“Professor Ray Gehani has been receiving phone calls from prestigious private universities all asking the same question: Where is Akron? The question is on all of their minds because a University of Akron team ZippieZs recently eliminated 22 other teams – including teams representing Purdue Universtiy, Boston University and Vanderbilt University – from the fifth annual Global Supply Chain Management Initiative of Purdue Krannert School of Business.”
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Professor Ray Gehani has been receiving phone calls from prestigious private universities all asking the same question: Where is Akron?

The question is on all of their minds because a University of Akron team ZippieZs recently eliminated 22 other teams – including teams representing Purdue Universtiy, Boston University and Vanderbilt University – from the fifth annual Global Supply Chain Management Initiative of Purdue Krannert School of Business.

We’re like the Saints, Gehani said, comparing the ZippieZ’s advancement to the final phase to the recent Super Bowl upset. We were the team that came from nowhere and gave the other schools a knockout punch.

Gehani,associate professor of management and international business, did not form a team in order to win the competition. Instead, he wanted to expose his students to the finest minds currently working toward their MBA.

The University of Akron competes against schools that are more prestigious with have greater resources and richer endowments. This challenge, though intimidating, was overcome by the hardwork and dedication of the ZippieZ’s.

Ossie Michaelsen, an MBA student and member of the ZippieZ’s, attributed their team’s success to their diversity of specialties as well as their passion. The students come from such a variety of undergraduate backgrounds including law, chain supply management and business. The team only had 72 hours to put together an entire presentation and submit an analysis of their case study.

They worked night and day, literally, Gehani said. The team even met over Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in order to perfect their presentation.

For the fifth year, Purdue hosted scores of MBA schools from the Unites States, Canada, China and other countries teams to compete in the Global Supply Chain Management Case Analysis Competition.

The University of Akron chose two teams to compete in the competition, the ZippieZs and the Akronpolitans.

The preliminary round required the 28 participating teams to submit their virtual case analysis to a panel of industry experts who blind reviewed all submissions. The ZippieZ’s and Akropolitans completed their analysis under the guidance Dr. Ray Gehani and Dr. John Hebert.

Akron ZippieZs were one of six teams to advance to the final phase alongside teams from Indiana University, the University of Minnesota and the University of Michigan.

The ZippieZs leave for Purdue Feb. 11 and present their final presentation to the judges on Friday. Results will also be announced Friday.

The members of the 2010 successful teams from the University of Akron, were graduate MBA students Scott Garnick, Ashley Barta, Cinthya Bustillo, Ossie Michalsen and Laura Wallerstein. All took Dr.

Gehani’s Fall 2009 class on Global Supply Chain Management and volunteered to be a part of the University of Akron’s team even though the competition occurred after the final day of class.

The team hopes that Akron’s presence in the competition and its surprising advancement will turn some heads among the national community. The appearance of the ZippieZs in such a prestigious competition is just one of many reasons that the College of Business has recently cracked Business Week top 100 U.S. business schools.

It will take a miracle to win, and maybe some prayer, but we’re all celebrating one step at a time, Gehani said.

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