Gamecock Consulting Club members win national consulting case competition

A team of undergraduate Moore School students and Gamecock Consulting Club members recently won first place at the 2022 Wharton Undergraduate Consulting Conference and Case Competition.

The day-long event was held virtually over Zoom and featured more than 20 teams from various schools all competing for the grand prize of $1,000. Creativity for Change was the theme of this year’s conference that emphasized how working in consulting requires the ability to develop innovative business solutions that can adapt to changing trends.

The Moore School’s team included:

• Jonathan Bryant, ’22 finance and risk management and insurance student completing the Business Analytics Undergraduate Concentration
• Jennings Modla, ’22 economics and finance student completing the Business Analytics Undergraduate Concentration
• Jack Marshall, ’24 finance student
• Tyler Beetle, ’24 computer science student minoring in business administration

They competed in a series of consulting presentations and listened to guest speakers from various industries throughout the day.

“The competition began with our team receiving a prompt asking us to present possible remedies for an organization with operational and strategic shortcomings,” Bryant said. “On the day of the competition, we presented in the preliminary round and were able to advance to the finals.”

Only five teams were able to advance after the initial round of the competition to the finals.

“After a quick lunch break and a few presentations from various industry professionals, we presented once more to a panel of judges comprised of Accenture consultants,” Bryant said. “Shortly after, it was announced that the Gamecock Consulting Club placed first, and celebrations quickly ensued.”

To win the case competition by besting 20 other teams created an unforgettable experience for the Gamecock Consulting Club members.

“I was overcome with joy and excitement, but most of all I was so proud of my teammates and all their hard work,” Modla said. “Being named winners over the 20 other teams shows the caliber of students both in the Moore School and USC as a whole.”

Going into the competition, Bryant said he and his teammates did not have a defined strategy for winning because of the varying nature of case competitions and the consulting industry as a whole.

“We focused on utilizing each member’s skill-set and expertise to produce a viable solution to the prompt,” Bryant said. “This allowed us to divide up the workload according to each person’s strengths and preferences. As a result, we were able to produce a final product that we were proud of and felt represented the Gamecock Consulting Club and the Moore School.”

Their experience not only reflected favorably on the Moore School, but it also helped the consulting team boost their resumes for their future careers.

“I can utilize this victory as a display of my ability to work well in a professional team environment and as a critical thinker when I apply for internships and full-time jobs in the future,” Beetle said.

The case competition members said the skills they have gained through the Moore School played an integral part in their victory.

“The Moore School has developed many skills that I relied upon in the competition through courses within the school and outside organizations it partners with,” Marshall said. “For example, one of my responsibilities in the case was creating financial statements for our project. This required me to rely on all that I’ve learned in my finance courses, specifically Finance Scholars Program courses, to create accurate and easily understandable figures and graphs.”

After their win, the Moore School team acknowledged the help they received that led to their win.

“We want to thank the Moore School, the Gamecock Consulting Club and Management Senior Instructor Patrick DeMouy for making this experience possible and for providing us with the valuable education and experiences that prepared us for the Wharton Undergraduate Consulting Conference and Case Competition,” Modla said. “Without these resources, I don’t believe we would have been as confident and successful in providing a solution to the problem presented to us.”

-James Culbertson