First year MBA’s are undergoing a grueling test of fortitude, team work, and caffeine-fueled all-nighters to compete in the Integrative Case Experience, better known as ICE week. There are two business cases this year for teams to tackle and they have less than 24 hours to study each case, research, and prepare a presentation for a panel of judges.

The class was presented with the first case focused on re-branding Olin’s full time MBA program on Monday afternoon immediately following their Finance final exam.  Most of the students were in a semi-zombie state as they received packets and a presentation about a new business strategy and branding plan for Olin.  They were challenged to deliver a new tag line for the MBA program, a messaging hierarchy, and a visual identity for the website home page.

Teams began presenting at 11am Tuesday morning in front of judges and wrapped up at 4 p.m., just in time to assemble again in May Auditorium to learn about their second case that will be due Wednesday morning. Winning teams will be announced at an ‘Ice-Breaker’ reception on Thursday.

Stay chill Class of 2015 and carry on!

Pictured above members of Team 5: Daniel Shuster, Bobby Kanefsky, Manman Shang, Ashwin Ramanan, and Stephanie Meldrum.