‘ After a long break, The Associate returned this week, resulting in the firing of the third participant in this semester’s competition.

Taurean Branch, this week’s leader for Team Concord was eliminated. The panel of judges did not feel that he successfully completed the task of communicating with the corporate client.

Branch said he was not totally surprised that he was fired due to his position in the case.

‘At the end of the day, when you’re in the leadership role and the team fails, it’s your fault,’ Branch said.

Branch said that the most important thing he learned was how to better deal with clients, which he gained a stronger realization of during the competition.

‘I learned how to connect with people and understand what they want and to know what people want and to be able to deliver,’ Branch said.

Despite his elimination, Branch said he still believes he and the other contestants will be able to benefit positively from their time in the competition.

‘At the end of the day what people don’t realize, is that because of the connections that this competition has, everyone in this competition will end up with a job,’ Branch said.

The corporate case this week was from MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate Services, specifically in their health care practice group.

The teams had to advise representatives about eight local hospitals to help the company better compete in the future through site selection and lease negotiation.

Team ROSE won the case largely due to their communication with the client, which the team said helped to guide their direction. ROSE now has the advantage of an extra team member for this week’s presentation.

Judges and McCormick representatives Jim McGrath and CEO Alan Wilson also shared recent examples from their work experience to directly teach the competitors the importance of direct personal interaction with clients both in the competition and the real business world.

Next week Justina Whyte and Allison Murray will lead their teams in a challenge from R2 Integrated, a Baltimore-based digital marketing and technology firm.

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