comes with a long list of lessons learned. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Move fast and break things — but don’t leave your team behind.

“Move fast and break things” is popular mantra in the tech industry. It champions hacking rapid growth by bulldozing through barriers at any cost and never looking back. I adopted this strategy early on to race against a 30-day deadline to bring my idea to life. I was taking calls in the middle of class, assembling midnight emergency meetings, and pulling every favor I could to secure sponsorships. And it worked — up to a point. My reality check came when Vice Dean Rosenkopf FaceTimed me. Yup, FaceTimed. In an hour, we hashed out several crucial issues I had left behind in the dust. Slowing down to walk in sync with Prof. Rosenkopf allowed her to recruit some of Wharton’s best to handle event logistics and judging, which let me focus on getting quality submissions.

In addition, I took her cue to delegate work and began to further involve my team. It was easy to get caught up in sprinting towards a goal that I had unknowingly left others behind. I had a loyal team of incredibly smart and diversely talented people. I realized I couldn’t — and definitely shouldn’t — do everything alone. By capitalizing on everyone’s strengths, such as having our finance lead, Airika Yee, manage sponsorships and our webmaster, Bill He, handle site updates, we became significantly more efficient.

2. Dealing with multiple parties is like working with NPCs for a video game quest.

Each quest character needs some magical item from another to get you what you want, but none are able to meet at the same time. Since each party is responsible for a piece of the puzzle, the final picture can seem unrecognizable until the very end when everyone delivers all at once. Though our initial sprint was unsustainable, a marathon didn’t promise a constant stream of validation either as a motivation boost. Rather, the first 90% of our journey was a struggle to silence a barrage of internal doubts. The final 10% was a symphony of pieces finally fitting together.

For example, the existence of the entire competition depended on getting an adequate number of submissions. However, since college students are infamous for their procrastination, we could not collect sponsorships, schedule the Mayor, or book the venue until the deadline for submissions passed — which was regretfully late in our 30-day timeline. Thankfully, our team anticipated any fallouts with copious Plan C’s and D’s and each party delivered successfully.

3. Most importantly, grinding for work you hate is absurdity. Hustling for work you love is passion.

The rush we got from sculpting a simple idea into a spectacle was the fuel that propelled us to 100 MPH, replacing the stresses of work with the endorphins of passion.

Amidst the ups and downs, the various milestones that rekindled that rush included:

Launching the landing page and watching wide-eyed as the hit count climbed by the thousands
Having an emoji party in the team Slack channel when the number of submissions nearly doubled our goal
Reviewing all of the creative proposals together in the cozy living room of our Airbnb during Fall Break
Browsing the news before class and seeing this competition mentioned on CNN and GeekWire

Ultimately, regardless of what city wins Amazon over, this month-long journey that my team and I traversed together has been an unforgettable one. Not only am I thrilled to have inspired others to create authentic impact for Philadelphia, but also for the invaluable life lessons I’ll carry forward long after graduation.

Update: Philadelphia was chosen as a top 20 finalist city for Amazon’s HQ2 bid.

Posted: January 9, 2018

Competitions
Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Internships
Philadelphia
The Wharton School

Undergraduate Program

Laura gao, w’18.

Hometown Dallas, TX

Concentration Business Analytics

Minor Fine Arts

At Wharton/Penn Current: Founder and Director of The Sign.al, Designer for Penn Labs (Penn’s student-run product team responsible for Penn Course Review, PennMobile, among others) Previous: Co-Director of Penn Aerospace, Penn Club Basketball, President of Rupee for Wharton Cohorts

Previous Internships Business Data Analyst Intern at Amazon.com in Seattle, Product Management Intern at SmartyPal in Philadelphia

After Wharton Associate Product Manager at Twitter in San Francisco

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Business Strategy from Wharton: Competitive Advantage

https://learning.edx.org/course/course-v1:Wharton+StrategyX+1T2023/home

different from competitors
more than one
complementary
where to compete (product, customers, geography)
value proposition
source of competitive advantage (price, costs; activites, resources, capabilities)

Internal Fit

Strategy, ca and oe vs sp.

Competitive advantage

Fundamentally higher prices and/or lower costs

Operational effectiveness (OE)

Best practice → absolute but not relative improvement (often through copying)
Necessary but not sufficient, as often leads to strategic convergence, meaning the value proposition too similar for consumers (low differentiation)

Strategic positioning (SP)

Doing different things → differentiation
But involves tradeoffs

Growth trap

The larger you are, the harder it is to grow at the same rate, and forced growth (to please stakeholders) comes with tradeoffs (bad acquisitions, reduced profitability, etc)

Many things is better than one thing

One thing is easier to duplicate with increased efficiencies (even if patented)
One thing is easier to be overtaken with government assistance (so less efficient but fast to scale)
One thing is easier to be replaced by new technologies

Value chain - what activities make it up?

Activity systems - how do activities interact.

Complementary activities (thick/main lines): more of activity A increases marginal benefit of B and vice versa
Which are unqiue to this company? Strategic positioning
What are the consequnces of changing an activity?
GM/Toyota/NUMMI example: needed to copy entire system exactly (including country culture), not individual components/activities

External Fit

Profitability (US): 20% industry, 20% corporation, 60% positioning

Value Appropriation

WTP varies by customers, different weighted drivers (and different weightings by customer segment)

Competitive advantage = [WTP - cost](for company A) - [WTP - cost](for company B)

Customers and Competition

Who is the customer, and what is their need?
Power tool competitors: alternative tool companies AND alternative gift companies
When BMW first came to US, they failed because they didn’t have cupholders

Porter’s Five Forces

Customer power: price sensitivity; switching costs; backward integration (could customer do what we do)

Supplier power: same but in reverse

New: barriers to entry (capital, scale, brand)

Current: rivalry (market growth, number of competitors, strategic stakes)

Substitutes

Scenario Planning

Based on uncertainties: economy, technology, terrorism, pandemic, political, …

Pick two, put in a matrix, gives four scenarios → if this, then what? → check strategy initiatives against scenarios

Blue Ocean Strategy

Sometimes parts are blue for a reason (e.g. high cost low quality) → have others tried and failed before?

Strategy audit

Indsutry: current, trends
Customers: WTP, cost drivers
Company/competitors: position, trends; business vs corporate
Activites: OE vs SP

Dynamic Fit

Honda case study.

Source of competitve advantage: cost
Product: small, lightweight bikes (easy to standardise for economies of scale)
Customers: middle class (large, underserved)
Geography: CA (existing market) then expand
Engine of profitabilitiy: low price → high volume → low cost → feedback to low price
Focus on long-term not short-term profits
No plans/knowledge → originally wrong bike size, wrong customer segment, no low price strategy → just took action and pushed forward, overcoming obstacles as they arose
Mostly adaptable/flexibile, but some fixed “North star” vision/values

Barriers to response/reaction/adaption

Performance vs time graph - but which performance?
e.g. EVs: range is good enough but running costs are far better
WTP increases with performance, but marginal increase decreases with improvements
Knowledge (do we know how?)
“We make bespoke masterpieces, not mass-produced duplicates”
Coordination/capability (can we pull it all together?)
Fear / do nothing

Setting Strategy

1. strategic possibilities.

No judgement/evaluation at this stage
First generate individually, then convene to share and discuss
Inside out: what are we good at?
Outside-in: what gaps does the market have?
Far outside-in: what would be the Amazon of the industry?
Is one intrigruing? Is one uncomfortable? When yes you’ve gone beyond the most obvious ones, so move onto the next stage.

2. Burden of Proof

Don’t discuss if the truth can be realised/the condition met yet
Assess each possibility against these truths/conditions
External: competitors, industry, regulations, … (e.g. the market must be big enough)
Internal: capabilities, activities, skills, … (e.g. we must be able to do it)
Dyanimcs: trends, technologies, economy, … (e.g. there will be no recession)
Ask the whole team: If all these conditions were met, do you think this would be a good idea? If no, why? → premortem
Assess the existing strategy also - not changing could also be a risk.

3. Analysis

Reorder so the condition least likely to hold true is first - if it fails, you don’t need to assess the other conditions.
Test, as surprises may happen - e.g. higher prices can outsell lower prices due to assumed value.

Generative AI and Business Transformation

Program overview.

Once or twice in a generation, a general-purpose technology emerges that ignites innovation to the extent that multiple industries are utterly transformed. Think of discoveries like electricity or the internet.

Today, research consistently supports the conclusion that generative AI is one of these rare general-purpose technologies and is on the precipice of triggering exponential change. It has the potential to shift competitive landscapes and launch companies into game-changing growth. As companies scramble to understand its implications, they will either rush ahead or fall behind based on how they navigate this technological shift.

Generative AI and Business Transformation dissects the technology, platforms, and large language models of generative AI and identifies opportunities for strategic and practical business applications. This ground-breaking program is led by world-renowned experts from AI at Wharton , the academic research center founded in 2019 by the Wharton School, one of the first business schools to develop thought leadership on integrating AI into organizational transformation.

Date, Location, & Fees

If you are unable to access the application form, please email Client Relations at [email protected] .

October 28 – 31, 2024 Philadelphia, PA $12,500

Drag for more

Program Experience

Who should attend, highlights and key outcomes.

In Generative AI and Business Transformation , you will gain insight to:

Technology, capabilities, and future potential of generative AI
Differences and tradeoffs of various foundational AI models and usage
Prompt-engineering strategies critical for optimizing AI models
User experience, cultural, and psychological barriers of organizational AI adoption
Relative strengths and weaknesses of human and artificial intelligence
Integration strategies for implementing a company-wide generative-AI plan

Experience & Impact

Generative AI and Business Transformation topics will explore the impact this technology has on competition, innovation, and economic growth while delving into the ethical and user-experience challenges as well as the governance frameworks involved in responsibly integrating generative AI into business organizations. Some of our program faculty experts also serve as consultants for today’s top AI companies and will provide a unique, insider’s perspective on the transformational capabilities of real-world generative AI applications.

Participants will leave empowered with added confidence, knowing they now have the technical and strategic business knowledge necessary to successfully implement generative AI into the culture, planning, and operations of their organizations.

Generative AI and Business Transformation uses a blend of thought-leadership lectures, group-based activities, real-world case study analyses, and panel discussions with industry experts to deliver a comprehensive and experiential journey through the technology, impacts, and potential of generative AI.

As a participant, you will gain a deeper understanding of the transformational capability this technology has across a wide array of professional roles and industries. You’ll also explore the human impact — taking a closer look at the emotional and psychological reactions and biases that exist around this once-in-a-generation technology.

Generative AI and Business Transformation will empower you to return to work with the ability to speak to generative AI at a higher level of expertise, allowing you to share coveted, detailed knowledge that will support your company’s digital transformation while positioning you as a topic expert. You will possess the frameworks necessary for implementing real-world generative-AI strategies within your company, and you'll have the ability to make a positive, innovative impact within your role.

Above all else, you’ll leave the program with the realization that this truly is a limited, make-or-break opportunity: those who embrace generative AI will be able to elevate themselves and their organizations, gaining a powerful advantage over the competition.

Session topics include:

AI and General-Purpose Technologies
Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs): Tech and Biases
AI Implementation: Integrating AI into Products and Services
Finetuning and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)
Industry Applications: Market Research
Consumers and AI
Redesigning Workflows
Generative AI and Large Language Model (LLM) Applications
AI and the Workplace
Industry Applications: Media and Entertainment
AI Governance

Convince Your Supervisor

Here’s a justification letter you can edit and send to your supervisor to help you make the case for attending this Wharton program.

Due to our application review period, applications submitted after 12:00 p.m. ET on Friday for programs beginning the following Monday may not be processed in time to grant admission. Applicants will be contacted by a member of our Client Relations Team to discuss options for future programs and dates.

Because generative AI will inevitably transform every professional role within an organization, this program provides exceptional advantages to executives in any and every industry who aspire to leverage its benefits, including:

C-suite and senior executives who need to formulate and implement generative-AI strategies
Product managers and marketing, sales, and strategy executives seeking a deeper understanding of how generative AI can shape their business function
Consultants guiding organizations through digital transformation

Fluency in English, written and spoken, is required for participation in Wharton Executive Education programs.

Plan Your Stay

Our San Francisco campus at Hills Brothers Plaza is a classrooms-only facility that does not include lodging. There are several nearby hotels to choose from when attending a program at Wharton | San Francisco .

For more information about your accommodations, see our Staying in San Francisco page.

Group Enrollment

To further leverage the value and impact of this program, we encourage companies to send cross-functional teams of executives to Wharton. We offer group-enrollment benefits to companies sending four or more participants.

Kartik Hosanagar, PhD See Faculty Bio

Co-Academic Director

John C. Hower Professor; Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Internet advertising, internet marketing, and media

Stefano Puntoni, PhD See Faculty Bio

Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing; Professor of Marketing; Co-Director, Wharton Human-Centered Technology Initiative, The Wharton School

Research Interests: New technologies in marketing, technology adoption, brand management, consumer decision making

Ethan Mollick, PhD See Faculty Bio

Ralph J. Roberts Distinguished Faculty Scholar; Associate Professor of Management; Academic Director, Wharton Interactive, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Innovation, entrepreneurship, crowdfunding, games, AI

Prasanna Tambe, PhD See Faculty Bio

Associate Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Economics of IT labor, technological change, and labor markets

Download the program schedule , including session details and format.

Hotel Information

Fees for on-campus programs include accommodations and meals. Prices are subject to change.

Read COVID-19 Safety Policy »

International Travel Information »

Plan Your Stay »

Related Programs

Business Model Innovation in the Age of AI
Analytics for Strategic Growth: AI, Smart Data, and Customer Insights

Schedule a personalized consultation to discuss your professional goals:

+1.215.898.1776

[email protected]

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COMMENTS

Case Study
From the Wharton School to LA28, the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad: Meet Hilary Ash, W'13! CASE STUDY: You are an analyst team of recent college graduates working at an up-and-coming asset management company, Wharton Global Asset Management (WGAM). The firm currently manages a $100,000,000 portfolio that is invested across several different ...
Investment Competition
About the Competition. Teams examine a short case study featuring a potential client (a real Wharton graduate working in business) and are tasked with collaborating to meet that client's long-term investment goals as they try to win his or her business. Equipped with an approved stock and exchange-traded fund (ETF) list (domestic and ...
Previous Winners and Case Studies
Previous Winners and Case Studies. The Wharton Global Youth Program newsroom has reported on all the winning teams since the competition began in 2012. We do not release final reports from previous winners (we want your team to be creative!), but you may find useful information about strategies and team approaches in some of the following articles.
How We Won the "World Championship" of Case Competitions
Case competitions give business students the opportunity to apply the knowledge they're learning in the classroom to real-world industry challenges. Last month, four Wharton seniors had the chance to do that at the highest level and won. Ellen Naruse, W'18, Brandy Sun, W'18, Joseph Robillard, W'18, and Brandon Saw, W'18, earned the ...
Wharton MBA Team Wins First Prize in Global Business Case Competition
In the The Business School Alliance for Health Management (BAHM) global case competition, Vanessa Folkerts WG'20, and Jason Chen, WG'21, teamed up with students from the Strathmore Business School in Kenya to create a data-based solution to this crisis.
Wharton Global Youth Program's Investment Competition: A Comprehensive
The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania runs the Global Youth Program, a dedicated pre-collegiate sub-division that mobilizes Wharton's resources to provide both online and on-site courses, a pre-baccalaureate course, and of course their signature investment competition. The Investment Competition is a free, online ...
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Written By. Knowledge at Wharton Staff. Each year, the Venture Finals of the Wharton Business Plan Competition pits eight tried-and-tested teams of students from throughout the University of ...
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The annual event highlights the commitment by the Wharton Alliance to bring conversations about inclusion into the business space and create a pertinent scenario based on current events. "This year was the eighth Annual Wharton Alliance Diversity Case Competition, and each year, we challenge participants to take on a simulated business ...
A First-Year Wharton MBA Team Won ELC's 2019 National Business Case
On April 9, Angie Gonzalez, WG'20, Kaila Squires, WG'20, Mallory Smith, WG'20, and team captain Oluwayimika (Yinka) Taiwo-Peters, WG'20 competed in the Executive Leadership Council's (ELC) 2019 National Business Case Competition.The team won first place, receiving a $35,000 cash award and an invitation to The Executive Leadership Council's Annual Recognition Gala, an event that ...
Competitions
Wharton Hosts the 2022 Diversity Case Competition. A team of students in the Analytics Accelerator were tasked with helping Zillow find new business opportunities in "dreamers," or site visitors who window shop without ever clicking through to buy or rent. ... Nicolle Lee, Vicky Plestis, and Kayla Weismuller (WG'22) share the Wharton ...
Wharton Investment Competition for Students
The Wharton Global High School Investment Competition, launched in 2012, is a 12-week challenge in which students compete in teams of four to seven, led by an advisor, to win the chance to manage the wealth of a potential client. Presented with a case study of this client, teams must create a compelling and creative long-term strategy that ...
15 Business Competitions for High School Students
The Wharton Global High School Investment Competition is a highly regarded business competition for high schoolers and is open to students in grades nine through 12. Participants are required to examine a case study of a potential client and create a portfolio that meets their long-term goals using $100,000 in hypothetical funds.
Case Studies and White Papers
Rethinking Analytics - Dealing with the K. Analytics is increasingly becoming the backbone of decision making across functional areas and industries the world over. We believe that this capability, which is often a key differentiator, is set to play a significant role in the new economic order established in the aftermath of the Covid-19 ...
Wharton Business Plan Competition Venture Finals
Since its launch in 1998, the Wharton community has taken great pride in the success and recognition of the Wharton Business Plan Competition (WBPC). As part of Wharton Entrepreneurship, the WBPC spans the entire academic year, helping student entrepreneurs develop and launch their businesses.. The WBPC Venture Finals are taking place today, allowing the "Great Eight" finalists to showcase ...
Making the Business Case for ESG
Making the Business Case for ESG. May 3, 2022 • 32 min listen. Wharton's Katherine Klein talks with Wharton management professor Witold Henisz about how investors can evaluate environmental ...
Case Studies
Authors: Raphael Amit and Belen Villalonga. The Khemka family of India-founders, managers, and majority owners of Russia-based SUN Brewing. The family is debating the merits of two main alternatives: To bring in a major global beer company as a strategic partner at this difficult time or to stay on as controlling owners, inject millions of ...
Case Study for 2020-2021
Wharton Global Youth is excited to offer high school educators access to a unique business simulation created by Wharton Interactive. The Entrepreneurship Game is a complete entrepreneurship educational experience that is impactful, engaging and easy to run. ... competition, and should be used for reference purposes only. The current case study ...
2022 Case Competition Finalists
The Wharton People Analytics 9th Annual Case Competition allows undergraduate and graduate students to analyze real data from a non-profit organization to so...
Case Study for 2021-2022
CASE STUDY: You are an analyst team of recent college graduates, working at an up-and-coming asset management company, Wharton Global Asset Management (WGAM). The firm currently manages a $100,000,000 portfolio that is invested across several different sectors, representing a broad range of industries and companies.
2021 Conference Competitions
CASECOMPETITION. We are excited to announce our winners of the 2021 Case Competition! Now in its 8th year, our annual Case Competition gives student teams an opportunity to put their people analytics skills to the test by tackling a problem faced by a non-profit partner. We were thrilled to partner with Teach for America for this year's Case ...
How (Not) to Plan a Case Competition in 30 Days
In partnership with The Sign.al — a club that aims to help students craft their own diverse career paths — and The Wharton School, we hosted the Amazon HQ2 to Philly Case Competition. 30+ teams vied for the chance to present proposals to a panel of Wharton faculty and a stellar audience including Mayor Jim Kenney, Vice Deans Lori Rosenkopf ...
PDF Wharton Consulting Club Casebook 2017
Total Rev / Volume = Avg Price. $2,280K/10K = $228/unit. Case Data (3): Value chain cost structure. Prompt: We're going to take a look now at a simplified version of the HDTV value chain, consisting of 1) Backlighting suppliers 2) Vivid (the complete screen) 3) TV manufacturers, and 4) Electronics retailers.
Business Strategy from Wharton: Competitive Advantage
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Generative AI and Business Transformation
Generative AI and Business Transformation uses a blend of thought-leadership lectures, group-based activities, real-world case study analyses, and panel discussions with industry experts to deliver a comprehensive and experiential journey through the technology, impacts, and potential of generative AI. As a participant, you will gain a deeper ...

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Wharton Global Youth Program's Investment Competition: A Comprehensive Guide

What is the Wharton Global Youth Program's Investment Competition?

Eligibility for the Competition

Competition Structure and Timeline

Is the competition prestigious?

Should you participate?

Tips to Win

Wrapping Up

Intermediary

Institutional

abrdn Enters Second Decade Supporting Wharton Investment Competition for Students

About abrdn

US Marketing Disclosure

About the Wharton School and the Wharton Global Youth Program

Media Contact

What are your chances of acceptance?

Your chancing factors

15 Business Competitions for High School Students

1. Conrad Challenge

2. Blue Ocean High School Entrepreneur Pitch Competition

3. Youth Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition

4. Wharton Global High School Investment Competition

5. Global Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge (GYEC)

6. GENIUS Olympiad Business

7. Diamond Challenge

8. Pirates Pitch Competition for High School Students

9. Yale DHSRI High School Investment Competition

10. DECA Challenges

11. tecBRIDGE High School Business Plan Competition

12. The Big Idea Competition

13. High School Utah Entrepreneur Challenge (HSUEC)

14. West Virginia High School Business Plan Competition

15. Wisconsin High School Business Model Competition

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Case Studies

SUN Brewing (A)

SUN Brewing (B)

Medco Energi Internasional

Kohler Co. (A)

Kohler Co. (B)

Previous Winners and Case Studies

Case Study for 2021-2022

You can’t build an effective investment strategy without first knowing your client…

“What drives me is opening doors or creating opportunities for others like me. I had to figure a lot out in life on my own, but I also had strong mentors along the way that helped me become who I am. I want to serve as that person for others.”

Questions? Contact Us

2021 CONFERENCE COMPETITIONS

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS