Eighteen Teams Vie For $15,000 Grand Prize In The Economist's Case Study Competition "Find A Zero"

Competition invites university teams to predict which billion dollar company will be bankrupt by 2020

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Mar 10, 2015, 01:13 ET

NEW YORK, March 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The Economist has launched a Case Study Competition called "find a zero." Eighteen teams representing 17 universities will compete for the grand prize of $15,000.

The competition, conducted in partnership with Kerrisdale Capital, an investment research firm and private investment manager, invites competing teams to find a conventional market view that is demonstrably misguided, and ought to be debunked. The teams are challenged to "find a zero" – that is, predict which billion dollar market cap company will be bankrupt by 2020.

To compete for the prize, each team submitted a written and video proposal to solve the problem highlighted in the case study challenge. The videos were recorded live and are posted along with the written proposals on The Economist's Which MBA? site.

"We are excited to partner with The Economist to challenge the nation's future business leaders to use independent and contrarian thinking to identify an area of the market that remains misunderstood," said Sahm Adrangi, Chief Investment Officer of Kerrisdale Capital Management.

The competition awards $26,000 USD in prize money to the winning teams. First and second place runners-up will take home $5,000 USD and $3,000 USD in prize money. There will also be a People's Choice award of $3,000, which will be given to the team that receives the most votes from visitors to The Economist website. Winners will be announced in May.

The 18 teams hail from:

Rutgers University (two teams)
Auburn University
Loyola University Chicago
Warwick Business School
University of Massachusetts – Amherst
Aalto University
The Open University of Hong Kong
FEP – School of Economics and Management, University of Porto
Kennesaw State University
Texas Tech University
Kent State University's College of Business Administration
Okanagan College
San Jose State University
Sprott School of Business, Carleton University
University of Colorado at Boulder
University of Vermont School of Business Administration
Wagner College

To cast your vote in the case study competition or to inquire about opportunities to participate in The Economist's upcoming case study competitions, visit: http://economist.com/case.

About Which MBA? (economist.com/whichmba)
Which MBA? is a division of The Economist Newspaper Group which offers a suite of online products serving both prospective MBA students and business schools. Our consumer products for prospective students include a GMAT preparation course, annual MBA rankings, and content on Economist.com. Which MBA? offers multi-media advertising solutions for business schools ranging from online MBA fairs, to traditional online and print mediums, to custom white-label lead generation tools.

About The Economist (economist.com)
With a growing global circulation (approximately 1.6 million including both print and digital) and a reputation for insightful analysis and perspective on every aspect of world events, The Economist is one of the most widely recognised and well-read current affairs publications. The paper covers politics, business, science and technology, and books and arts, concluding each week with the obituary. Its website offers articles from the past ten years, in addition to web-only content such as blogs, debates and audio/video programmes. The Economist is now available to download for reading on Android, iPhone, or iPad devices

About Kerrisdale Capital (www.kerrisdalecap.com)
Kerrisdale Capital Management, LLC is a fundamentally-oriented investment manager that focuses on long-term value investments and event-driven special situations. Kerrisdale has approximately $300 million in assets under management and is based out of New York City. The company distributes research on its website and on Twitter at @kerrisdalecap.

SOURCE The Economist