This past week, the SIBC kicked off the year with its all-council meeting. We had a record turnout for the fall semester with more than 350 people in attendance. We are all extremely excited about this upcoming semester and would like to highlight a few of our newest and most exciting projects.
Accounting: In recent years, the Accounting Division has featured multiple case projects with professional services firms, including the "Big Four" public accounting firms, as well as some middle-market companies. This semester, the division is planning to enroll in an international case competition in addition to the existing case studies. The 35-year-old global program, known as the Inter-Collegiate Business Competition (ICBC), is put on by Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. In short, a team of SIBC students will have one month to prepare a memo for a case provided by a notable company sponsor or the business faculty at Queen's University. If the SIBC team's memo advances past the preliminary round of evaluation, they will be invited to the final round in Ontario to compete against other top business students from around the world. The SIBC wishes the participants the best of luck in hopes that Notre Dame will be a new presence at the ICBC this winter break.
Consulting: The newest addition to the Consulting Division this semester is the Bain & Company project. Bain has extensive consulting experience across all industries and helps companies achieve excellence with fresh, cross-industry perspectives. Bain's consulting services focus on the clients' most critical issues and opportunities, ranging from operations to mergers and acquisitions across all industries all over the world. This semester, the project will focus on a deep dive analysis of a specific company and how they can become more profitable, whether that be through an acquisition, entering new markets, developing new products or targeting new segments. With the addition of the Bain & Company project, the Consulting Division now has projects with each of the big three consulting firms, including McKinsey and the Boston Consulting Group.
Finance: This year we are launching a new Portfolio Management Project (PMP). This project gives our members the opportunity to emulate a multi-strategy hedge fund. The team invests in small, mid-cap names, trades in special situations such as M&A and makes opportunistic bets on the macro-economy. Project members will analyze historical global economic trends and dive into individual stock names by articulating theses and defending them. They will then track their investments by benchmarking their performance against the S&P 500 index. The team and its leader, Derek Kim, will travel to San Diego to present its findings and analysis to SIBC benefactor Frank Potenziani in early 2013.
Global Development: This semester, the Global Development division is excited to launch a partnership with Milaap, a microfinance organization based out of Bangalore, India. Milaap organizes loans for India's working poor through many "microloans" from lenders in multiple countries and has recently expanded into the United States. Milaap's philanthropy focuses on skill development, employability programs and market-linked livelihood activities. The project examines the American charitable marketplace, identifies target markets for microfinance in America and designs a marketing plan for Milaap - all while educating students in microfinance.
Marketing: The Marketing Division is excited to add a new project with Adidas. Though Notre Dame has had a long-standing partnership with the Adidas, this is the first semester the SIBC has partnered with them. The division is looking forward to adding a new project in the sports and apparel marketing category, though the specifics of the project are still being determined. In addition to our new partnership with Adidas, we are continuing to work with NBC Sports, Target, Li-Ning and Coca-Cola.
Overall, the SIBC is extremely excited about the diverse suite of project offerings that will be available to students this year. If you have any interest in the opportunities listed above, please visit our website (sibc.nd.edu) for meeting times. It's never too late to join, and we hope to see everyone at our weekly meetings!
The SIBC is the largest student-run organization on campus with more than 400 active members. We seek to promote "Peace through Commerce" by partnering with leading companies across all areas of business and providing international internships for our members. We can be reached at sibc@nd.edu or at sibc.nd.edu
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
