The Collegiate Ethics Case Competition exposed the Love School of Business students to a thought-provoking business ethics case that they could potentially face in their professional careers.
Martha and Spencer Love School of Business students Michael Ebaugh ’20 and Philip Posson ’21 participated in the 17th annual Collegiate Ethics Case Competition held Oct. 17-19 in Tucson, Arizona. The competition was hosted by the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management and presented by the Center for Leadership Ethics.
For this year’s case, teams assumed the identity of management consultants and evaluated Boeing’s response to the 737 MAX crashes of a Lion Air and an Ethiopian flight in the past year. Ebaugh and Posson provided recommendations on how the company could restore its trust in the marketplace and responded to questions posed by a panel of judges.
“Being in Tucson, surrounded by 25 schools from the U.S., Canada and Mexico, provided a valuable experience for my professional development by putting myself and my teammate in a unique position to get out of our comfort zones and present our research in a competitive setting,” said Ebaugh, a project management major. “This ethics case allowed me to utilize the valuable skills and lessons the Love School of Business has prepared me for these past four years.”
Teams were evaluated on their delivery, depth of analysis, persuasiveness, creativity, recommendations that are both ethical and practical in a business context, and responses to questions.
The judges and Paul Melendez, founder and director of Eller’s case competition, gave positive feedback to Ebaugh and Posson, including high praise for their depth of analysis, creative “T.R.U.S.T.” themed acronym solution, the quality of their PowerPoint deck and their strong presentation skills.
“As a transfer student, this is about as a good a reason I can give as to why I transferred to Elon,” added Posson. “I was talking the other day about the experience and it really hit me how lucky I was to work with the faculty and students that I did, both here and from schools around the country. Hard work is good work, and challenges like these are what make us grow. I am so thankful for Elon and the chances it gave me through this competition.”
Elon’s team was selected and coached by Christina Benson, associate professor of business law in the Love School of Business.