Monica Williams (MBA 2013)
Cross-campus competition illuminated real-world challenges and opportunities
Earlier this year, a survey conducted by Deloitte LLP and Fortune reported that 94% of CEOs identified diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as a strategic priority. Yet, the consulting firm reported that only 3% of executive or senior-level roles are held by Black individuals and Black employees are over-represented in low-paying jobs and in non-technical industries.
The disconnect represents an opportunity for Daniels students, especially those who participated in the Inclusive Excellence Business Case Competition, sponsored by Deloitte May 6 and 7.
“The competition models working in teams that are designed to be diverse and heterogeneous, but must be inclusive to achieve the best outcomes,” said Monica Williams (MBA 2013), an Executive Producer at The Equity Project, LLC and one of this year’s judges. “It’s great to hear students who may not be steeped in corporate America offer approaches to real-world challenges that are outside the box and well-researched.”
Alisa Sautter
In its 12th year, the Inclusive Excellence Business Case Competition challenges students to apply critical thinking and knowledge about diversity to real-world problems. This year, 40 students were split into eight teams, which were asked to further DEI efforts at media and entertainment giant NBCUniversal. Specifically, they were charged with enhancing the company’s existing employee resource group framework to increase the capability, visibility and promotability of the diverse members of its workforce.
The winning team—BEAAM Consulting—proposed a three-prong approach that targeted company leadership and the company’s 35,000 full-time employees while using a measurement-oriented portal to centralize the efforts. The group concluded that its solution would increase employee resource group engagement companywide by 20% by the end of 2022 on less than 10% of the $75 million the company has committed to its broader DEI efforts in that time frame.
Emily Winn
“I appreciated the creativity this allowed us to explore—being able to think innovatively and look at our solution from multiple angles,” Alisa Sautter said. “We learned how to start with an idea in the workplace and then look at everything around it to understand the process and its feasibility.”
Sautter, a second-year undergraduate majoring in international business, was joined by Bertrand Evans-Taylor, a first-year graduate student in DU’s University College; Emily Winn, a second-year undergraduate majoring in marketing; Alex Frey, a first-year Professional MBA student; and Micah Feigelson, who will receive his Denver MBA this month.
Alex Frey
he competition judges praised the BEAAM team for its seamless delivery and solid understanding of NBCUniversal’s business and challenges. Judges also appreciated the integration of measurement and tracking elements as well as considerations of incentives and core business factors such as the program’s expense and its potential impact on costly turnover.
“Throughout our process, we kept coming back to ‘how will this look to the judges and what kinds of questions will they ask about this,’” Evans-Taylor said. “That helped us prepare at a deeper level.”
While drafting the teams, Daniels administrators ensured diversity across gender, race and level in school. After receiving the case study, the groups had one week to develop a 10-minute presentation and prepare for judges’ questions.
Micah Feigelson
“I believe the judges’ questions and feedback only sharpen and strengthen these students’ ability to translate their DEI ideas into real-world scenarios,” said Williams, who’s served as a competition judge, case sponsor and team coach for 10 years.
To establish a firm foundation for the competition, BEAAM Consulting kicked off their week with a socially distanced, face-to-face gathering in a classroom, which smoothed the remote work over the ensuing week.
“This competition showed me that the execution is just as important, if not more so, than the idea,” Feigelson said.