By Olivia Massucci · Staff Writer
Four Grove City College students from the Winklevoss School of Business will compete as finalists in the DICK’S Sporting Goods & Pitt Business Strategy Case Competition on March 25-26 at the DICK’S Sporting Goods corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh.
The team includes senior Alexander Barbetta and juniors Sophia LoDico, Benjamin Forastiere and Modesta Grossman, who advanced out of the highly competitive preliminary round of 56 teams from 40 universities.
The national competition tasks undergraduate students to analyze a real-world retail strategy case and present their recommendations to DICK’S Sporting Goods judges. The top three teams advance to the third and final round, competing for cash prizes of $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000.
Last year’s Grove City team finished outside the top three in the main event but won the Wildcard Competition. This year’s team will compete against finalist teams from Boston University, Purdue University, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Houston, the University of Kansas, Texas A&M University and the University of Pittsburgh.
Assistant Professor of Business Analytics Ryan Miller requires all students in his Retail Management class to compete in the preliminary round, though only one team from each school can make the final competition.
“Otherwise, I am confident we would have had more teams in the final round,” Miller said.
Miller, who spent 25 years in the retail industry, said the competition provides valuable real-world exposure for students.
“Retail is tremendously complicated and simple all at the same time. You’re putting the right product in the right place and offering it at the right price, which sounds pretty simple, except it’s not, especially in a competitive landscape,” Miller said. “Competitions like this give our students direct exposure to real-world strategic problems and to the recruiters and executives at companies like DICK’S Sporting Goods. It’s a tremendous opportunity for Grove City students to demonstrate that they can compete — and win — against much larger universities.”
Drawing from his experience entering the industry, Miller said he enjoys watching students grow their understanding of retail and values the opportunity to guide them.
“I really didn’t know anything about retail until I started my job,” Miller said. “Watching these guys coming from a very similar situation over the course of the past semester really grow in their knowledge of retail throughout the class and be able to pull that all together in a comprehensive strategy that makes a lot of sense and that is offering DICK’S and Foot Locker some strategic advantages is really exciting.”
Team strategy lead Barbetta described the team’s initial challenge of figuring out where to start.
“When you open up a file and see thousands of lines of data, it’s a bit overwhelming, but once we got started, it became a lot easier and a lot more fun,” Barbetta said. “The most rewarding part was definitely getting the email that we had made it to the final round. Seeing that our team’s hard work and effort paid off was a really good feeling.”
Barbetta emphasized the importance of the team’s collaborative effort.
“Without their expertise and guidance, there is no chance that our group would have made the final round,” Barbetta said. “Sophia, Molly and Ben all did exceptional with their parts, and it really helped that all of us had strengths in different areas, so we were able to put all those strengths together and reap the rewards.”
Looking ahead to the final rounds, Miller expressed confidence in both the team’s performance and the broader impact of the opportunity.
“Frankly, I feel good about our chances,” Miller said. “I have three goals here. First, to glorify God in everything that we do. Second, to raise the profile of Grove City College. DICK’S does not directly recruit students here, and we have a tremendous group of highly qualified students right in their own backyard that they’re missing out on. I want us to be impossible to ignore. And third, I just want my students to have an awesome time.”
Miller hopes the competition will inspire rising juniors and seniors to register for next year’s MNGT 312 Retail Management class and consider careers in retail.
“I plan to continue making this part of my class each year, build stronger and stronger teams each year and, ideally, open internship and full-time positions at DICK’S Sporting Goods for our students,” Miller said. “I hope to inspire a passion in a few students to pursue a career in retail. I think that they can have a very satisfying, fruitful career, and perhaps in a domain that they had never considered before.”
