The BYU Marriott School of Business hosted its annual case competition in October, providing students with one pertinent business problem to solve—this year, though, the judges were focused on more than just an effective business solution. Rather, the 217 participating students were challenged to center each of their group’s solutions and presentations on Christlike leadership.
Christlike leadership became a newfound focus in this year’s case competition in celebration of BYU’s 150th anniversary. The case asked competition participants to advise a company on how to pivot toward servicing larger, multi-location organizations while maintaining existing relationships with smaller businesses. The prompt placed an emphasis on ethical practices, honoring legacy clients, and balancing profitability with moral responsibility.
“This competition had us really think about if the decisions that we were making were the most ethical,” explains Luke Stacey, a strategy student from Double Oak, Texas. “Are they what Jesus Christ would do if he were having to solve these same business problems?”
His team’s first steps included an ideating phase. Stacey explains that the process was crucial to creating a proposition by sharing every idea that came to mind, even if each team member risked being vulnerable with the varying quality of input. “Being willing to give that feedback and work together in a way that wasn’t just people-pleasing really helped us to build a product that was constructive,” he explains. “We built one comprehensive whole that worked because we combined ideas of so many wonderful team members all in one.”
One teammate, Dallin Christensen, from Pleasant View, Utah, shares a similar outlook on their team’s thinking process. “Because we were asked to think about it in a Christlike way, we went a lot deeper and were actually able to find a really innovative solution that took care of the business’s needs and some of their past clients’ needs too,” Christensen says.
As the competition came to a close, Stacey, Christensen, and their team members were named first-place winners by members of the BYU Marriott National Advisory Council. “A belief that I developed through the competition is that Christlike leadership actually leads to better outcomes,” Christensen says. “And I think because I did this case competition, I’ll be ready to share the light that Jesus Christ gives me.”
Seeing students integrate Christlike leadership with their studies, BYU Marriott’s dean, Brigitte Madrian, shares, “As we asked the students throughout this case competition to think about how to approach a business challenge from a Christlike perspective, we’re asking students, as the Savior did—inviting them to share His light, and their light, with the world,” she says.
"I think that’s a beautiful metaphor for thinking about what it means to be a Christlike leader,” Madrian says. “When students leave BYU Marriott, they are better prepared to lead as the Savior would.”