College of Business students won first place and $5,000 in this year’s Johnson and Johnson National Case Competition, beating 10 other universities. The six students were awarded an all-expenses paid trip to compete at the company’s headquarters on April 1 in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

The case focused on the pricing, packaging, marketing and research and development of a prescription drug that needed to be converted into an over-the-counter drug. Once the required work was completed, each team had to give a presentation.

“I think everyone thought we were crazy because before we presented, we split up in the cafeteria and practiced against different walls,“ said Brianna Baker, junior in Business. “I was really nervous, and I think everyone was at least a little bit.”

Matt Gardeck, sophomore in Business, said because the members of the team had such diverse majors, it gave his team a “competitive advantage.” Gardeck, an Accountancy and Finance major, was joined by Accountancy, Supply Chain Management, Information Technology and Technology Management majors.

However, not everything in the competition was drawn from the classroom.

“When you’re looking at a case, you have to defend a lot of the decisions that you make,” said Mike Szymanski, junior in Business. “We had to do a financial and sensitivity analysis; both are things that we learned in class. In order to go above and beyond just a number analysis, you have to have these soft skills that you learn from your extracurricular activities or just being around people on campus.”

After competing in Johnson and Johnson’s competition on campus, the team won $2,000 and was sent to a competition in New Jersey where they were welcomed by a dinner and introduction ceremony. The teams also participated in a day of presentations and mock interviews.

The University team, receiving an additional $3,000 for winning first place, was followed by the University of Florida and Rider University. The teams were unable to see the presentations from the other universities but were able to gauge their performances by the positive responses from the judges, Szymanski said.

“It gave me direct, hands-on experience because these are issues that companies are dealing with on a daily basis,” Gardeck said. “It allowed me to demonstrate the skills that I learned in class in a real-life setting.”