Business students get slice of real world in research competition

Everybody understands how pizza works.

That’s why junior Chris Pasciuto was excited to learn that the company to be analyzed in this year’s CFA Institute Research Challenge was Domino’s.

“The fundamentals of pizza delivery are so much easier to explain than the fundamentals of a bank or an energy company,” Pasciuto says. “You order the pizza, and then you eat the pizza.”

The annual challenge gives students from around world a chance to compete and show off their financial analysis skills. Teams research a publicly traded company, then write a report with a buy, sell or hold recommendation. They then present and defend their analysis to a panel of industry professionals.

Binghamton University’s School of Management (SOM) has had a successful run in the challenge. For the third consecutive year, Binghamton advanced to the “Final Four” round in the New York region (the 2016 team went on to compete in the national round), and past competitors are well-regarded among SOM students.

“I know people who had done the challenge in the past, and I looked up to them,” says junior Samantha Fischler. “I knew going into it that it may be overwhelming and would essentially be like taking on another class, but I knew it’d be worth it.”

The team of five is assembled by Visiting Assistant Professor Dina Layish during the fall semester and competes in spring. While it all comes down to a presentation that only lasts a few minutes, it’s a culmination of months of hard work.

“It’s a great opportunity because only a few students each year get to do it,” says senior Florian Orth. “Past competitors have gone on to do great things.”

Orth is a competitor in more ways than one at Binghamton University.

Beyond competing in the research challenge, he’s also a member of the men’s soccer team. While both require completely different skills, Orth sees his role similarly on each team.

“We’re representing Binghamton University. If we do well, then everyone at Binghamton succeeds,” he says.

“We’re all heavily involved and very busy students,” says junior Ryan Powderly-Gross, who served as the team leader. “We made an effort to meet once a week to start, but as we got closer to the competition, we were meeting on a daily basis.”

Powderly-Gross says the team dynamic played a major role in their success.

“There was a great distribution of skills among the five of us. Everyone brought different experiences to the table,” he says.

Beyond their individual strengths, the team also had a network of students, faculty and alumni who were all ready to help.

One of their key mentors was Daniel Barile ’04, a managing director at SkyBridge Capital. Barile served as the team’s industry mentor and helped the team prepare for the unexpected.

“Because of him, we weren’t blindsided. He asked us questions during practice that we weren’t expecting at all, and those were questions that the judges ended up asking in the final presentation,” Fischler says.

Another mentor who helped shape their presentation was Dean of the School of Management and Koffman Scholar Upinder Dhillon.

“He recommended that we start broad, talking about the wider pizza industry, and then drill down to more specifics as we got to our conclusion. This allowed us to tell a cohesive and engaging story to the judges, and not just tell them information,” says junior Michelle Furman.

“Dean Dhillon went above and beyond to help us,” Fischler says. “I think that really says a lot about the culture of the School of Management and how dedicated they are to our success.”

Based on their analysis, the team ultimately decided to pitch a “sell” on Domino’s. They approached the first round of the competition not with nervousness, but with confidence.

“We were excited to finally show off what we’d been working on for the last four months,” Furman says. “And out of all the times we ran through our presentation, the best we’ve done was on that day.”

The team moved on to the “Final Four” in the New York region, and while that is where their journey came to an end, the experience was invaluable. All five team members have internships set for the summer and are optimistic that the skills picked up during the challenge will have real-world applications.

“We all went into this looking to learn. We went into this looking not only to compete, but to develop new skills,” Pasciuto says.

And just like assembling all the right ingredients to make a delicious pizza, Powderly-Gross says the School of Management has all the right ingredients to enable success in its students.

“SOM is very accommodating for students who are looking to go to the next level,” he says. “It has the resources, the mentors, the initiatives, the opportunities — everything you need to reach your goals.”