Students from Cal Poly Pomona’s business, agriculture, and hospitality colleges competed in a fast-paced case competition focused on solving complex operational issues for a fictional restaurant chain.
Hosted at CPP’s College of Business Administration in partnership with Restaurant365 and other leading industry sponsors, The Bar & Grill Case Competition featured 17 student teams, $3,000 in cash prizes, and real-world feedback from top industry executives. The challenge: develop a creative, data-driven strategy to help a fictional restaurant chain, The Bar & Grill, overcome its operational and financial growing pains.
“This competition showcased the power of interdisciplinary collaboration,” said Morgan Harris of Restaurant365. “These students aren’t just thinking academically—they’re thinking like future executives.”
Each team had one week to propose an innovative, scalable strategy for The Bar & Grill, a fictional multi-unit restaurant facing challenges such as fragmented accounting systems, delayed financial reporting, and inefficient cash and inventory management. Track A was open to graduate students while undergraduate teams competed in Track B.
The panel of judges included industry leaders from Restaurant365, California Fish Grill, Panda Restaurant Group, Farmer Boys, and more. Students assumed the role of consultant and pitched ideas ranging from implementing centralized ERP systems to leveraging AI-driven forecasting and inventory tracking tools to ensure efficiency as the company scaled nationally.
And the Winners Are…
Track A: Graduate-Dominant Teams
🥇 DSCM-CPP
- Raisul Khan (MS in Digital Supply Chain Management)
- Anthony Zaragoza (Agribusiness and Food Industry Management)
🥈 The Data Chefs
- Lisa Luiten* (MS in Business Analytics)
- Juan Quinones (MSBA), Kelly Tsai (MSCS), Anil Kumar Devaguptapu (MSBA)
🥉 Return on Flavor
- Mark Jordan* (MS in Digital Supply Chain Management), Victor Lin (MSDSCM), Danny Lau (MS in Accountancy) & Rishabh Aji (MSBA)
Track B: Undergraduate-Focused Teams
🥇 PolyInsights
- Zacharias Beck* (Marketing), Aidan Cong (Tech & Ops Management), Phani Chunduru, Dean Pfeiffer (Marketing)
🥈 Riana
- Robin Yeh* and Kiana Lai (Accounting)
🥉 Data Bites
- Liana Ip* (MBA), Thanh Ha & Jay Toney (MSBA), Sandra Fischer (MSDSCM)
(* denotes team captain)