Competing against 73 teams in front of hundreds of peers, business partners, faculty and staff, four University of Nebraska–Lincoln students earned the spring Business Battle title by developing a winning fan engagement strategy for this year's sponsor MotoAmerica. Their proposal combined VIP experiences, concerts and interactive fan packages designed to attract younger audiences and increase race attendance.
The Business Battle anchors Introduction to Business (Management 101), the first course in the redesigned undergraduate curriculum at the College of Business. Students spend the first few weeks of the course exploring major areas of business before breaking into small groups to apply what they learned to a real business challenge with guidance from peer coaches and volunteer business professionals.
Though business majors are required to take the course during the fall or spring semester, students from any major across campus may enroll in the spring section.
“You start your academic career with access to all the different opportunities the College of Business offers. All teams work on the same project with the same deliverables and get to figure it out in their own creative way,” said Shawntell Kroese, assistant professor of practice in management, who teaches the course. “Most importantly, we want students to know they can do this as they figure out what part of business fits them best.”
The winning team included Lauren Bienz, sophomore management major from St. Louis, Missouri; Regan Graeve, junior international business major from Omaha; Sienna Thurman, freshman business administration major from Lincoln, Nebraska; and Zoey Norris, sophomore business administration major from Omaha, Nebraska. They attributed their strong performance to the time they spent collaborating in Kroese's large lecture class, in Friday recitation sessions led by peer coaches and on their own preparing for the final competition.
“The friendship we built was the secret to our success,” said Norris. “We saw each other four times a week for hours and spent time getting to know each other. That made us comfortable presenting together.”
Bienz said she never imagined herself standing on stage for the final round of the competition, but put in the work needed while searching for a new major.
“At the beginning of the semester, I thought, ‘Good luck to whoever has to present in the atrium during the finals,’” Bienz said. “Getting up on stage to compete made me realize I actually enjoy presenting, and I’m thinking about changing my major to marketing because I loved the creative side of this project.”
Tom Jara, vice president of business development at Union Bank and Trust, served as the winning team's business consultant.
“They already had the vision,” Jara said. “My role was helping them package and present it clearly so everyone could understand the story they wanted to tell.”
The team's peer coaches included senior accounting major Reid Crow and junior management major Christian Newcomer, who helped guide their team through strategy and financial details. They both noted how the team's determination stood out early in the process.
“We met with them multiple times a week because they kept pushing themselves," Newcomer said. "This group wanted to win badly and combined their ideas to make something even stronger.”
Crow said the team spent a lot of time revising and refining their presentation.
“Presenting is hard, so they did about two dozen practice runs. They provided all the numbers but asked me to check them as an accounting student,” Crow said. “We enjoyed teaching them each week in the recitation course and helping them learn.”
Jara shared how the redesigned business curriculum gives students hands-on experience early in college and sets them up for success.
“I was inspired by what the students were doing through this curriculum and wanted to be involved. They build applicable skills while working with real businesses right away,” he said. “Seeing how far they came in such a short time was impressive and the course prepared them well for the future.”
He also encouraged other business professionals interested in guiding a team in the fall semester to sign up. The link includes the days and times to meet with students, what to expect and reasons to volunteer.
For Norris, the course and the Business Battle delivered something even bigger than a first-place finish.
“This experience showed me I’m in the right place,” she said. “It proved we could take an idea, collaborate and apply what we learned to create something that could actually work in the business world.”
