Student Profile The Team to Beat AT BOEING CASE COMPE By Rune Torgersen
The CWU College of Business has spent decades refining and projecting a reputation for excellence. Students grad - uate fully prepared for the world of business, in part thanks to the trust employers put in our program. Over the past de- cade, the college has developed a significant bond with Boe - ing, the world’s largest aerospace company. Every year, Boeing hold its Case Competition, an opportunity for business students from CWU, Portland State University, the University of Washington, and Western Washington Uni - versity to apply their education to emergent, real-world busi - ness dilemmas. Each school sends up to eight student teams to participate, and only one can walk away with the grand cash prize ($2,500 in 2021) and guaranteed job interviews. Teams from CWU took home the grand prize in 2014, 2015, 2018, and 2021—more than any other participating school in the competition’s history. Last year’s team, named Team No Chain, No Gain, was made up of Mackinzie Packwood, Lindsay Smith, Felicia Johnson, Eli Washburn, and Wendell Jopson. They were tasked with working out the logistics behind implementing and distrib - uting a hypothetical new aircraft. While that’s no mean feat on its own, Boeing threw in a couple of wrinkles, providing little to no supporting data and asking the team to take the current market climate and global issues into consideration. That meant a global supply chain crisis and tightened travel regulations all over the world. Team No Chain, No Gain had its work cut out. Upon receiving the case, the team had a week to develop its proposal for the preliminaries. Then came 10 days of intense preparation before the finals. Using strate - gic supply chain planning and implementation
application of supply chain principles considering various perspectives,” one Boeing judge told the team during the awards ceremony. Another judge added, “You also had a strong grasp of the market conditions, which we found im - pressive, but it was your diverse backgrounds and diversity of thought and perspectives that came across strongly.” The team’s collaborative success was due to their ability to draw on each other’s strengths and work together during a time when the very meaning of teamwork was in flux, and the world had shifted away from in-person gatherings. Rob Ogburn, CWU lecturer in finance and supply chain man - agement, was the team’s advisor. He noted these were “students that could balance humility toward each other with tenacity toward an objective in order to thrive as a team under this level of pressure.” Each student approached the proj- ect from a different set of circum- stances. Johnson was work - ing full-time in downtown Seattle, balancing her studies and nightly Zoom meetings.
concepts while accounting for current busi- ness realities and future uncertainties, they put together a plan and pre- sented it to the judges—all Boe -
ing executives. It worked. “What put you over the top was your strong
Wendell Jopson, Lindsey Smith (’22), Eli Washburn (’22), and Makinzie Packwood (’22). Not pictured Felicia Johnson (’22).
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