The best teams are better than the best individuals and the worst teams are worse than the worst individuals – Good Advice from Teams Class
Last week, Smeal placed 1st in the fourth annual MBAE Minority Case Competition sponsored by Howard University and LMI Government Consulting. Being a member of the team that brought home the Gold was a reward on to itself and I would never think twice about working again with Carl Asher and Tai Parks if the opportunity presented itself.
Smeal has and continues to do its part in preparing me for my career after school but it has been experiences such as this one that have reinforced my conviction in the strength of our MBA program and cemented by belief in the value of team work. We were charged with providing short and long term solutions to an ongoing logistics problem that involved the untimely return of reusable intermodal containers for military supplies. What an interesting case this was going to be, I thought, especially having spent the past month in 3 Finance classes. How would I add value to a supply chain case?
In the end and even while we drafted our solutions, it was not simply our understanding of “bottlenecks”, “customer wait times”, or “intermodal logistics” that helped us present a formidable argument but the uniqueness of our backgrounds and our willingness to challenge each other that ultimately propelled us to victory. Carl was from Marketing, Tai from Supply Chain and I was from Finance. We all have to focus our academic careers at some point in the program but the opportunities to develop a practical understanding of “foreign” concepts are many and available to those who actively seek them out. Today, even as I remain focused in Finance, I am certain of my ability to add value to solving problems outside my field of expertise.
It had been a busy week for the three of us – to say the least – and despite demanding class schedules combined with meetings that went late into the night, we were able to pull it off. And it’s a great feeling to say we did it together!!! We are!!!
Reggie Amoa
Smeal MBA Class of 2009
ramoa@psu.edu