Jeff Barry, an UMSL alum who is the head of innovation at Dot Foods, gives students participating in the International Business Case Competition insights as they prepare to create a marketing plan for Dot Foods. (Photos by Derik Holtmann)

Every year, the International Business Case Competition brings some of the best and brightest students from across the country to the University of Missouri–St. Louis to compete in an event that provides the participants with the kind of opportunity that helps them prepare for making a more seamless transition into their professional career.

The 12th annual event, held last weekend, featured teams from Texas A&M, the University of Tennessee, the University of Kansas and Truman State University, along with two teams from Illinois State University and two teams from UMSL. Past top-three finishers include teams from the University of Washington, the University of Richmond, Temple University and the University of San Diego. The 2025 event might have been held in a different venue – moving into the newly renovated UMSL Innovation Center – but the foundation of the competition remained the same.

“One of the things that hasn’t changed is that we have a real case written by a real company with a real problem,” said Joe Rottman, the director of UMSL’s International Business Institute and a professor of information systems. “The cases are applied cases, especially the Hussman case in 2023, the Reimagine Resources case in 2024 and this year’s case with Dot Foods.”

The competition is an annual highlight on the newly named Ed G. Smith College of Business calendar. The teams arrived on campus on Thursday and were presented with this year’s case – which had been kept secret so teams couldn’t get a head start on specifics of the scenario – after opening ceremonies and a welcome dinner.

The team from Texas A&M traveled from College Station, Texas, and finished with a second-place showing in the 12th annual International Business Case Competition, behind a team from the University of Kansas.

“Dot Foods has a growing reputation in the retail space,” Rottman said. “Dot makes more than 100,000 products accessible to customers. They do this by purchasing large quantities of product from the supplier and storing it in 15 distribution centers across the country. Their customers then order smaller, less-than-truckload quantities, which are then combined and delivered. They customize all of this, and they help small- to medium-sized retailers and distributors optimize their supply chain. But they don’t have a significant presence in the retail products category, so the case for the students is to create a marketing strategy and a marketing plan for Dot to build brand awareness in the retail products and distribution category.”

On Friday morning, the teams met with Dot Foods Head of Innovation Jeff Barry, an UMSL alum, to hear his perspective on the situation and to ask questions. After a full day of working, the teams had to upload their final visual presentation by 7 a.m. on Saturday. The teams were divided into three groups for their presentations to the judges, with the top team from each group advancing to the final round. The finalists made their presentations after lunch.

Solving for real-world problems is obviously beneficial for the students, but one thing that’s unique about this competition is the benefit it provides for the companies. Barry, who has also served as a mentor for UMSL’s Anchor Accelerator program, was excited not only to hear the perspectives and solutions from the students but to give back to his alma mater.

“As a company, Dot Foods gets fresh, creative thinking from a different generation about a real problem we are trying to solve,” Barry said. “The ideas presented during this competition will lead to expanded thinking about how we solve strategic business objectives.

“UMSL has given back to me both as a student and as a professional for years. It is my job as a St. Louisan, an UMSL alum and a member of corporate St. Louis to pay it forward. It is my turn to help students just like I was helped many years ago.”

The team from Kansas took home first place in this year’s event, followed by Texas A&M and then one of the two UMSL teams, a three-person team consisting of Siddhartha Pullannagari, Kaine Koehler and Kevin Kpankou. It was the fourth time that an UMSL team finished in the top three, a sign of how tough the competition is every year. Pullannagari noted how their wide variety of skills – he is a computer science major, Koehler is studying entrepreneurship and Kpankou has an information systems background – was a benefit as the trio prepared the presentation.

“I think what really helped us stand out was how our ideas connected and built on each other to directly address the case goal,” Pullannagari said. “Our Phase 2 plan was inspired by Y Combinator, the startup incubator in San Francisco, and we adapted that concept specifically for Dot Foods to highlight how startups in this space could add real value.”

As with all of the faculty members involved with the competition, Rottman prepared his UMSL squads by going over frameworks, presentation skills, analytical techniques, break-even analysis, time value of money and other tools that business students use to analyze the feasibility of a solution. And as Renita Miller, the program manager for UMSL’s International Business Institute and coordinator for the event’s logistics, noted, all teams were also given the grading rubric that the judges were looking for in their solutions as a way to prepare.

The UMSL team of (from left) Kevin Kpankou, Siddhartha Pullannagari and Kaine Koehler finished third in the competition.

“I am continuously grateful to Dr. Rottman,” Koehler said. “As a sophomore business administration major, I am not exactly the key demographic that this competition usually attracts. This came up in my interview with Dr. Rottman, and I was very honest about the shortcomings that may come about due to my early stage in my academic journey, but he believed in me, which makes this win more enjoyable personally. During our practice sessions, he spoke about doubt, the feeling many students have where they underestimate their own potential. His encouragement reminded us of what we are capable of, and that confidence carried through to the final presentation.”

In addition to the opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge they’ve gained in the classroom in the 36-hour window they have to prepare the entire presentation, the students also benefit from the competition in other ways. The interaction with other students and the feedback they got from the judges – official feedback, as well as the opportunity to ask questions during the competition and at the lunch on Saturday – is an important aspect of the event.

“Overall, I really enjoyed the weekend,” Kpankou said. “We had a chance to network with students from different schools and have some great conversations. The professionals were incredibly insightful and gave us valuable critiques that helped us reflect and rethink our approach.”

This competition is an annual favorite for Rottman.

“The goal of the competition is in line with Ed G. Smith’s vision for the college,” Rottman said. “One reason that Mr. Smith made such a generous gift to the college is that we launch UMSL students into their careers. Our students not only learn skills in the classroom, but we have extensive co-curricular events that expand their talents and capabilities. This important combination helps our students get good jobs.”