The McCormick team celebrates its third-place finish. Photo courtesy of Charlotte Whitcher.
Picture this: You’ve just been approached by the CEO of a major corporation with a high-stakes request. Sales are slowing, a new generation of consumers is proving hard to reach, and the board is looking to you for a breakthrough strategy.
There’s just one twist: You’re not a seasoned executive. You’re a sophomore at Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business.
This is the Consulting Cup (officially called the Consulting Challenge Integrated Project), the defining sophomore-year experience for Gabelli students. Part competition, part master class with real-world impact, this semester-long project tasks student teams with solving complex problems for iconic business brands like Skechers, McCormick, and Harley-Davidson.
How the Consulting Cup Works
It’s not just about having a good idea; it's proving that your idea will work. To succeed, student teams need to put into practice everything they're learning together in six core business courses.
| Core Business Course | Key Application |
|---|---|
| Financial Accounting | Deep-dive financial analysis |
| Information Systems | Data management and technical workflows |
| Statistical Decision-Making | Data modeling and forecasting trends |
| Management | Leading teams and collaborating effectively |
| Marketing | Building a competitive brand strategy |
| Business Communications | Mastering the pitch |
After weeks of deep-dive analysis and strategy sessions, teams pitch their solutions to a panel of professors and industry leaders at the final event of the semester, the Consulting Cup.
The reward? The team with the best solution gets a cash prize and their names engraved on the cup. And for all students, it’s the realization that you’re no longer just studying business, you’re practicing it.
We went behind the scenes with three teams to see how the Consulting Cup changed their perspective on the industry—and their own futures.
Repositioning McCormick for a younger audience
Charlotte Whitcher practices for the Consulting Cup. Courtesy of Charlotte Whitcher.
The Student: Charlotte Whitcher
Intended Major: Finance (with a newfound love of marketing)
The Challenge: How do you make a heritage spice brand top-of-mind for a younger generation?
The Big Idea: A bold marketing campaign titled “Life’s Too Short to be Bland”
The Strategy: Moving beyond grocery stores with campus pop-ups and cooking challenges. “We feel as though we can run this campaign for real,” Whitcher says. “We know so much about this brand, and we’re creating a whole bundle: marketing trucks and mini cooking challenges. It’s just so cool.”
Key Takeaway: “Right now I'm a finance major, but I really love marketing, so it's been kind of cool to be creative. I also love risk management, [understanding] what happens if it doesn’t work. That's honestly something I discovered that I like because of this semester.”
Tapping into a new market for Harley-Davidson
Lily Hirsch (right) conducts a run-through with her team. Courtesy of Lily Hirsch.
The Student: Lily Hirsch
Intended Major: Business administration with a concentration in marketing
The Challenge: How can a legacy motorcycle brand expand its customer base?
The Big Idea: The IronVolt, a high-performance e-bike
The Breakthrough: For Hirsch and her team, the magic happened in the dorm room lounge. “Watching everything come together was so satisfying," she says, referring to the team’s 25-page financial analysis, presentation slides, and speaker notes. "We worked hard all semester on these deliverables and seeing it as one big piece for the first time was so satisfying”
Key Takeaway: The experience was so transformative that Hirsch decided to pursue more of a creative path, emphasizing her concentration in marketing and a secondary concentration in consulting. “I’ve gotten really interested in it, and I’m applying to a bunch of consulting internships.”
Focusing on an older niche for Skechers
Courtesy of Daniella Oviedo
The Student: Daniella Oviedo
Intended Major: Marketing with a minor in finance and a concentration in global business
The Challenge: How can a sneaker brand target a new audience?
The Big Idea: Shoes designed specifically for people with arthritis
The Strategy: While many students focused on their own demographic, Oviedo and her team looked at the data. “We decided that an older target, like Boomers and Gen X, would be smarter. There’s so many shoes for people my age, and the market is huge for older people.”
Key Takeaway: Oviedo is applying for marketing internships and ready to share her experience in job interviews. “I can talk about how I really homed in on what consumers want, and talk about how we had to make decisions [using] data analytics and our company's financials and input all our data. It’s helped me figure out what avenue I want to go in.”
For many students, the Consulting Cup is the “aha!” moment they figure out which area of business excites them the most. And many graduates say it’s one of the Fordham experiences they cite most in job interviews to showcase all they can do.
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