The Clay Center and Navigant Consulting, Inc., held Villanova’s first management competition for sophomores, juniors and seniors in Bartley Hall on Nov. 14-15.”Navigant is an independent international consulting firm involved in dispute analysis, business law and insurance, among other fields,” said Jennifer Holgado, one of the five Navigant representatives who served as judges for the competition.The competition required each group to determine whether a company, MNM, is qualified for an extension in its line of credit through Trust Bank. The teams’ conclusions were based on MNM’s financial history and the potential it has to prosper if the line of credit were extended.The scenario was based on a real case that Navigant was involved in. The firm served as a consultant to Trust Bank when a company requested an extension. The company’s name was changed to MNM to protect its privacy.Students were given the case on Nov. 14 and were asked to compile data and arrive at a solution based on their findings. Each group had an opportunity to ask the Navigant representatives questions for their presentation. The following day, each team presented its conclusions and provided data from the company’s history to support its decision.”Teams consisted of four to five students in the business school, of all majors; at least two class years [had to] be represented,” said senior Mayuri Khemlani, president of the Management Society.The competition was held in two rooms in Bartley. The judges picked winners in each room, and the two selected teams then gave their presentations again to the judges to determine who the first and second place teams would be.”The criteria for judging [was] based on presentation skills, their ability to analyze the problems, their overall thought process for their chosen course of action to consult the client and how they considered the market risk and credit risk and other environmental factors upon arriving at their solution,” Holgado said.Louis DeRose, Ian Edwards, Brian McGehee and Patrick Raines won the competition and determined MNM should not receive an extended line of credit. The group members said they did not believe MNM’s track record suggested it would reestablish itself upon receiving an extension.”We worked for six hours straight with no interruptions; it was strictly business,” Edwards said. “We used everything provided by [Navigant,] the Internet, historical data, scholarly reports, law conference reports.”Michael Boccia, Anton Brevde, Matt Bruno, John Hartigan and Teddy Kindelan comprised the second-place team, and the data they collected led them to believe MNM was eligible for an extension.Before revealing the winner, the Navigant representatives presented their course of action for this case. They agreed with the winning team that MNM was not qualified for its line of credit to be extended. The competition was a close race. Only half a point separated the top two teams. The first-place group was awarded $2,000, and the second-place team received $1,000.Navigant has held this competition for 10 years at the University of Virginia. “Villanova alumni [working for Navigant] wanted to do something [at Villanova] around the same time the Clay Center was looking to do an event like this,” said Michelle Gallaway of the Clay Center. “The timing was perfect.” The management competition took a year and a half to plan. “I believe it was definitely successful overall,” Khemlani said. “We had 12 teams this year, and I hope it continues.”