Eric Babbitt í10, a business economics major from Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., recently had the opportunity to demonstrate his skills in the business field. In November 2009, this soon-to-be graduate was presented with a cash prize at the University of Rochester for his problem solving expertise in the Early Leaderís Case competition.
The opportunity to be a member of the annual Early Leaderís Case competition was granted to Babbitt by an admissions director from the University of Rochester. Babbitt was recruited for over a year to participate in the competition after applying to Rochesterís business program. He gladly committed to the project after accommodating his busy schedule.
Babbitt arrived in Rochester, NY to be greeted by his team members from all over the country. His team consisted of undergraduate students from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa.; The University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y.; Barnard College in New York, N.Y. and Lafayette College in Easton, Pa.. While the team of five had never met, they were expected to work as a cohesive team for the entirety of the weekend-long competition.
The team was introduced to the Zipcar Company. Zipcar is an alternative to a rental car service, granting their customers access to vehicles all over the country. Customers simply make a reservation online for how long the car is needed, and Zipcar grants the member access to the vehicle by an activated card. The company has been in business for 10 years, but unfortunately has failed to turn a profit.
Each of the nine groups in the competition was presented with the same prompt: they were to find one or two expansionary or innovative ideas to improve Zipcar. Each team had 24 hours to read the case study, come up with an idea, and plan and rehearse a coherent and convincing oral presentation. The prompt was given to the teams on Friday afternoon, and were due at the same time the next day.
ìWe worked 21 of the 24 hours, it was pretty brutal,” said Babbitt.
While the team worked around the clock, they kept a positive attitude.† They were confident in their abilities and agreed they would come up with a winning idea to impress their audience: a panel of judges consisting of students in the MBA program at the University, professors from colleges around the country and members of the admissions committee.
Developing an original idea was a challenge in itself, in addition to the short time constraint. As soon as they would come up with a plan, they would read further into the proposal to find that Zipcar had already proposed their idea. The night bore on, and finally after dozens of ideas were proposed and refuted, they came up with their own original plan to help improve the profit of Zipcar.
They found that Zipcar is paying members for the fuel costs of the cars, and is therefore susceptible to the volatile fuel prices. Babbitt and his team calculated that the average distance that each car was driven per day could be sustained by an electric vehicle, and would thus protect the company from unpredictable gas costs. The company could charge a higher rate per hour for these electric cars because they were in high demand among their existing customers. The higher hourly rate in addition to the absence of fuel prices would theoretically improve Zipcarís profits.
Babbitt was in charge of the financial sensitivity analysis of the teamís plan ó he illustrated how the electric vehicles had more financial value than gas vehicles by comparing the two side by side and presenting possible profit. Babbittís involvement in the project was essential, and he attributes some of his success to the classes he has taken at The College of Wooster. His classes have certainly paid off ó Babbittís team was presented with a $7,000 cash prize to be split among the members.
ìI was able to see how what I learned in class applies in the real world. I wouldnít have been able to do it if I hadnít taken the business classes here,” said Babbitt. ìI was able to apply different types of thinking.”
Babbitt values this experience from the Early Leaders Case Competition, as he is aspiring to attend Harvardís business school upon his graduation from Wooster. ìIt gave me a taste for what business school is like,” he said.