By Lacie Blankenship
(L to R) Ava Mehta and Nan Weitzman
In September, Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management hosted the National MBA Human Capital Case Competition in person for the first time since 2019.
Organized by Vanderbilt MBA students, the National MBA Human Capital Case Competition (HCCC) strives to elevate and showcase the importance of human capital strategy in business schools. Professor Tim Vogus supports the team of students that spend nearly a year planning for HCCC.
“Students participate in HCCC to get exposure to our corporate sponsors, gain unique networking opportunities, and experience HR and human capital cases,” says Ashley MacPhaille (MBA’23), HCCC Director. “We (Vanderbilt) host the premier HR human capital case competition. The students who started this 15 years ago started it because there weren’t any case competitions for HR students.”
This year, 10 teams were selected to participate in an application process. The teams consisted of 4-6 full-time MBA students from different universities.
Cases were distributed to team captains a week before the competition. Teams had the week to prepare their recommendations before traveling to Nashville and presenting to a team of corporate judges consisting of Nan Weitzman, Global Head of Talent, HP Inc., and Ava Mehta, SVP, Global Human Resources Executive, Bank of America.
Indiana University took home first place and a $10,000 prize, Brigham Young University placed second, winning $3,000, and the University of Florida won third place and $1,000.
“No matter how much money a business may have, how savvy the marketing is, or how operationally efficient it may be, without human capital, a business isn’t a business,” the HCCC website reads.
“Bringing the HCCC back in person, in a new building, and with a new corporate sponsor, was a heavy lift,” says MacPhaille. “We had a great turnout and a really exciting result.”
Team applications released in July 2022. Stay tuned to the HCCC website for developments on 2023’s competition.
