Release Date: Thursday, March 20, 2003

STUDENTS FROM NATION'S TOP-RANKED BUSINESS SCHOOLS COMING TO GEORGIA FOR GM/TERRY MARKET RESEARCH PROJECT COMPETITION

ATHENS, Ga. — Teams of graduate students from the nation's best business schools will converge on Atlanta March 21 to take part in the second annual GM/Terry Market Research Project Competition, where at contest's end the team with the best solution to a real world marketing problem will take home a $10,000 grand prize.

The 12 competing teams have had 10 weeks to prepare a 20-minute presentation on a "live" GM case on Customer Relationship Management. Following their presentations, each four-student team will respond to questions posed by the contest's panel of judges, said event organizer Rajiv Grover, head of the Marketing Department at the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business.

The case addresses General Motors' real world marketing strategies, and company officials will be on hand to hear what insights and innovations the students may suggest. At the end of the contest, the presentations become intellectual property of GM.

Business schools that accepted invitations to send MBA teams to the event include Columbia University, Emory University (Goizueta), Harvard University, London Business School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan), Northwestern University (Kellogg), University of California, Berkeley (Haas), University of Georgia (Terry), University of Michigan, University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler), University of Texas (McCombs) and Vanderbilt University (Owen).

Six of the nation's top 10 business schools — as ranked by U.S. News and World Report — are competing, and all of the U.S. schools in the competition are ranked among U.S. News' top 40.

Among the competition's panel of judges are several General Motors executives, including Dale Brill, Global Business Leader Europe; Stu Dressler, Global Program Leader, GM Owner Center; Karen Ebben, Director of Marketing for Customer Network; Stuart Pierce, Director of Global Customer Network; and Jeannie Simmons, eCommerce Manager, Canada.

Also on the judging panel are Lee Copeland, editor of CDW Inc.; Rajiv Grover, head of UGA's Marketing Department; V. Kumar, executive director of the ING Center for Financial Services at the University of Connecticut; Mark Particelli, president and CEO of Modem Media; and David R. Paul, president of DAVIS PAUL.

Capitalizing on the strong reputation of the Terry College's Marketing Department, Grover approached GM in 2001 about putting together a business plan competition with a slightly different spin than most. GM officials were particularly intrigued by Grover's concept for the contest, which is less tightly scripted than the many other "case" competitions conducted by U.S. business schools.

In other more traditional marketing competitions, which normally last only a day, teams are asked to provide an answer to a problem that is thoroughly described, with details usually drawn from a situation experienced by a company in the past. In contrast, the GM/Terry competition gives teams only a general description of the situation, putting the onus on them for both framing and solving the problem, he said.

"It's very, very unstructured — more like a real world situation," Grover said. "Determining the nature of the problem is the biggest part of solving it."

GM is picking up the tab for each team's travel and hotel expenses, as well as the costs of their research and presentations up to $3,000. There was no open registration; each team accepted an invitation from GM to come to the competition, which the company will also use to scout new executive talent.

"The contest is an opportunity for GM to see these students in action solving real problems GM is going to face in the future," Grover said. "GM is very interested in knowing what these students think."

In addition to the $10,000 grand prize, the first place team takes possession of the GM/Terry trophy for the upcoming year, while the second and third place teams will win $5,000 and $2,500 cash prizes, respectively.

For more information on the GM/Terry Market Research Project Competition, including judges' biographies, an event schedule, contact numbers and directions, visit the competition's Web site at http://www.terry.uga.edu/gmmr/ or call 706-542-3776.

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