Matthew Turner had never even heard of case competitions before he started his graduate studies at The University of Texas at Dallas and now the MBA program at the Naveen Jindal School of Management has equipped him to win them.
He and his teammates recently took first place in the 2025 MBA Case Competition World Cup Finals, outperforming 236 other teams from around the world to claim the title. Competitors included universities like Yale, Carnegie Mellon, HEC Paris, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Cambridge.
The Jindal School team — the MVP’s — consisted of Turner, Lola Fadiran, John Habenicht, Anjani Durisety and Azka Jawed.
This year’s case, The Cava Challenge, tasked teams with developing a strategic plan to expand the national footprint of Cava, a Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant chain. Out of 237 applicant teams from business schools around the world, 50 were selected to compete. Of those, five teams, including the MVPs, advanced to the final round of presentations held Nov. 21 before a panel of judges from Accenture, L.E.K., Netflix, OC&C, Simon-Kucher and Slalom.
The competition was presented by Management Consulted, a company that provides interview preparation services and consulting career resources, and Case Questions, a company that specializes in case interview training and career guidance for aspiring consultants.
“I’m very pleased to have had this opportunity to represent UTD against other top business schools,” Turner said. “The program has definitely boosted my confidence by helping me walk, talk and think like an MBA. Using the skills we’ve cultivated at JSOM, our team was able to analyze the market, develop a coherent business plan and pitch our plan with clarity and confidence.”
He explained that the Jindal School’s encouraging and supportive culture has given him and his teammates the courage to commit to an audacious proposal that involved Cava buying out their competition.
“Our Marketing classes have been very helpful in teaching us to analyze cases adeptly, especially in training us to cut through the noise and identify the core issues that will drive the biggest changes,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it when we were announced as World Cup champions! I was so pleased to share this experience with my team. Our win definitely vindicated the hard work we’d put into preparing our presentation. I am incredibly grateful to the Jindal MBA for bringing us together. The strong emphasis on helping the cohort bond helped us identify each other’s strengths and weaknesses and gave us the confidence that each person would perform well under pressure.”
Fadiran echoed Turner’s statement about case-competition knowledge, or lack thereof. Before starting her MBA, she had limited knowledge of business cases or case competitions.
“During LEAD Camp, the two-week preparatory bootcamp, guest speakers Chris Spartz and Ryan McLaughlin clearly explained case analysis and structure,” she said. “That foundation, along with insights from our Marketing and Finance class, was instrumental during the Case Competition World Cup. Huge thanks to Lisa Shatz and the entire MBA team for developing such an impactful program.”
The close-knit curriculum structure and the culture of teamwork found in the cohort MBA program at the Jindal School helped strengthen Fadiran’s relationship with other team members.
“Working with my team to develop a strategy for the case was natural because we had already built trust and collaboration from the very beginning of the program,” she said. “At the start of the MBA, we were assigned to teams we would work with throughout the semester, which reinforced teamwork as a core value. So, developing a strategy for the Cava case was not difficult because we discussed every possible solution together and ultimately selected the best one as a team.”
Turner was quick to give his teammates credit.
“I am so thankful to each member of my team for the work they put into this project,” he said. “John’s brilliant market analysis formed the core of our pitch, Azka and Anjani both presented excellently and made our slides look fantastic and Lola’s leadership brought us together and led us to victory.”
Fadiran beams with pride knowing that the UT Dallas team finished first out of 247 teams, 133 schools and 1,116 students from MBA programs around the world.
“It means a lot to represent the UTD MBA program and bring this achievement home,” she said. “The Jindal School of Management provided the foundation and opportunities that enabled our success on a global stage. If I had to choose a business school again, I would gladly choose the UTD MBA without hesitation.”
Lisa Shatz, senior assistant dean and director of MBA programs, said her students consistently excel in competition because the Jindal School designs the MBA experience to build exactly the skills great teams need — technical knowledge, diverse thinking, real-world experience and the ability to work collaboratively under pressure.
“Our students are an incredibly diverse cohort and have an average five-year work experience,” she said. That alone gives us a strong start in any competition. But their drive is what ultimately keeps our teams winning. I’m always amazed when I ask whether they would like to compete. Despite all the extra work it takes on top of their already busy schedules, there is always an amazing number of hands held high.”
