This past summer, Vipul Chawla, a 2nd year UConn MBA candidate, interned at Walmart and had the opportunity to participate in a case competition that was conducted across the Walmart corporate office.  The business case competition was hosted by the New Professionals Advisory Council, and is the first one to ever take place. 

Chawla’s team, the “Globetrotters” was the only all-intern team in the competition.  The team comprised of Vipul Chawla, UConn School of Business; Alex Garcia, from the University of Illinois; Kevin Estes, University of Notre Dame; Kristin Gunderson, George Washington School of Business; and Chris Cochran, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University.

The competition offered an opportunity to the different teams to solve an actual business problem for the company.  The teams were given one week to come up with a suggestion for the issue that was given to them and then the finalists were presented their ideas at the Home Office Auditorium in Bentonville, AR.  The Globetrotters were given a case question that asked them to describe the potential role of retailers in addressing the increasing demand for affordable health care services.

The Globetrotters placed second out of 29 teams representing more than 170 Walmart associates.  The top six teams were given the opportunity to present to the Senior Vice Presidents at Walmart.

Photo: MBA Sr. Vipul Chawla (left) with Walmart President & CEO Bill Simon (right)