Students Win $6,000, Free Trips, and Job Interviews from Spring DFE Competitions
27 April 2015 1:54PM
The Duke Financial Economics Center (DFE) hosted two competitions in April that allowed students to try out the roles of consultants and buy-side equity analysts. In total, 164 sophomores and juniors from 15 majors participated, with 58 selected to present in teams to representatives from the sponsoring firms.
Sponsored for the second consecutive year by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the Case Study Competition invited students in teams of three to develop a strategic plan to regain market share and increase the profitability of a milk producer facing competitive challenges. The top 10 teams, as chosen by DFE faculty and BCG, gave 10-minute presentations to a BCG panel on April 8. They addressed a wide variety of strategies — from streamlining production to participating in mergers and acquisitions — for improving the Dairy King business.
Juniors Suqi Huang, Yuxuan Liu, and Bryan Wang won the competition with their persuasive proposal, which included adjusting prices and reinventing the image of the main Dairy King product lines. They were awarded first-round job interviews with BCG in their senior year.
“Knowing that other teams are solving the same problem, you really need to look for creative solutions in order to separate your team from the rest,” said Bryan Wang. “We tried to look at how the Diary King executives would react to each of our solutions. I had practiced for case interviews earlier this semester, but this competition really (makes you go) deeper for the root of the problem and search for more specific solutions.”
For the Equity Research Competition, sponsoring investment firm Peak6 asked student teams to choose a company from a provided list and carry out a “deep-dive” equity analysis, taking into consideration all aspects of the business, its competition, and future potential. Analyses were to include recommendations on whether stock in the teams’ chosen companies should be bought or sold, based on extensive research and well-considered projections. “Use your creativity to try to uncover the ‘intrinsic value’ of the company,” guidelines from the firm advised. “Dig deep and try to develop a behind-the-scenes view.”
Presentations were held on April 10 with nine Peak6 representatives in attendance, including co-founder and CEO Matt Hulsizer. A team of four sophomores, Derek Chait, Trey Coppinger, Lukas Neske, and Travis Wolf, took first place with their analysis of video game maker Take Two Interactive. They won a $6,000 cash prize and an all-expenses-paid trip to visit Peak6 in Chicago.
“As far as these competitions go, I’ve always thought that the real value comes from us students getting a platform to work with our peers towards a real-life goal,” Travis Wolf commented. “Don’t get me wrong, the prizes are a great incentive, but creating the pitch was fun on its own. We poured many hours into creating the presentation, and in the process we learned a tremendous amount about Take Two (and even convinced ourselves to invest our own money in the company) and truly enjoyed working together as a team.”
Junior Shashi Masireddy, an economics and biomedical engineering double major, was on the second-place team in both competitions. When asked if competing made him more interested in being an equity analyst or consultant, he said, “I’m going to be interning this summer as an equity research analyst at Morgan Stanley, so Peak6 certainly reaffirmed my interest in the field. I have also considered becoming a consultant in the past, and the BCG Competition was great in giving me a glimpse of the type of work consultants are involved with and certainly made me interested in applying for a full-time role in the fall.”
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