| Winners of Cecil Boatright Business Plan Competition Announced Submitted: 2/19/2009 10:36:35 AM • Two graduate and three undergraduate teams received honors at the 2008 Cecil Boatright Business Plan Competition. By: E-Center staffInput: Linda Ulrey Each year, the E-Center, in conjunction with SCORE, holds an internal best field case event, The Cecil Boatright Business Plan Competition. It is funded in part, by the SCORE Foundation and is named for the late Cecil G. Boatright, a former manager of the U.S. Small Business Administration Cincinnati Branch. UC faculty advisors for the program are Charles H. Matthews, Ph.D. and Tom Dalziel, Ph.D..
The competition itself involves UC graduate-level and senior undergraduate-level student teams working closely over a 10-week period to develop comprehensive business plans for local area businesses. During the consulting phase, students record a history of the firm, identify goals and objectives, and discuss strategies to achieve these goals. Past projects have included assistance with industry and competitive analysis, preparing business plans, developing marketing strategies, and training employees. Each team submits a case report which is then reviewed and judged by SCORE members. Twenty-five teams submitted case studies this year to be considered by the SCORE judging committee (John Zuske, Joe Neri, Allison Rapp, Kevan Van Fleet, John Vinturella, Pat Brady and chairman, Chuck Giesler). On May 16th, 2008 SCORE announced the winners of the competition during a luncheon at the Kenwood Country Club. This year's finalists include the following: Graduate Winners • First Place: Community Services West (Steve Richardson and Kaye Oberhausen) • Second Place: Global Master Life Sciences (Bill Brewster, Ron Crebo and Hansel Ramathal) Undergraduate Winners • First Place: JKS Medical (Jenna Lucius, Kevin Schwarz, and Mike Fenech) • Second Place: GRADERAID (MD Anderson and Ashley Burkert) • Third Place: Designs of the Interior, Mason (Katie Glover and Ashlee Herche) Commenting on this year's competition, SCORE judging committee Chairman Chuck Giesler said, βI was impressed by the quality of work done by the all of the students. They showed a strong understanding of their clients' business and made recommendations that were both creative and workable.β The Cecil G. Boatright Competition is a part of the intense small business/entrepreneurship curriculum and the Small Business Institute® field case consulting program. The competition was established to enhance the students' learning of the fundamental knowledge and skills required for strategic thinking and decision-making. It is also an important piece of the E-Center's mission to provide "practical hands-on advice and council to small, entrepreneurial, and family business ventures. This is the 23rd year for the competition and UC's College of Business and SCORE have partnered in it since its inception. Through the years, 500 ventures have participated in the field case study program involving over 2,000 students in real world business experiences. Commenting on the record of excellence that has been established through the SCORE competition, Charles Matthews, Ph.D., executive director of the E-Center said: βIt is noteworthy that in the past eight years, UC has won four national championships in the national Small Business Institute® Case of the Year competition, two third place finishes, and an honorable mention as a result of identifying these top teams in our local SCORE competition.β Photo Caption: Seated left to right: Dr. Thomas Dalziel, E-Center program adviser; Chuck Giesler, SCORE judging committee chairman; Dr. Charles Matthews, E-Center executive director. Competition winners front row, left to right: Hansel Ramathal; Steve Richardson; Katie Glover; Ashley Burket; Jenna Lewis. Back row, left to right: Bill Brewster; M D Anderson; Kevin Schwarz; Mike Fenech. Contact: Charles Matthews, PhD • Printer-Friendly Version • E-mail this information to a friend |
