Farmer School of Business students team with Nocqua for Client Challenge
Four-week sprint allows FYIC business students to provide solutions for portable watersports battery company
Farmer School of Business students team with Nocqua for Client Challenge
At the end of each semester, Miami University’s Farmer School of Business (FSB) throws its First-Year Integrated Core (FYIC) business students into the deep end of real-world business oriented problem-solving through the FYIC Client Challenge: a four-week sprint where student business groups work with an actual company and compete to present the most impressive and feasible solution to the company.
This year, FSB worked with Nocqua, a small yet established portable watersports battery company, and tasked FYIC students with finding new markets for Nocqua to expand into without altering their core product. The Client Challenge is a final culmination and application of all the learned skills throughout the 15-week semester. Over the span of a month, students went from idea generation in ESP 103, company and market research in BUS 101, detailed database analysis using SQL and Python skills from BUS 104, and persistent practice of their seven-minute presentation using skills learned in BUS 102.
Now that this semester’s FYIC and its Client Challenge has wrapped up at Farmer, a few students were asked what their biggest takeaways were:
- “The Client Challenge is a unique experience for business students to reflect the skills and knowledge they learned from FYIC in creating a solution that addresses the company's needs/problem.” — Zarina Cabrera ’29
- “Farmer is different from other business schools because it focuses on the gathering of skills rather than being so test and lecture heavy.” — Ben Herrholtz ’28
- “The FYIC was very helpful in developing my skills as a presenter and taught me a lot about what it means to succeed amongst a team” — Noah Moskal ’29
- “You learn how to present, how to think creatively, how to code, etc. You are forced to work in a group with five other people you barely know and be able to get along and collaborate with them throughout the entire semester. It gets you out of your comfort zone” — Kate Driscoll ’28
Teams AA1, AA5, BB4, BB5, CA3, DA3, GB2, HB5, MB1, and MB2 were this year’s Client Challenge finalists.
