AMM Student Part of Winning Team in Canadian Competition
A Huntley College of Agriculture student was part of the winning team at a Canadian retail education competition.
Natalie Schwarz was one of two Cal Poly Pomona apparel merchandising and management students who signed up for the Canadian Retail Education Association’s 4th Annual Charrette competition on Nov. 16. The competition is an interdisciplinary team-learning experience that challenges students from U.S. and Canadian universities to solve realistic business problems.
Schwarz and Matt Nava, who are both students in Associate Professor Chitra Dabas’ fashion retail buying class, were assigned to different teams for the competition, which was completely virtual. Schwarz joined a team that had three Canadian students, while Nava was assigned to another team.
“Meeting students from another country and getting to work with them virtually was an experience I never thought I would have, and I am so glad I was able to do this. Working on a team virtually, with people I had not met before was daunting, but rewarding in the end,” Schwarz said.
“I think in this environment of working virtually it is important to listen to everyone's thoughts and opinions on a topic to make sure the ending decision was made collaboratively,” the third-year student added.
For this year’s competition, the teams used specialized software from Cesim, an education technology company, to simulate running a fashion retail business over a one-year period.
The students were challenged with a series of competitive business decision-making scenarios that needed to be completed within a specified time limit, including advertising expenses, number of employees, operating hours, promotions, and amount of inventory for the given period.
“We made these decisions based on the quarter that the store was in and what was happening in the industry and world at the given time,” Schwarz said. “For example, when we were making decisions for our fourth quarter, we were given information explaining that it was the holiday season and big shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday were coming up, so we had to plan accordingly.”
The experience required teamwork and was educational, the third-year student said. The competition showed how all the different elements in a retail store can affect key performance indicators like net profit and gross margin.
“Being told in a classroom setting is one thing but being able to see how decisions like how much to spend on advertising expenses can affect your net income is very interesting,” Schwarz said.
The Cesim program was pretty easy to use, considering it was the Canyon Lake native’s first time using it.
“The simulation itself had different tabs that included what decisions we needed to make and then at the last tab it showed all the decisions we had made to make sure we did not miss any. At the end of the round, we can see how our decisions affected the key performance indicators the judges were looking for,” Schwarz said. “We could also compare our decisions and performance indicators with the other teams so we can be competitive in the market.”
The teams were judged on multiple performance criteria, and Schwarz’s team won. For her efforts, she received a virtual certificate for participating and a virtual first-place ribbon – both of which she can add to her portfolio, LinkedIn profile, and résumés. She also will receive a Roots-brand hoodie.
“When I first found out about this opportunity, I was apprehensive to do it because I was afraid of not being prepared enough and not knowing enough about the topics,” Schwarz said, “but I am so glad I did it because my team ended up winning!”