“It’s about how the team would make a good CEO if we, as a team, were put in that position," Advertising management junior Yash Gangal, one of the students on MSU's team, said. "How would we interact? How would we behave? How would our decisions impact the brand?”  

The MSU team consists of Gangal, mechanical engineering and economics junior Kurtis Potier, mechanical engineering junior Owen Ruster and applied engineering sciences junior Jon Urich. 

Together, the team believes their diverse backgrounds provide them with an advantage in the competition. 

"Some of us have multiple majors, but we have applied engineering, advertising, economics and mechanical engineering with lots of minors and specialties within that as well," Potier said. "So, a lot of applicable knowledge to a brand like P&G where it's a big advertising company, but it's also an engineering and product company and a manufacturing company."

The team recently was tasked with putting together a video that promotes their group for the digital marketing round. From this round, five teams will be chosen to compete in Boston to become the top team in the continent. The more community engagement they get on their video, the better chance they have of being moved forward, they said. 

Overall, members of the group said they were thrilled to represent MSU on a global scale.

"I just think we want to emphasize that we’re super excited to finally put Michigan State in the positive spotlight and it’s not just about us," Urich said. "We actually want to represent the university and the different colleges. We represent everything we’re involved in … It would just be huge for Spartan Nation if we could do something positive because it’s been not super positive the last year."