3:33 p.m., April 14, 2010----The University of Delaware MBA student team of Nikhil Agrawal, Alison Gilefski, Bhaskar Ghosh and Neha Jain took second place at the 2010 Rutgers MBA Supply Chain Case Competition.

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Adam Fleischhacker, assistant professor in the Department of Business Administration in UD's Lerner College of Business and Economics, selected the team and served as the team's faculty adviser.

The case, “From Farm to Cup: The Coffee Supply Chain in Kenya,” analyzed the plight of the coffee farmers who have witnessed a once vibrant coffee sector wither away due in part to an inefficient supply chain.

In addition to a cash prize of $500, the team received strong praise for their compelling and insightful recommendations from both the case authors and the industry executives who served on the judging panel.

During informal discussions, one judge commented that the analysis was comparable to a McKinsey study, while the case authors commented on the parallels that the team drew between the plight of the Kenyan coffee farmers and a similar problem encountered within the Indian soy bean industry.

The UD team beat the host team and 2009 winners, Rutgers, whose team members earn a place in the Supply Chain Case Competition by winning an internal case competition.

Other participating teams came from Rutgers University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Lehigh University, University of Maryland (which took first place) and Syracuse University.

This was the first time a UD MBA team participated in the competition.