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Richard Sessions, Managing Partner at Altis Solutions, congratulates the SJSU students who won second place at the Battle of the Bay Undergraduate Case Competition Finals. UC Berkeley came in first place, and Stanford University came in third place.

Runner-up not so bad in business 'battle'

By: Chris Bausinger

Posted: 4/15/08

Four students celebrated their second-place victory, beating Stanford, in the annual Battle of the Bay Undergraduate Case Competition Finals. A celebration was held in the courtyard in front of the Boccardo Business Complex on April 10.

Maryann Cristofi, Kin Liu, Keith Lee and Brian Talarico were the members of the team selected by Cisco Systems, Inc., and Deloitte Consulting representatives to represent SJSU in the Battle of the Bay.

The group was assembled in Professor Shailaja Venkatsubramanyan's Business Strategy and Information Systems class in the management information systems program.

The students designed a market-entry strategy for this year that was for Cisco's Entertainment Operating System (EOS), which is a platform that includes social networking and advertisement, said information systems lecturer Jeff Gaines.

SJSU came in second place behind UC Berkeley by a narrow margin and beat Stanford.

Keith Lee, senior management information systems major, said, "Basically what one of the Cisco representatives said was they were leaning back and forth on their decision on whether if it was us who won or if we lost."

The team that competed against the other schools was assembled based on their individual group presentations for the business class. There were about 20 or so teams that submitted and presented their solutions, Gaines said.

The final team came close to beating out Cal. Their efforts were noticed by Cisco representatives.

Laura Fay, senior director of corporate communications strategy and integration at Cisco Systems, wrote in an e-mail, "This year San Jose State participation was the strongest it has ever been.

"To see these students, most as business-information systems majors, stretch themselves to work on a comprehensive go-to market business plan, and compete to a near victory against other top universities with strictly business-marketing majors, was incredible."

The faculty on campus also seemed pleased with the students' performances. Management information systems department chair, Tim Hill, was at Thursday's celebration and said, "We don't have the money or the facilities of the bigger schools, but we had the determination and the heart to compete."

Lee was also proud of the way the team performed.

"I feel a lot better because as San Jose State students, people think we can't hang with the big boys," he said. "We went in there and held our own, so it is something that I'm proud about, San Jose State as well."

Maryann Cristofi, who is also a senior management information systems major, said she had a great time working on the project.

"I feel really great about it, is a huge accomplishment," she said. "It is a great learning experience. I learned a lot about myself and a lot about my teammates and how dedicated people can be when it comes down to it."

Senior management information systems major and team member Brian Talarico also had good thoughts about the results of the event.

"It is something we can look back on and say that we were involved in," he said. "For the very first time we came in something other than third place."

The members of the team said they were excited about the outcome but were also excited that the event was over. They had a general consensus that the competition pulled them away from their other school responsibilities, and they said they are all looking to get back into a state of normalcy.

Even though they lost to Berkeley, they all said they were happy about beating Stanford. Talarico said, "My dad graduated from Stanford, so it feels good to be able to rub it in his face."